Complete Nube with laying hens

[weekendskp]

My wife picked up our first hens yesterday, and stopped by the feed store where they sold her scratch (a mixture of corn and something else) Is this what they eat all the time? I put it in their feeder, but I remember as a kid, my grandmother just scattered it on the ground. I thought that they should be eating laying pellets. Please help!

 

[Ukyou]

yes they need layer pellats or crumble. Scatch is just a treat.

 

[weekendskp]

Thank you. That confirms what I had read, I just don't know why the feed store would send my wife home with just scratch.

 

[schellie69]

Because most of them don't really know or care for chickens just something they heard. I know I have to watch at Tractor supply they will sell you anything. Get a good layer feed and make sure they have access to grit and oyster shell or crushed egg shells and they should do fine then give them scratch as a treat or if you need them to pen up early its how I trained my chickens.

 

[jennh]

1st off

from SE Pa.

You need layer pellets or crumbles. Scratch will just make your hens fat, and they won't lay as well. I prefer pellets to crumbles, there's not as much waste. There's an awful lot of dust with crumbles. JMHO

 

[weekendskp]

Quote:
Okay, so I got laying pellets, and a bag of oyster shell. It was more expensive than the pellets. I put two big handfuls in the feeder with the layer pellets. Is that enough?

 

[thixen]

If you use a good balanced feed you may not need a lot of oyster shell, it's going to depend on what other food sources that they have access to. I usually just mix a little in with grit in a my broken bunny feeder and they seem to know when they need it. (which is not often) If you feed them a lot of scratch feed they will need more since the scratch feed will toss the balance out. I use scratch or sometimes wild bird seed just as a form of entertainment for them more then anything. A little handful tossed in their run once in a while to give them something to dig around for when I can't let them out of the run it's not really a good food source.

As far as their feed I only use pellets, the crumbles seem to waste more. If they drop the pellets they seem more inclined to pick them up, the crumbles they just let lay and poop on them. I guess that’s their way of telling me that they prefer the pellets as well.