Just bought a new bale of Bahalia (sp?) Hay and put some in their new coop nest boxes on top of a layer of pine shavings. Don't know if they've been eating it in the coop or not but today when I let them out to free-range they made a bee-line to the bale of hay and began picking out long pieces of it and eating it like long strands of spaghetti. They are about 9 and 13 weeks old. I know I've read that some things can block them up and I didn't really expect to see them devouring the hay. It was amazing to watch though - the way they can grab one end and then you just watch it disappear down their throat. One of my books on chickens has a saying "Good for basket weaving - Bad for chicken feeding". Should I not use hay? I feed them a fortune's worth of great goodies each day as well as letting them free range in the woods during the day. For those that say it's not a good idea because of predators - don't worry their trusty guard dog Rex follows them everywhere. Caught him today about to pounce on our new kitten because the kitten got to close to his baby chicks. Anyway - hay or no hay?
