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.
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.
Thank you!
