Any recommended Fall/Winter food?

[SundownWaterfowl]

If possible use layer mash. It takes hens 30 min to eat their days ration in pellets, but it takes them 3 hours to eat their days ration of mash. Plus, it keeps them busy so they dont peck on eachother or get bored.

Also, add some cracked corn to the diet. When the corn digests it makes heat, and it also give them some yellow fat which helps them to stay warm.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

A whole grain or a chunk of grain takes longer to digest than a pulverized, powdered grain, like that in a crumble or pellet. It provides energy as it's being digested, for a longer period of time. I think some slower digesting grain along with their other food, may sustain them longer during the really long winter nights. That may be part of why a crop of grain at night was a successful strategy and why this thinking originally got started.

Different foods, different forms of the same food and even different grains, take longer to digest and turn up as glucose in the bloodstream of humans. That's what the glycemic index of foods is. It's something we can measure and a way that we've learned to understand that some foods sustain us for a longer time, than others.

 

[mcg30_40]

maybe some dried peas would work like the frozen ones... I hadn't thought of that for winter but I love the idea!!

 

[pimpdaddywrinkles]

Quote:
This sounds good but where are the studies and facts to support this claim? (Chicken specific)

All the info I found or have gotten from local chicken farmers, says that this corn = warmth claim are bogus. As a matter of fact I kind of felt like an ass when I asked a local poultry grower if the "Corn myth" was true.

I'm in Canada and I would love to know that I could feed the birds something to help warm them. but I am from Missouri I need to see the studies and facts. I have looked but nothing.

Again I'm not trying to be harsh I just would like to see the studies.