Just how much do we feed our chickens?

[witch-1]

Witch-1, if your birds are not laying the books I have recommend reducing the quantity of treats, pasta, corn what-have-you, so as to 'force' the birds into eating their layers pellet. The reasoning give for this is that 'treats' do not contain the correct balance of proteins and minerals necessary for laying.

Having said that I have a hen of 35 weeks or there abouts who has never laid an egg..... so what to do?

Thanks - this is what I'm doing. Keeping them in their run until they have had a good quota of layers pellets (half of it made into mash at the moment). The cat food has gone so they enjoyed that!

No eggs today but then its Sunday - think my girls have a religious side and have today off! I shall be quite shocked if I find an egg on Sunday now

Jan

[terrier]

About layers pellets. My chooks are mainly free range and refuse to eat layers pellets. I've tried mixing pellets and corn gradualy reducing the corn but they just eat the corn and leave the pellets! Talk about fussy eaters! How do I get them to eat the pellets? Do I need to feed pellets if they are free range? Should I mix the pellets in water or feed it dry? At the moment I feed dry pellets. They are still laying nearly every day and look in good health.

[kirsty b]

I used pellets at first with mine and they just didn't like them, fussy buggers. Got mash instead and they gobble it down.
They are in a run at the mo, which they can strip of grass in a day, so measuring up more space with a view to give them more room and alternating grass areas so it doesn't get too fouled.
Reading this though, I think I'm feeding mine too much. Going to weigh out 1100g into a tub and mark the side of it so I know how much is the right amount.
(Good news: bird flu restrctions should be lifted next week then I can let the girls back out again!)

[shirlthegirl43]

This all seems kind of technical compared to how we used to feed our chickens! They got mash made from table scraps and boiled veg peelings, with a measure of layers mash and some boiling water in the morning. Mum might have weighed the measure of mash but I am not certain she did, then after the mash was gone they got out in the garden for the main part of the day then back to the run with corn in the afternoon and shut in overnight. If the weather was bad or we had seen foxes or whatever, the hens got cabbage and cauli ends tied up in the run and extra corn. In summer they had pellets instead of mash as there were not the same table scraps or veg peelings.

[terrier]

I havn't tried them with warm mash but I suppose they would like a warm breakfast as well as me. I take it I just mix the layers pellets with hot water? Anything else?

[shirlthegirl43]

We used to have a bucket in the kitchen, all the leftover food, bread crusts and ends and odd bits of broken biscuits and all, got chucked in then every morning the peelings were boiled and thrown in the bucket with a bit of water if needed, then the march up the garden and the mash (we only used pellets in the summer) was added and mixed up (still remember the smell on a frosty morning) and put in the feed trough. Hens got out and used to sprint - funny memory - to the trough to find their favourite scraps. Spaghetti was always good for a laugh as they chased each other round the run