Are Peanuts Common in Chicken Feed?

If your chickens are fed well, they produce more eggs and better meat. Most poultry advisers recommend a preblended food designed for the life-stage of your chickens. Foods typically combine protein, energy, vitamins and minerals.

  1. Poultry Food

    • Chicken feed accounts for about 70 percent of the cost of raising chickens. Protein makes up a significant portion of the feed mix. Protein in chicken feed usually takes the form of soybean meal, a byproduct of soybean oil production.

    Peanut Meal

    • When peanuts are used in animal feed, they typically take the form of peanut meal. Processors remove peanut oil and then grind the remaining flakes into a meal that becomes part of the feed. Peanut meal contains 46 percent crude protein and up to 7 percent fat.

    Chickens and Peanuts

    • Poultry nutritionists caution that peanut meal could be contaminated with aflatoxin, a naturally occurring chemical byproduct from the Aspergillus fungus. Aflatoxins cause disease in chickens. Although peanut meal may meet a chicken's protein requirements nutritionally, the chance of aflatoxin contamination makes it a less desirable ingredient for chicken feed.