help run out of layers pellets

[janeyo]

and can't find anywhere open to get any!

Anyone near me so I can come and borrow / steal / buy some off you...?

I'm CB6

Thanks

[Two_Sheds]

Jane, is it possible to just feed them greens/porridge etc until your supplier opens again?

[HayleyB]

There must be somewhere open, I'm a bit too far really for you.

[janeyo]

So far I have tried 3 places within 20 miles - now getting further afield.

2sheds they do have those things every day as well but not sure if they cold not have any pellets until after new year. Am guessing these little places are shut cos it's xmas.

Off to look up if the giant pet stores have chicken food, there is one of those at huntingdon.

[janeyo]

Sorted -the giant pet store and the giant garden centre both have them so going after lunch

[Nicos]

Glad you're sorted- that was a bit of a panic wasn't it!!!

..at least you know for next time! ( and I bet you had to pay over the odds- but didn't care????)

[RichmondHens]

If you have grain (wheat or mixed corn) then it's ok to feed larger quantities of that for a few days to get you by - just not on a regular basis. The hens will certainly not complain. Just make sure you provide extra grit. You don't need to give it ad lib like pellets, but just chuck a few handfuls in morning and night with some extra bread and veggie scraps, that will be fine.

[Snadger]

I've just been to Jolley's this morning and bought a bag of layers! A lot dearer than I usually pay but beggars can't be choosers!

If you only have a few chooks, a big bag of own brand porridge oats could tide you over for a couple of days or even a mash made up with cheap bread and leftover cooked/raw veg would do at a push with a bit of poultry spice added if you have some.
I have even used out of date weight gain protein powder (as used by athletes) added to food which they love.
Defra shouldn't be bothered about a short term solution.....after all would they rather chooks got NO feed at all!

[lynda66]

pets at home have them ... bit dear about £9 a bag, but that was the only place i could get them for mine

[Two_Sheds]

and can't find anywhere open to get any!

I've just been to Jolley's this morning...A lot dearer than I usually pay (

pets at home have them ... bit dear about £9 a bag,

Don't the pellets keep well? Everyone seems to have run out at the same time, just when the shops are shut

[Snadger]

Don't the pellets keep well? Everyone seems to have run out at the same time, just when the shops are shut

I usually buy 5 X 20Kg bags at a time (about all my car will carry). I go through about a bag and a half a week.
I have a bag and a half in store at the allotment but thought I'd better top up with a bag in case I get snowbound (blizzards forcast) or the feed shops were closed when I needed them.

Storing any more than 5 bags (in an old wheely bin) would just encourage rats which seem to have an afinity to chook food!

[Two_Sheds]

Storing any more than 5 bags (in an old wheely bin) would just encourage rats which seem to have an afinity to chook food!

That's what I thought, that it would come down to storage and space.

then I thought: you've got chook food in there (the shed?) permanently anyway... 5 bags or 15 bags, the ratties still know there's chook food there.

[Snadger]

That's what I thought, that it would come down to storage and space.

then I thought: you've got chook food in there (the shed?) permanently anyway... 5 bags or 15 bags, the ratties still know there's chook food there.

The wheelie bin will only hold five though! Up to now its plastic defences haven't been breached but an allotment neighbour had food stored in a similar way when the rats chewed through his shed floorboards and then through the bottom of the wheelie bin.
He only noticed when his food started to look like an egg timer with a funnel of food in the middle!

Basically where do you stop.......I could buy enough food to last a year but it would just give the rats a good while longer to gnaw through the containers!

[janeyo]

I normally pay about £7 for the bag, have just had to pay £12!

I would have fed them something else but not got anything else suitable!

Oh well, at least they won't starve now.I can't understand why all the little shops are shut. My OH is at work (ok upstairs at work but still at work).

I did have a bit of a panic flap about them not being fed - but calm again now

*wonders if I'd have rushed about for the humans here had we run out of stuff - err prob not lol

[Glutton4...]

I actually remembered to stock up before Crimbo - not like me at all!

May have been because of the new arrivals being due...