Winter Feed Cost and Growing Fodder

[NatJ]

They are going through food like crazy

Have you checked whether they are throwing feed into the bedding and wasting it?
Have you checked whether mice or rats are eating some of it?

Of course you want to feed the chickens enough food, but there's no reason to feed the floor, or the rodents!

A common estimate is 1/4 pound per adult laying hen per day. So if you are buying more than double that much, it is almost certainly getting spilled, wasted, or eaten by something else.

If they are using a reasonable amount of food, the change might be because they are eating only the food you provide (while they are cooped up), as compared with finding some food elsewhere (at other times of the year.)

They do eat a bit more food in cold weather because they need more energy to keep warm, so that could also be part of the reason they seem to need so much now.

and not laying eggs.

The lack of eggs is probably caused by molting or lack of daylight or both.
Waiting for a few months will usually fix either issue (the chickens finish growing their new feathers and start laying again, or the days get longer and they start laying again.)

As others have said, adding more light will help if lack of daylight is the issue, although you typically won't see eggs until several weeks after you start adding light. The hens' bodies need that long to get everything ready, and then they can lay an egg every day or two for quite a while.

because of the cold temperatures, the feed freezes if the chickens don't eat it fast enough. Any suggestions on this would be helpful!

Suggestions about fermented feed that freezes:

--Put out small amounts several times each day, so the chickens eat up each portion before it freezes. If you leave dry feed available too, you don't have to be too fussy about getting the "right" amount of fermented feed, because they can eat the dry food if they're still hungry.

--Have two dishes of fermented feed, one being eaten/frozen in the chicken pen and the other thawing in the house. Switch dishes as needed.

--Put the fermented feed in a heated dish. If you also have a heated water source, this could save a lot of trips out to replace feed & water.

--It usually works best to let chickens nibble feed all day long. But it is possible for them to eat enough in two big meals per day (morning and evening) when the food is served wet or fermented. This is not ideal, but in bad weather it's helpful to know. For this to work, you would need to serve enough each time for them to all eat until they are completely full (and then the leftovers would freeze, and you'd have to thaw them out to use again later.)

 

[saysfaa]

I hadn't learned the trick of using a light to increase the egg-laying until last week. From what I had read, you're supposed to increase the light by an hour each week until you have sixteen hours a day. So that's why they haven't laid much yet. Before the winter they were laying a ton of eggs and I was selling them. But now in the winter, they are barely laying eggs so I don't have enough to sell and they are going through more food. When I was selling their eggs, the money I was making went to buying their food.

Adding an hour a day up to 16 hours is one way to do it. It isn't the only way.

Assuming daylight is the only reason they are not laying (they are old enough, not molting, not a breed that lays for only a couple of weeks in the spring, not really old hens) and it is likely that is the only reason in your case... there is more to it, sort of.

All will be at full production with 16 hours of light. Some will be at full production with less than that. Some will keep laying with even just 9 hours of daylight - usually at much less than full production... maybe an egg once every three days instead one every day.

 

[saysfaa]

You can also feed fermented once or twice a day and dry food through the day.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ive seen birds lose weight being fed fermented and my chickens wont eat fodder as chickens dont eat grass they eat bugs. Right now im saving on feed by buying the cheapest feed and also corn as i get that free.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ive seen birds lose weight being fed fermented and my chickens wont eat fodder as chickens dont eat grass they eat bugs. Right now im saving on feed by buying the cheapest feed and also corn as i get that free.

Anecdote is not data - the data, as reflected in study after study, for decades, in every country to study (so far as I am aware), says that is an unreliable and sub-optimal means of feeding your birds.

But they are your birds, only you can do the economic calculus as to whether losses in production and condition are worth the savings in feed costs.

 

[saysfaa]

Ive seen birds lose weight being fed fermented and my chickens wont eat fodder as chickens dont eat grass they eat bugs. Right now im saving on feed by buying the cheapest feed and also corn as i get that free.

I'm interested in what you noticed about fermented feed. I don't want to hijack the thread, though. I'll start another one or if you would message me (not email), I would appreciate it

 

[Sally PB]

I have noticed that my chickens don't like the powdery bits of feed that fall to the bottom of the bowl. I save those in a separate bin and use it to make their main snack, which is just their usual feed wetted into a mash. I give them that mid-late afternoon when I go in to clean the coop. Very little of their purchased food is wasted.

They love their mash, and there's usually little to none left in the pie plates I serve it on.

 

[TOPChickens14]

Have you checked whether they are throwing feed into the bedding and wasting it?
Have you checked whether mice or rats are eating some of it?

Of course you want to feed the chickens enough food, but there's no reason to feed the floor, or the rodents!

A common estimate is 1/4 pound per adult laying hen per day. So if you are buying more than double that much, it is almost certainly getting spilled, wasted, or eaten by something else.

If they are using a reasonable amount of food, the change might be because they are eating only the food you provide (while they are cooped up), as compared with finding some food elsewhere (at other times of the year.)

They do eat a bit more food in cold weather because they need more energy to keep warm, so that could also be part of the reason they seem to need so much now.


The lack of eggs is probably caused by molting or lack of daylight or both.
Waiting for a few months will usually fix either issue (the chickens finish growing their new feathers and start laying again, or the days get longer and they start laying again.)

As others have said, adding more light will help if lack of daylight is the issue, although you typically won't see eggs until several weeks after you start adding light. The hens' bodies need that long to get everything ready, and then they can lay an egg every day or two for quite a while.


Suggestions about fermented feed that freezes:

--Put out small amounts several times each day, so the chickens eat up each portion before it freezes. If you leave dry feed available too, you don't have to be too fussy about getting the "right" amount of fermented feed, because they can eat the dry food if they're still hungry.

--Have two dishes of fermented feed, one being eaten/frozen in the chicken pen and the other thawing in the house. Switch dishes as needed.

--Put the fermented feed in a heated dish. If you also have a heated water source, this could save a lot of trips out to replace feed & water.

--It usually works best to let chickens nibble feed all day long. But it is possible for them to eat enough in two big meals per day (morning and evening) when the food is served wet or fermented. This is not ideal, but in bad weather it's helpful to know. For this to work, you would need to serve enough each time for them to all eat until they are completely full (and then the leftovers would freeze, and you'd have to thaw them out to use again later.)

They aren't wasting feed in the bedding and I don't think mice are getting into it because I keep the feed in a metal trash can and the feeders are hanging in the coop. The coop is very secure because I've had a weasel attack before and now the coop is really secure and I don't think mice can get in. I do think that they are eating more because a. they are not eating various foods outside like bugs and weeds b. they are eating more to stay warm. Most of them already finished their molts but a few are still molting. I'll keep your suggestions in mind, hank you.

 

[TOPChickens14]

Adding an hour a day up to 16 hours is one way to do it. It isn't the only way.

Assuming daylight is the only reason they are not laying (they are old enough, not molting, not a breed that lays for only a couple of weeks in the spring, not really old hens) and it is likely that is the only reason in your case... there is more to it, sort of.

All will be at full production with 16 hours of light. Some will be at full production with less than that. Some will keep laying with even just 9 hours of daylight - usually at much less than full production... maybe an egg once every three days instead one every day.

Most of my hens are 2 years old and are a production breed.

 

[TOPChickens14]

I have noticed that my chickens don't like the powdery bits of feed that fall to the bottom of the bowl. I save those in a separate bin and use it to make their main snack, which is just their usual feed wetted into a mash. I give them that mid-late afternoon when I go in to clean the coop. Very little of their purchased food is wasted.

They love their mash, and there's usually little to none left in the pie plates I serve it on.

Thank you. You just gave me a great idea. I have been dumping the "dust" that collects in the bottom of my feeders because it clogs them up. I guess I can use that dust in my fermented feed.