MrsEarthern
Songster
My birds are about 25 weeks and are now almost exclusively eating scratch.
They were free ranged and got scratch and kitchen scraps before I got them at 16 weeks, and are now mostly penned to the run.
When I got them I had them on medicated flock raiser, and they did not seem to care whether it was crumbles or pelleted, they would eat anything I put into the run or feeder. About 20 weeks old, I gave them the Backyard chicken digestive in their water for a week and they seemed to become more active since then and eat from sun up to sun down except for about 2 hours in the afternoon while they flop.
When the bag of flock raiser got low I picked up a small bag of pelleted all-flock and mixed it 1:2 with the flock raiser crumbles for a few days and then 1:1 until the flock raiser ran out, was giving about 3 tablespoons scratch per advice of breeder and local Feed&Seed, no issues.
Got low on the all-flock, and when I went to pick some up I couldn't find any anywhere, 1 month+ shipping if I ordered online. Had a few days where the chickens were only eating scratch, about 5-6 tablespoons each, kitchen and garden scraps, and foraging.
Two weeks ago, I gave in and got the lowest calcium layer pellets (Formax 16%) stocked from the Feed&Seed; they will hardly touch it.
They have been eating about 3 tablespoons of scratch, and I've been letting them out to forage in the evening and help in the garden when I'm weeding, but how do I make sure my two ladies are eating the feed? I did not offer scratch for two days, and the only result was that the chickens would not let me pet them before bedtime.
![Frown :( :(](/styles/byc-smilies/sad.png)
Thank you!
They were free ranged and got scratch and kitchen scraps before I got them at 16 weeks, and are now mostly penned to the run.
When I got them I had them on medicated flock raiser, and they did not seem to care whether it was crumbles or pelleted, they would eat anything I put into the run or feeder. About 20 weeks old, I gave them the Backyard chicken digestive in their water for a week and they seemed to become more active since then and eat from sun up to sun down except for about 2 hours in the afternoon while they flop.
When the bag of flock raiser got low I picked up a small bag of pelleted all-flock and mixed it 1:2 with the flock raiser crumbles for a few days and then 1:1 until the flock raiser ran out, was giving about 3 tablespoons scratch per advice of breeder and local Feed&Seed, no issues.
Got low on the all-flock, and when I went to pick some up I couldn't find any anywhere, 1 month+ shipping if I ordered online. Had a few days where the chickens were only eating scratch, about 5-6 tablespoons each, kitchen and garden scraps, and foraging.
Two weeks ago, I gave in and got the lowest calcium layer pellets (Formax 16%) stocked from the Feed&Seed; they will hardly touch it.
They have been eating about 3 tablespoons of scratch, and I've been letting them out to forage in the evening and help in the garden when I'm weeding, but how do I make sure my two ladies are eating the feed? I did not offer scratch for two days, and the only result was that the chickens would not let me pet them before bedtime.
![Frown :( :(](/styles/byc-smilies/sad.png)
Thank you!