Supplemental feeding in winter? - Page 2

About a month ago I went to flock raiser, & non medicated starter mixed as the main diet. I offer calcium and grit free choice. I have also just started offering alfalfa cubes in small quantities as a treat so they get some protein rich green in the winter. I am going to stick with this new diet year around as it solves the issue of too little protein especially in winter, and the roosters and younger birds getting around 500% more calcium than they really need. So far so good with egg shell quality and healthy appearance of my flock. Trying to feed differently was entirely too big of a problem now that I am breeding much more. My coop remains unheated.

bairo,

I never could get mine to eat alfalfa cubes. I have used alfalfa meal in the past mixed in with the feed. I do that when I've got them up while the hen yard is recovering.

My bird free range all day and get whole wheat.  Befor you get yourselves worked up, I will admit I too am also amazed how well they do on it.  I'm getting 7 eggs a day right now (with no heat or light added) versus 12 per day in the summer when they were on normal chicken food.

That said, yesterday was the first day with any real snow.  I made them a bowl of oatmeal, cooked squash, and the fat off the hb I fried for tacos for a warm bedtime treat.  Is there something better? 

I will price the calf manna...I like the idea of boosting protine while all the creepy crawlies are dormant.

I could be stepping into a controversy here but some of you may be working too hard (& spending too much $$) feeding high-protein foods in the winter.

Let's say you have a 20% protein (well balanced) chicken feed set out. Let's say that your hen needs 20 grams of protein (well balanced) each day to make an egg and maintain her body tissue. She eats about 100 grams of food thru most of the year to get these 20 grams of protein (well balanced ).

Winter weather arrives and she is cold -- so, your hen eats 150 grams of feed each day. She now has 30 grams of protein (well balanced ) each day. The egg and tissue maintenance needs are still the same: 20 grams/day. While it is cold and she is eating more to stay warm, her protein intake is actually higher than necessary.

Yes, she can burn the protein . . . it will make calories. She does have to be able to digest it. I mean, you can burn sawdust . . . with a match . Your hen doesn't have a match so she needs something that is easier to digest than sawdust. But, it shouldn't be too coarse since she doesn't have a 4 chamber stomach like a cow and her food has a tendency to kind of shoot thru her! For that reason, bran & seed hulls wouldn't be of very much use to her. In fact, a lot of vegetable fiber is going to just shoot right thru her.

But, enuf of that . . . If your hen has a lot of easily digestible carbohydrates in her diet - winter is a better time for that, than summer.

During the heat of summer, your hen may decide that she doesn't want to eat 150 or even 100 grams of food and she is just going to eat 75 grams and lay around in the shade. The amount of protein she is getting may be enuf for body maintenance but she won't have enuf to make an egg each day. Everything else may be right to produce an egg - genetics, etc. - but she just doesn't have the nutrients available to put 1 together.

But, that's in summer heat . . .

Steve

digitS' :

I could be stepping into a controversy here but some of you may be working too hard (& spending too much $$) feeding high-protein foods in the winter.

Let's say you have a 20% protein (well balanced) chicken feed set out. Let's say that your hen needs 20 grams of protein (well balanced) each day to make an egg and maintain her body tissue. She eats about 100 grams of food thru most of the year to get these 20 grams of protein (well balanced ).

Winter weather arrives and she is cold -- so, your hen eats 150 grams of feed each day. She now has 30 grams of protein (well balanced ) each day. The egg and tissue maintenance needs are still the same: 20 grams/day. While it is cold and she is eating more to stay warm, her protein intake is actually higher than necessary.

Yes, she can burn the protein . . . it will make calories. She does have to be able to digest it. I mean, you can burn sawdust . . . with a match . Your hen doesn't have a match so she needs something that is easier to digest than sawdust. But, it shouldn't be too coarse since she doesn't have a 4 chamber stomach like a cow and her food has a tendency to kind of shoot thru her! For that reason, bran & seed hulls wouldn't be of very much use to her. In fact, a lot of vegetable fiber is going to just shoot right thru her.

But, enuf of that . . . If your hen has a lot of easily digestible carbohydrates in her diet - winter is a better time for that, than summer.

During the heat of summer, your hen may decide that she doesn't want to eat 150 or even 100 grams of food and she is just going to eat 75 grams and lay around in the shade. The amount of protein she is getting may be enuf for body maintenance but she won't have enuf to make an egg each day. Everything else may be right to produce an egg - genetics, etc. - but she just doesn't have the nutrients available to put 1 together.

But, that's in summer heat . . .

Steve

I feed the high protein supplement (and everything processed - easy to digest/accessable energy) in winter to help reduce feather picking which only seems to happen in the winter. I can't blame boredom this winter because the girls have still been free-ranging right up until yesterday when the first real snow fell. This year I've added a high protein supplement and there is FAR less feathering picking. Plus, the girls just look in better condition. Yes, feed consumption has quadrupled with the colder temps. And, yes, it's expensive!!! (I feed treats, often whole grain, for their amusement and for my own entertainment. )

Usually when people aren't feeding enough protein it's because they're only feeding a 16% feed and then feeding lots of scratch and other high carb scraps.  Those chickens benefit from a higher protein feed, even in winter.  It balances out the other foods.  For people that only offer chicken feed and nothing else, 16% can work.