Birds not eating?

[Maryh97]

So my birds are not super handleable, and I try not to stress them out by chasing them down, but I'm starting to worry about how little food they're eating.

I live on about 3.5 acres and have 13 chickens (12 hens, 1 roo). Everyone looks really good as far as I can tell. Eggs are normal with good shells and yolks, feathers are looking good, all birds are fairly active. Technically they're in a very large pen, but they fly out constantly and spend their whole day grazing mine (and my neighbor's) yards. They get about a quart of scratch a day and free access to water and layer pellets, calcium,and grit. As the weather has warmed up these past couple weeks, they've almost stopped eating layer pellets, and I don't know if I should be concerned. They always have full crops at bed time, and like I said they look and lay great... But I don't know if I should worry about how little feed they're eating.

My plan is to pull back on the scratch now that it's warmer and I'm not worried about them needing the extra calories. But at the same time if they look good, they act normal, and they lay well, maybe I shouldn't rock the boat? I just don't know.

 

[nuthatched]

Maybe keep them locked in their run until noon to make sure they eat. Cut out the scratch, or cut back, that's way too much. Try switching to a high protein layer or an all flock feed since you have a rooster.

 

[Susan L]

Sandy our leghorn chicken is not eating well and has white poop. Any suggestions to find the problem???