Feed types

[rosemarythyme]

They are up at the crack of dawn and making a huge fuss. I will start your way today and see if that works. Boy will they be pissed....when they are out and my patio door opens, the entire flock comes a flapping and running...quite entertaining.

Oh, they will be mad. Chickens hate change. But I also hate wasting feed... and I have next to no waste now because I expect them to eat what's on the floor first.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Oh, and WELCOME to BYC! Hope you find it as supportive and instructive as I have.

 

[pscbadvr]

I have tried both Pellet and Crumble (which should really be called dust or powder) and I am wondering if there is a way to reduce the waste. I use a hanging feeder for my 7 ladies and no matter which type I put in their feeder, at least 50% ends up on the ground. My current food is Syfrett's out of Okeechobee, which is a pellet. Any time I check the coop, which is several times a day, the feed is lower but most of it is on the ground and they act like they are starving. Are there any other options?

They do get some scratch, and soldier fly larvae but they also get lots of table scraps from salad, veggies, apples, cucumbers (which get hung on a chain so that it swings around when it gets pecked.

They are normally free range all day but they were being treated for Coccidia, along with my 2 Yellow Labs, who LOVE chicken poop, so they are being contained until they are through with the 2 week retreatment cycle.

 

[pscbadvr]

First I'd cut all the scratch, scraps, etc.

What time do they get out in the morning? If it's not at the break of dawn, if you remove the feeder at night when they wake up in the morning they'll be hungry and only have the option to eat the pellets left on the floor. My flock does a marvelous job at cleaning up every last piece that way.

 

[Krux5506]

You shouldn't feed young birds layer, as it is to high in calcium and low in protein, but you can feed laying birds starter/grower as long as you give them oyster shells on the side.

Now you got me thinking....I just integrated some 16/17 week olds with my older 6.5 month old flock (all laying as of 20 weeks) and I figured the younger ones would be fine just going on layer feed to make things easier. Should I instead just sub chick feed to the entire flock until the youngins are laying? I do have oyster shell available at all times. The problem with the younger ones is they are quite mixed - RI reds, EE, OE, buff orpington, copper maran so I feel like they'll all start laying at drastically different times.