Really worried about my moulting maran..

[Suechooks]

If my hens get scraps/treats its always mixed into a mash with the majority being layers pellets with hot water. Its an easy way to give the ex-batts an extra boost of CLO and/or Poultry spice or similar. I've found they lay well on this regime even through the cold or wet winters.

[nellie-m]

Have also read about egg production being higher in hens who were fed layers pellets only - with a small amount of corn once a day. This has been bourne out between a friend of ours. We both have hens from the same place - she feeds scraps and I dont - I get more eggs. Totally non scientific I know

Egg production in a hen is determined by several factors.

The first is: genetics. It was a fantastic achievement of our ancestors to select for high egg numbers in some breeds, and if you keep records of your (purebred) hens' egg production and select the best for breeding, you can keep that up (or even improve it a bit). If you don't select for it, it'll go back to average over time.

The second is: food. Obviously, in order to build anything, you need the necessary material. Same with eggs. There is a lot of water in an egg - so laying hens need to drink a lot. Then there's the shell - if you don't provide enough calcium (shell grit), egg numbers will drop.
And, of course, there's protein. But not only the amount of protein matters, also its quality. Think of protein as a colour code, like pearls on a string. You need the right colours in the right order, but some colours are needed more often than others to create that special pattern, so you need the right amount of each colour. There are different codes for earthworm protein, cottage cheese protein, wheat protein etc., every protein is very specific. The protein in a hen's egg is made by cutting the strings of all the protein codes of her food and rearranging the coloured pearls to create the chicken-egg code.
I hope that makes sense

Now if you feed, let's say, protein that's rich in one colour, but poor in another, you will run out of one sort of pearls quickly. You can't go on creating your own very special colour code - protein production stops. Egg numbers go down.
In order to avoid that, chickens will try to eat more, so that they get some pearls of the colour they are lacking again. Trouble is, in everything you eat there's more than just protein: you'll get more carbohydrates than you actually need. Your hens will get fat.

That's why it's best to feed a well balanced diet of layers' pellets while they are in lay, and why you get more eggs (provided your hen's genetic makeup allows her to produce that many).

Hope that made sense. You could also compare it to a recipe with different ingredients that cannot be varied to get the desired result. Run out of rum - no more rumtopf ;-) no matter how much fruit you've still got.

[kathyd]

If my hens get scraps/treats its always mixed into a mash with the majority being layers pellets with hot water. Its an easy way to give the ex-batts an extra boost of CLO and/or Poultry spice or similar. I've found they lay well on this regime even through the cold or wet winters.

That's a really good idea Suechooks - then they get what they need, but don't get short-changed on treats . I'll try that and see how it goes.

[kathyd]

Hi nellie-m - Wow! Science made easy! Thanks for that . Hopefully if I use Suechook's idea of mixing treats with pellets we'll get the best of both worlds, and their strings of pearls will be all multi-coloured and beautiful... I did give them mashed up pellets the other day mixed with the juice from a can of tuna, and they were totally fooled bless them. They gobbled it up, even though they usually turn their beaks up at pellets until they get desperate.

[Suechooks]

That's a really good idea Suechooks - then they get what they need, but don't get short-changed on treats . I'll try that and see how it goes.

By the way they get this in the afternoon so they've already had a good fill on pellets and free range greens. The rattle of spoon against dish is my call to get them back in the run!

[kathyd]

The answer is not many! Scraps ideally should be fed as a treat only, like corn, about an hour pre bedtime. This way they spend the majority of the day eating the nutritionally balanced pellets. Most chickens are now kept confined, ie in a small pen, with maybe only a limited time properly free ranging, and even then are ranging within the confines of an average sized garden as opposed to far and wide over the field and round the farmyard. Thus they are restricted in what they can find to eat and therefore we have to counter that by feeding "proper" food so they are not short of essential vitamins and minerals. Today's modern chicken has been bred to produce more eggs therefore they need a higher protein diet to allow them to do this. Also remember a bird's digestive system is very different to ours and feeding a lot of "human" food can cause problems in the crop. In nature a chicken is designed to feed on insects, seeds, whole grains and greenery for the majority of the time. That said they will still devour mice, frogs and anything else they can catch. "Processed" foods such as pasta, bread etc should be limited. For 8 chickens the daily treat should amount to no more than a large handful of grain OR a plate of mixed scraps although if the scraps are just fruit/veg you can be a bit more generous.

Thx RH, this is really helpful. My hens won't like you much, but at least I know what I should be doing now . In terms of treats, where does rice rank? Yes, I've been giving them white so far because that's what OH eats, but I could easily swop to wholemeal - is rice considered a grain and therefore better than pasta or potato?

Another question (sorry) - when I let them out to free range, they tend to pick up all the seeds I've thrown down for the wild birds - I'm assuming this won't do any harm since they'd naturally be eating seeds anyway? Do you know if there's a list anywhere of things that are dangerous to chickens? We have so many different weeds on our plot it'd be useful to know if there's anything I need to be particularly aware of...

Thx

[RichmondHens]

Rice is mainly starch and does not really contain much in the way of nutrient for a hen. If you want to offer nutritious treats, mealworms are much better for them. I only give mine rice if I have leftover stuff from preparing human meals, I wouldn't cook it specially.

When free ranging they generally will avoid poisonous plants by instinct. Nothing produced for wild birds (as far as I'm aware) is poisonous to hens but take care your hens are not filling up on wild bird food instead. Free ranging for insects etc is one thing, just standing gobbling up wild bird food is like being at an all day snack bar.