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Each chicken feed ingredient has a purpose. It's a holistic approach.

written by

Marie Reedell

posted on

September 24, 2025

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We take a holistic approach to creating feed for chickens. 

Sure, it's about the ratios of ingredients. Sure, it's about the percent of protein, fat, fiber, etc. Sure, it's about the mg of each vitamin and mineral. But... when you're looking for the best nutrition and the most natural feed, it's more than that.

When it comes to natural, we want to minimize the amount of anything synthetic. Here are a few ways we do that on a whole:

We source grains that have max nutrition. How do you get grains like that? Working with your farmers. When a farmer takes extra good care of his soil (a regenerative approach), the plant will absorb more from the soil and offer more to the animals that eat it. 

We create max digestibility. That makes every element of the feed easy for an animal to breakdown and use. For example, that's why we add liquid whey at just the right time and in the right way. We want the feed to ferment in the stomach (and not in the bag). When done like this, chicken manure actually doesn't make that good of fertilizer! The birds use everything up and put it into their bodies and the glorious food they make for us.

We create max bioavailability. We want every element of the feed to have a purpose. For example, we could use one grain or only fishmeal for protein. But that's not the best. Each protein source has a different protein structure. When you diversify the protein, you have better diet and nutrition overall.

There's soooo much that goes into choosing feed ingredients and formulating. Keep reading for more details on each ingredients.

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Wheat

Added as one of our many diversified proteins. Also contains vitamins and minerals. Has a 9:1 omega 6/3 ratio, much lower than corn's 25:1-60:1 ratio. From local farmers we know growing without chemicals.

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Peas

Added as one of our many diversified proteins. Also contains vitamins and minerals. Has a 2:1 omega 6/3 ratio, much lower than corn's 25:1-60:1 ratio. From local farmers we know growing without chemicals.

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Sesame Meal & Oil

I know, I know. That doesn't look like sesame seeds, sesame meal, or sesame oil. We add sesame in a very unique way. We have a machine that crushes and heats the sesame seeds to around 100-180F for 5 minutes. It separates out some of the oil. What's left are these sesame sticks. They have all the sesame meal but less oil than is in a whole sesame seed (sesame has a LOT of oil in it).

This is added for protein but also to bind the moisture (without too much oil). This makes it so, when we add liquid whey, the feed does not ferment in the bag. It ferments in the stomach! This provides max nutrition.

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Barley (Layer Only)

Added as one of our many diversified proteins. Also contains vitamins and minerals. Has a 12:1 omega 6/3 ratio, much lower than corn's 25:1-60:1 ratio. From local farmers we know growing without chemicals.

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Oats.jpg

Oats

Added as one of our many diversified proteins. Also contains vitamins and minerals. Has a 3:1 omega 6/3 ratio, much lower than corn's 25:1-60:1 ratio. From local farmers we know growing without chemicals.

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Fish Meal

Added as one of our many diversified proteins, and fish meal is particularly high in protein. 

It's also a great source of amino acids and of course contains vitamins and minerals. Fish meal is high in omega 3s, and it's omega 6/3 ratio is 0.45:1, below what is optimal for humans. Another reason for adding fish meal is it attracts birds to the feed and actually helps them digest it better.

Our fish meal comes from Fertrell. It's 100% whole sardine meal that is wild-caught and sustainably harvested off the coast of South America. They use mixed tocopherols as the preservative (the only preservative allowed under Organic Regulations) and never use Ethoxyquin. 

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Alfalfa Hay

Added as one of our many diversified proteins. Also contains vitamins and minerals. Has a 0.7:1-3:1 omega 6/3 ratio, much lower than corn's 25:1-60:1 ratio. From local farmers we know growing without chemicals.

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Goat Whey

Sourced from a local, chemical-free farmer. Goat whey is added to help the feed ferment and digest easily in the chicken's stomach. It's kinda like a natural probiotic that you take with your food. This helps the bird get max nutrition from the feed and maintain a healthy digestive system.

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Molasses

Added in moderation, organic molasses is a great source of energy for your birds. It also contains minerals and makes the feed a bit more palatable and less dusty.

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Vitamins & Minerals

We use a couple things:

Fertrell's Poultry Nutri-Balancer: It's a blend of kelp, minerals, vitamins, and probiotics. 99% of what's in there is natural. However, there are a few that are synthetic(DL Methionine amino acid and the B vitamins). The nutritionist from Fertrell said that they could make us a special nutri-balancer without the synthetic vitamins, but they wouldn’t stand behind it as a complete supplement. The birds wouldn’t maintain good health, and egg production would drop by 5-20%. 

Jacqueline's Restorative Mineral Blend for Chickens: This is actually mostly clay. It's in there to bind and remove toxins from inside the bird. This results in a healthier bird and cleaner food. 

Our long-term strategy here is to continue to diversify the feed and take care of the soil. With more coming from the grains, we hope to be able to remove all added vitamins and minerals one day!

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Salt

We use Redmond salt. Note that the color is not white like a table salt. What you're seeing is lots of minerals in there. Redmond salt is harvested from an ancient, underground seabed in Redmond, Utah, left behind by the prehistoric Sundance Sea. It has been protected by ash and clay from modern day pollutants. And, Redmond does not use anything synthetic when processing, too. We believe it's one the best and cleanest salts around.

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Have any questions about our feed or ingredients? We're an open book. Contact us here.

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  • 111 Ebling Road
    Kutztown PA 19530