Chickens going off feed & refusing to eat it

[Sunshine_Chick]

Has anyone ever run across this happening? It's been roughly 3 weeks into a new bag & had noticed I wasn't needing to refill, but just put it down to successful foraging. Had a hen die, so really paid attention & gave everyone a thorough once over & realized 1 had a completely empty crop & the others were not bulging, but had food in them. I feed dry & moistened/fermented in the morning which they've been barely picking at. Today brought out some human leftovers & they all devoured it like starving piranhas. I feel absolutely horrible as it seems I've inadvertently been starving my girls. Though they have access to food, they've been refusing to eat it for some reason and I feel they know something about it that I do not. I've dumped out their feeders and scrubbed them out with bleach. The feed was loose h not moldy or clumped together. I keep the feed bag in my house & it looks fine, smells okay & again loose pellets with no clumping. I feed Kalmbach Farms 20% Flock Maker Pellets. I reached out to them today and am awaiting a reply. Just curious if anyone has ever experienced a sudden refusal to eat their feed. It's the oddest thing!

 

[nuthatched]

When was the mill date? Do they get people food and extras often?

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

When was the mill date? Do they get people food and extras often?

Sorry don't know the mill date & awaiting reply from Kalmbach. No, I do not normally feed any extras. They have free access to the pellets & in the morning I give a bowl of wet feed - same pellets, just wet & kept in large container in the fridge - not sure it's truly fermented. I'd say they might get something other than their normal feed once a month at best. I also might give each ~10 BOSS once in a great while too. Guess I'm strict on treats. Come the Summer heat though I freely offer cold fruit & veg since we live in Florida & it's brutal. I just strongly feel they instinctively know something about the food that I don't.

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

Has anyone ever run across this happening? It's been roughly 3 weeks into a new bag & had noticed I wasn't needing to refill, but just put it down to successful foraging. Had a hen die, so really paid attention & gave everyone a thorough once over & realized 1 had a completely empty crop & the others were not bulging, but had food in them. I feed dry & moistened/fermented in the morning which they've been barely picking at. Today brought out some human leftovers & they all devoured it like starving piranhas. I feel absolutely horrible as it seems I've inadvertently been starving my girls. Though they have access to food, they've been refusing to eat it for some reason and I feel they know something about it that I do not. I've dumped out their feeders and scrubbed them out with bleach. The feed was loose h not moldy or clumped together. I keep the feed bag in my house & it looks fine, smells okay & again loose pellets with no clumping. I feed Kalmbach Farms 20% Flock Maker Pellets. I reached out to them today and am awaiting a reply. Just curious if anyone has ever experienced a sudden refusal to eat their feed. It's the oddest thing!

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

This is all I see as a possible mill date code. The feed bags no longer have an ingredient tag attached as it's printed directly on the bag.

 

[nuthatched]

Anything on the bottom seam? I think that's the lot code as it doesn't look like a discernable mill date.

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

Aha think I've got it now, but don't know the secret code to decipher. Attached the ingredients & macros as well.

 

[SourRoses]

I'd get a fresh bag of something asap. Sometimes mold / deterioration isn't visible. And you know how humid our climate is.

 

[Perris]

don't know the secret code to decipher.

If you want to stick with commercial poultry feed, I'd buy a bag of something that is transparent about its production date and doesn't require insider knowledge to work out how old it is.

In the meantime, if your birds are starving, I'd offer, if you have them, some milk-soaked bread, some eggs, some wet dog or cat food, tinned fish, baked beans, anything with a reasonably good protein content to tide them over till you've got new feed.

 

[Cindy in PA]

If you want to stick with commercial poultry feed, I'd buy a bag of something that is transparent about its production date and doesn't require insider knowledge to work out how old it is.

In the meantime, if your birds are starving, I'd offer, if you have them, some milk-soaked bread, some eggs, some wet dog or cat food, tinned fish, baked beans, anything with a reasonably good protein content to tide them over till you've got new feed.

Not difficult at all the 3rd day of 2003. This is a normal way to present mill date.