All the chickens here free range from early morning until roosting time.
I’ve been experimenting with different feeds for about a year and a half now.
The original feed was a locally produced fish based feed and in general the hens have done very well on it. Unfortunately it had a very high calcium content (4.7%) and a bit high in the fat content (2.1%) too.
The reason I started to make changes was while high calcium may be fine for laying hens I’ve got roosters, cockerels, seniors and pullets and for the roosters in particular this level of calcium I believe is unhealthy and I think may have caused the early deaths of three roosters.
For the last couple of months I’ve been feeding what in the US would probably be described as an ‘all flock feed’. It’s organic (I’m not convinced this matters much) and the calcium content is 1%, protein 18%.
It took me a while to find this feed and it’s slightly more expensive than all the other feeds I’ve tried at 16 Euros for 25 Kg.
Dry feed gets scratched out and wasted so I headed down the fermented feed route and the waste was greatly reduced. I’m sort of straddling the line between fermented and mash at the moment.
Excluding predation and injury, the chickens here tend to lead long and healthy lives. and one of the reasons I believe is partly responsible, is the varied diet they get through free range foraging. Most of the year there is plenty to eat. Foraging only really gets difficult when the ground gets too dry to scratch and the bugs head deeper into the soil to escape being baked. None of the chickens have been particularly fond of any of the feeds I’ve used before; some of the hens hardly eat any of the commercially produced food and managed very well on what they foraged.
Most of the chickens seem to like the mash I give them now, but what has happened is they are now foraging noticeably less and eating much more of the commercial feed. I don’t think this is a good thing. I don’t have an awful lot of faith in the idea that commercial feeds supply everything that all chickens need. Most commercially produced feeds, even those with low calcium are focused on egg production and not necessarily on a chickens long term health.
I want them to forage; just having that extra exercise helps keep them fit and the bugs, shoots and vegetable matter provides a varied diet.
I don’t want them living entirely on the commercial stuff; I don’t believe it’s good for them no matter what the nutrition ‘experts’ say.
I can’t go back to the fish based feed because of the calcium and fat content.
I can’t find another fish or meat based feed here.
I have two reference chickens from each tribe which I weigh and they’ve put on weight; only a couple of ounces but they were fine before; better a bit thin and hungry is my view.
The other point is the chickens are now eating almost twice as much commercially produced feed and this while not bank breaking is more expensive.
Anybody got any ideas?
I’ve been experimenting with different feeds for about a year and a half now.
The original feed was a locally produced fish based feed and in general the hens have done very well on it. Unfortunately it had a very high calcium content (4.7%) and a bit high in the fat content (2.1%) too.
The reason I started to make changes was while high calcium may be fine for laying hens I’ve got roosters, cockerels, seniors and pullets and for the roosters in particular this level of calcium I believe is unhealthy and I think may have caused the early deaths of three roosters.
For the last couple of months I’ve been feeding what in the US would probably be described as an ‘all flock feed’. It’s organic (I’m not convinced this matters much) and the calcium content is 1%, protein 18%.
It took me a while to find this feed and it’s slightly more expensive than all the other feeds I’ve tried at 16 Euros for 25 Kg.
Dry feed gets scratched out and wasted so I headed down the fermented feed route and the waste was greatly reduced. I’m sort of straddling the line between fermented and mash at the moment.
Excluding predation and injury, the chickens here tend to lead long and healthy lives. and one of the reasons I believe is partly responsible, is the varied diet they get through free range foraging. Most of the year there is plenty to eat. Foraging only really gets difficult when the ground gets too dry to scratch and the bugs head deeper into the soil to escape being baked. None of the chickens have been particularly fond of any of the feeds I’ve used before; some of the hens hardly eat any of the commercially produced food and managed very well on what they foraged.
Most of the chickens seem to like the mash I give them now, but what has happened is they are now foraging noticeably less and eating much more of the commercial feed. I don’t think this is a good thing. I don’t have an awful lot of faith in the idea that commercial feeds supply everything that all chickens need. Most commercially produced feeds, even those with low calcium are focused on egg production and not necessarily on a chickens long term health.
I want them to forage; just having that extra exercise helps keep them fit and the bugs, shoots and vegetable matter provides a varied diet.
I don’t want them living entirely on the commercial stuff; I don’t believe it’s good for them no matter what the nutrition ‘experts’ say.
I can’t go back to the fish based feed because of the calcium and fat content.
I can’t find another fish or meat based feed here.
I have two reference chickens from each tribe which I weigh and they’ve put on weight; only a couple of ounces but they were fine before; better a bit thin and hungry is my view.
The other point is the chickens are now eating almost twice as much commercially produced feed and this while not bank breaking is more expensive.
Anybody got any ideas?
