How much do yours eat?

[Nicos]

Ahhh...perfect news!!!!

Thanks for that- cos I was concerned that if I do finally getting little babies, they'd arrive on a Saturday afternoon- and no warehouse supplies open until Tuesday

Seems daft to buy 20kg doesn't it? In the wild I'm sure it would be insects straight away!

Better hold back a few eggs for them- although it's sort of like feeding them their undeveloped 'brothers' and 'sisters'

[lynda66]

i got a bag from the pet shop, didn't bother with 20kg, the first 2 kilos lasted ages. and i do get discounted cat biscuits which is why they get them

this site is pretty good CHICKEN FEED: Main Menu i agree though, if you get 2 chicks 20kg might be a bit excessive ....... though the other chickens will eat it too

thing is their mum will teach them what to eat, but with an incubator, you have to be mum as well ...... i stuck the pellets in the liquidiser when i first started them on them.

as far as insects go, mine wouldn't touch slugs till they were about 4 weeks, and still run away from worms and anything crawling lol (but same again, i'm sure with a mum they would eat everything sooner)

[MaureenHall]

Mine go through 20kg in about 3 weeks (there's 13 of them). Plus they have cooked veg, extra greens, a handful of mixed corn each day and they scrabble about in the garden so they're also getting seeds, grubs, worms etc from there. Their appetite seems to have increased over the last week or so, and my daughter said hers are the same - eating her out of house and home

[lynda66]

mine are currently eating a massive cabbage leaf, it's so funny, but they are getting much better at tearing bits off now

[-pat m]

Well your posts make me feel a little better. We Use about 30k a week for 46. they also get 1 kilo of pasta and two tins of sweet corn a day along with the scraps (that go on the compost heap near the chickens) along with the usual foraging that they do. I have a grain trader friend and get the occasional bag of mixed corn but that seems to slip through them with little digestion. I have noticed they are eating more in this wet weather; perhaps they are out and about a lot more that 6 weeks ago? I only had 30 or so last summer but my best guess is I will be using 20 –25k this summer with the same feeding patterns.

Regards
Pat

[Noodle]

Mine get through about 4kg a week (4 LF's and 2 bantams). They're not getting much free ranging time at the mo and they only get a handful of corn to share of an evening.

[petal]

My 3 get layers pellets ad lib(a sack lasts ages) - they have to eat their fill before I will allow them out in the garden. They get mixed corn, a double handful to scratch around for and oyster shell/ grit plus various greens in their large pen, then they scratch about in garden for a couple of hours supervised- they seem adept at finding slugs and snails and steal the guinea pigs food too. They look plump and healthy!

[Ashbylife]

We've only got 4 (bantams) and a sack of layers pellets last months - they free range in the garden and it's amazing how much they find for themselves (they loved the windfall apples which lasted ages). Of the pellets that we do get through a reckon that almost as many are eaten by the robin and blackbirds as by our girls! I think the wild birds are going to be laying lots of eggs round here this spring!