Corn

[bacpacker]

Being new to raising chickens I thought I should pose this question. I have been feeding by flock both crumbles and cracked corn. Can they have whole corn straight off the cob? I have grown and buch of hickory king corn for feed, but wasn't sure if it has to be cracked or not.
Thanks for any advise.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Once they reach a decent size, it does not need to be cracked. Their gizzard can handle that chore as long as they have access to some kind of grit.

 

[bacpacker]

Thanks RR. They are about 20-23 weeks old and have started laying. I give them some grit and cruched oyster shell. I don't plan on starting with the corn until around Thanksgiving or so anyway. That'll put them around 30 weeks by then.

 

[aoxa]

They are definitely old enough for corn cobs. Mine LOVE LOVE LOVE corn on the cob. This is my favourite treat for them. They also like when I pick the kernels off and throw in to them. It's funny watch them fight over one kernel. Mine are the same age as yours, with a few being around 3 months old and loving corn (and eating it) wonderfully!

 

[bacpacker]

Very good. I had planned on running the cobs thru a old sheller I got off e-bay to cut down on storage space, but I will start pulling some cobs from the plants and get them started.