Am i feeding too much scratch?

[CUDA]

You do realize that rice has almost no nutritional value right?

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Rice is a staple food of over 2/3's of the world population. Both simple and complex carbohydrates are an important part of your diet. Rice contains Fiber, Fat, Protein, Folic Acid, Thiamin, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin, Vitamin E, Calcium, Phosphourous, Potassium, Sodium.

 

[CUDA]

It's true, a lot of people have rice as a large part of their diet, but look at them, they are bone skinny. lol They call meat animals like cows, and deer up my way, corn fed for a reason! To each their own though, not trying to pick a fight friend. That's the nice thing about raising fowl, lots of ways to do it.

 

[Mrs MIA]

So, what DO you treat your chickens with, if not scratch? Oats? Wheatberries? We have no greens to speak of until May, so grass is out for now...they do love their scratch, and the extra corn is ok for my girls right now because it's still cold, but in the summer I'd like to cut it back. We're limited as to what is available in the feed store, and free-range is out due to large game predators (i.e. eagles, bears, lynx, etc). What would be a good healthy alternative?

 

[CUDA]

Treats are not necessary, but I would suggest a few raisins out of your hand if you are looking to spend some time with your birds, or hold an apple out for them, and let them peck on it. A normal diet for my layers in the summer months is about 20% scratch grains, 10% black oil sunflower seeds, and 70% starter pellets. I also provide oyster shells separate, and give them greens as much as possible. If you can't get greens in the winter, you can use alfalfa pellets. In the winter, I drop my starter down, and add in some whole corn. I also only feed them a certain amount, I don't leave a dish of food for them, I feed on the ground and make them scratch for it. By controlling their intake, I have very healthy birds with this diet. If you leave a dish of feed out for them all the time, you will need to adjust for this. Hope this helps a little.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Thanks CUDA... I usually toss out a couple of handfuls of scratch in the morning, and again just before bed for about 20 birds. They really look forward to it. In the summer, I hang a cabbage for them to peck at, and they get all our grass clippings. In the winter I up the protein, and the corn, so they can generate some heat, but if corn is NOT really that good for them, I just wondered if there was a good alternate. The alfalfa pellets is a good suggestion... I usually associate it with horses, and never thought of it for the girls!
I assume the sunflower seeds are hulled, correct?
They have pellets out all day long, but they are cooped up at night so they don't have access 24/7. Seems to be working ok, but egg production seems to still be down a bit, and I wondered if I needed to change something up. That could be it.
Thanks so much!

 

[CUDA]

Corn is not bad for chickens. It's just too much corn can be bad. It is fattening, and low in protein, and takes a lot of energy to digest. That is why it can over heat your fowl. Protein level isn't what keeps them warm, it's the work their body has to do to digest the corn, that's why I use whole corn in the winter. No, I feed them whole sunflower seeds, but you can do hulled too. The little amount of sunflower seeds is mostly for feather health. If you are feeling you should be getting more eggs, check out some ideas on my site HERE .

 

[Mrs MIA]

Thanks again, Cuda... we're starting to get into the longer/warmer days now... hopefully that will help. I've got a huge bag of the sunflower seeds - I'm going to go see what they think of them.

Cheers!

 

[CUDA]

Give them time to acquire at taste for them. When I first started with the sunflower seeds, they wouldn't touch them, but they found out eventually they are good, and now they pick them out first!

 

[Mrs MIA]

LOL! I threw out a handful... they looked at me like "What the *bleep* is this?!?" Then they realized that it was edible, one by one... now I don't think there's any left out there. I'll throw out a handful here and there for them until I can get a can big enough to mix their feed. Which might be tomorrow.