Food question

[jlf1]

I'm sure that this question has been addressed at some point, but I can't find any specifics....
I have one chicken that has started to lay eggs and two that should be coming close to it in a few weeks. I understand that it is probably best to have them eat to the youngest birds age (in this case it is 21 weeks vs 16 weeks).....anyway, I went and got the "big girl" good at the feed store and they recommended Home Grown--Layer (I believe this is a division of Purina). They recommended pellets.
Well long story short, they seem to hate it. I don't see them eat it at all! They get to scratch and peck in a little yard, so I know they are getting some stuff, and they scarf down any scratch that I throw out (I only do a very little), but they won't touch the darn pellets.

I also tried to throw out some of the original starter feed that the one had been eating.....but that seems to not interest them either?

Any suggestions?

 

[pdirt]

Try these things in order from easiest to more involved:

* Mix their feed with water to make a mash

* Mix their feed with plain yoghurt or kefir

* Ferment their feed (or just some of it) TONS of info on BYC on this one, but a good place to start is: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html


Lots of people notice this, but my chickens go NUTS over the fermented feed. I'm considering switching to feeding them mostly fermented feed 1x/day with dry feed available to see if they eat overall less and would most certainly waste less feed. They eat every last crumb of the fermented stuff. The non-pellet feed (same stuff I ferment with) they pick through an waste a lot of the feed. I try to scoop up as much of the chaff as possible (full of nutrition) and either ferment or mix with kefir. They go nuts over the kefir stuff too.

Also, I found it a pain in the butt with the layer feed with different ages (and a rooster), I just feed grower feed and a side of crushed egg shells or oyster shells. The eggs they lay have plenty hard shells.

 

[ginger7]

I agree with her,
you could take the chicken feed and make it into a mash.Heat up some water put the chicken food in mash it,and put it in with the girls.My chickens don't like the pellets either.

 

[Kelsie2290]

One other thing, how much they are actually eating. Most pellets seem to be around 6oz a cup, most commercial feeds say around 4oz per bird per day, so if your girls are average chickens they would only eat around 2 cups a day if that is all they had available, they may not need much if they are still finding stuff foraging and getting some scratch and treats. You could weigh them to see how they do.