Can chickens die from grief or depression?

[centrarchid]

Thanks! We were planning on going to ts today so I'll get some. What else could I feed them that will help during the summer. I want to make my own scratch one for winter and one for summee

Summer: dark tender greens and insects are what I try to supplement. Look into setting up a light over run to attract night flying insects the chickens can glean the following morning.


Winter: I use a mix of whole oats, milo, whole corn and BOSS. Think about putting it in a pile of hay birds can scratch through. Here it get cold enough to make keeping birds in water tough so I soak / ferment whole oats and put it in their water bowl so they can pick through it during the day.



When feeding confined birds, be careful not to feed too much of the scratch where it decreases intake of your nutritionally complete formulated feed. Over time I develop a handle on how much feed they need on a cool day in fall. When it gets colder their feed intake will increase, so that increase in intake I supply with the "scratch mixes". When it gets really cold feed intake can roughly double.

 

[mrscrabtree92]

The scratch I wanted to make like a nutritional really healthy to maybe help with egg laying molting and just being healthy. They really don't eat insects which is weird though the do like dried mealworms

 

[centrarchid]

The scratch I wanted to make like a nutritional really healthy to maybe help with egg laying molting and just being healthy. They really don't eat insects which is weird though the do like dried mealworms

Scratch mixes, as a general rule are going to be lower in protein and thus dilute protein intake rather than bringing it up. Inclusion of legume seeds will have anti-nutritional factors that are typically disabled by processing prior to inclusion in formulated feeds. The meals of legume seeds needed to get protein levels up when animal proteins are avoided. You might be able to get around this by roasting the legume seeds prior to mixing them in with other grains.


Your birds will pass up any and all alternatives when most live insects are presented as food. They may not be into eating bright colored (reds and yellows) but green and most brown insects will be consumed with relish. That is their natural preferred fare.


Dried meal worms may be a good protein source although they may not be good for much else unless well preserved. My birds do like not eating lots of those.

 

[mrscrabtree92]

I picked up a bag of feather fixer. As well as a mix of seeds (Milo,wheat,black oil sunflower,white millit) and I'll give a small portion of that a day. The new hen we got is actually acting lethargic really tired sleeping alot but she got happy when we threw some seeds out

 

[centrarchid]

I picked up a bag of feather fixer. As well as a mix of seeds (Milo,wheat,black oil sunflower,white millit) and I'll give a small portion of that a day. The new hen we got is actually acting lethargic really tired sleeping alot but she got happy when we threw some seeds out

You closed your quarantine window faster than I like. Isolate that new bird. Social issues might compound health problem.