Winter feeding

[Flummery]

Mine have their hanging feeder full of pellets as usual but in the morning when it's icy I give them a hot mash of layers plus a few raisins and most mornings, some poultry spice. Once a week I add a bit of cod liver oil too. It smells vile but they love it.
At night they have a few mealworms with a handful of corn and some mixed grit, scattered or eaten from my hand. I do up the mixed corn in the very cold weather but only by a small amount. They always have green each day too.

[petal]

mine gets extra greens, warm mash of veg peelings, meal worms on top of their normal layers pellets in winter.

[minskey]

Are mine the only chooks who don't like mealworms? they just turn thier nose up and walk away; now sweetcorn, cooked potatoes & rice or pasta and you get mobbed

[lettucegrow!]

Think they must be Minsky, I get mobbed for a handful of mealworms!!

[lettucegrow!]

I've let mine out for a wander round the garden today. I love seeing them rooting through the leaves. The grounds still frozen so they can't do too much damage.
My lot get porridge, occasional sweetcorn and boiled peelings mashed in with their pellets, they love that.

[vicky]

Mine get their layers and kitchen scraps as usual, plus a couple of scoops of corn mixed into the layers. I save the veggie peelings (and a neighbours too) and boil that up every day or so which they like.
Egg production is down to 1 1/2 per day (6 hens, 5 big babies and 1 cockerel) and that's only as I've had 2 pekins come into lay (small eggs are the best!)

[RichmondHens]

.......... (small eggs are the best!)

Tell that to my customers! I've heaps of bantam eggs at the moment - my banties are going great guns despite the weather (yesterday 9 eggs from 13 hens) - but most of my customers only want big eggs, and I've only two LF hens laying so have had to hold off orders till the New Year. I keep trying to persuade them to have the bantie eggs instead (one person has done so and is happy to have more) but they are very resistant!

[petal]

my pekins have stopped laying completely at the moment, they are disgusted by this weather!

[Suechooks]

My Silkie refugees are laying 1 or 2 a day and my Wyandotte bantam has started again too so we're oveflowing with "diet eggs"! Try that for a marketing ploy Sally! My OH has a work colleague who actually prefers bantam eggs as the yolk:white ratio is better.

[Snadger]

I may get a few banty's as I've also heard that the yolk is the same size as a LF egg, and consequently there is less white!

[Scarlet]

I may get a few banty's as I've also heard that the yolk is the same size as a LF egg, and consequently there is less white!

My kids agree! yolk is similar in size to LF egg but with less white and "you can have two cos they are smaller!!"

[jessmorris]

Yikes you lot! I feel like I'm not giving my girls enough variety in their diet! Mine have warm water plus growers pellets to make a mash in the morning and ad lib layers pellets in their house all day (I've got growers and layers in the same area). They have whatever they can dig up in the garden all day and if I'm in they'll have corn / porridge late afternoon before they roost. They also get an apple cut in half a day, or half a cucmber or something randomly green. They stopped laying just past the egg-uinox and won't start again til the next one, or maybe slightly earlier. I only get eggs from them for 6 months of the year, the rest of the time I just get their company and antics.
JM