Chicken Feed

Yesterday I picked up some more corn from my fathers farm to supplement my chicken feed. I tend to mix wheat with layers pellets about half and half. They don't lay quite as much as they would on just pellets but I think it makes the eggs taste slightly better and it keeps the cost down of the feed.

My feed mix - 50/50 layers pellets and wheat

I know some recommend that you only feed the wheat in the afternoon but I don't get back until late evening so I find mixing like this works quite well (I also chuck in some grit as well for good measure).

Feed storage - I prefer metal bins for feed but so far the plastic one has been fine

 While I was there a friend I work with sometimes was also picking up feed for his racing pigeons. He was picking up completely different grains to me. His winter feed was going to consist of barley and oil seed rape along with some other grains as the racing mix is too expensive to use over the winter.

Wheat from the farm

Most of my chickens have access to grass and dirt along with weeds and other things I chuck them so they can supplement their feed a little bit. But I was wondering, with the price of layers pellets going up every year, if you were going to make a complete chicken feed up from scratch (and potentially grow it) was would it need to contain? I have ready access to wheat, barley, oats and oil seed rape, what else would I need and what mix would I use? Would they need anything doing to them (rolling, cleaning, etc?)

Does anyone else supplement their chicken feed or make their own up from scratch? And how effective do you think it is?

(Oh yeah and still no baby!)