Big Freeze help

[City Farmer Jim]

I have a question for those of you who deal with winter conditions and those from Texas(south) that dealt with the BIG FREEZE this year. My question is how do you deal with poor forage conditions by that I mean there is or nothing to forage. The big freeze in south Texas has our lawn is all but a desert 🏜 we lost trees that our flock would scratch around for bugs . Most days when I check their crop...its all but empty. I give them scratch and they have layer crumbles available daily...and words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kiki]

I am in Texas.

You feed them scratch daily?

 

[wamtazlady]

I have no idea why they are not eating the crumbles. I live in NW Montana. Winters can be long, cold, and snowy. Feed costs do go up. Every day I try to give them dried meal worms and some greens. The meal worms are bought at the feed store. The worms are tossed in the run and give the birds something to scratch around for. The greens are bought at the grocery store and also tossed in so they can search for the small pieces.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

I am in Texas.

You feed them scratch daily?

Not as an only source of food just a supplement...they forage mostly but not much for them to forage on.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I mainly feed chicken feed in the winter months. A cup of scratch on the below zero days and some table scraps, these aren’t daily because they need to get all their nutrients from their feed.
I choose not to let the flock free range in the winter just because they would be easy pickings for the eagles and hawks since trees and bushes are without leaves and the ground is all white.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I have a question for those of you who deal with winter conditions

My question is how do you deal with poor forage conditions by that I mean there is or nothing to forage.

I have Poultry feed available 24/7 in my raised coops.
During winter season my chickens consume about twice as much feed daily than they do during the summer.

I make paths to get around my property, but there's only dead grass and if lucky, chickens may find a frozen grub under a fallen leaf.
The rest of the year they find plenty of greens, grubs and bugs.

I don't remove leaves from the farthest part of my backyard and chickens find lots of grubs and worms from April through October.

I buy high production breeds and sex-links, so egg sales pay for Poultry feed, Scratch Grains and Shavings.

I have two coops and pens and keep younger and older separate. I get new chicks around every two years and cull the 4 year olds if I have any left, due to predators, prolapse, egg bound, bad behavior or illness.
I originally got chickens for fresh eggs for myself in the beginning, but I enjoy chickens so I added another coop and pen.
I've had as few as 3 hens and as many as 10 pullets and hens. Both coops together can house 13. I don't plan to expand beyond that. GC

 

[Mamatomany123]

I'm in west texas. We get a freeze every year. I just make sure they have feed available. Sometimes they will find a treat, sometimes they dont but their crops always feel like they're getting plenty of food and theres been no weightloss.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Most days when I check their crop...its all but empty. I give them scratch and they have layer crumbles available daily.

Make sure the feed is fresh in the feeders.
Depending on season I clean my feeders as often as monthly to 3 months depending on dampness or humidity.
I open my coops at 5 am daily year-round.
My chickens love to eat the feed.

It's the first thing they do when I turn on lights.

I keep my chickens in their pen mornings and I don't give Scratch Grains till 9 am, so they consume the poultry feed till then.
During winter season I give 2 Tbsp Scratch each scattered in their pen. Rest of the year 1 Tbsp each.
During winter season each chicken consumes about this much.

For those using the metric system.

Of course different breeds/types of chickens and climate will change consumption.
Mine would eat more without Scratch.

But if I gave more scratch egg production would drop and egg quality would also be affected.
Lessons learned from my first Flock.
Now I carefully measure scratch.

GC

 

[neo71665]

Im in arkansas but mine have all flock 24/7 available to them. Scratch is a treat for chickens not a food source.

 

[NatJ]

My question is how do you deal with poor forage conditions by that I mean there is or nothing to forage.... Most days when I check their crop...its all but empty. I give them scratch and they have layer crumbles available daily...

I've always dealt with poor forage conditions by keeping feed available all the time.

If they can find something by foraging, that is nice. But they always have the purchased feed to fall back on.

Sometimes I give a "treat" of chicken food with water added. They seem to really like it that way.