Feeding cracked corn to younger laying hens

[pdirt]

The only motive I have for feeding corn is that I can aqquire much much cheaper. I now know that it is nt a good balanced diet for them but if all I had was corn to give them what would be some good things to give them to help balance out the diet. Like I said they have partial free range and get plenty of scraps so the crack corn would probably only be about 50% of their diet. Any ideas on particular scraps that are better than others or would be a good supplement to this diet? Keep in mind cost is a very very big factor.

Just do the best you can. They may not live as long, lay as many eggs or be as healthy as with complete nutrition, but just do the best you can. Main thing to balance out the nutrition of just corn is to get them protein, ideally some amount of animal protein. I pay $1.60/lb for fish meal (comes in a 50lbs sack), which is pretty darn cheap for animal protein. I feed about 20% of their protein intake as animal protein, the rest is plant-based. Or you can use soybeans...be sure to get feed grade soy (it has been heat treated to destroy toxins), I don't buy soy but I think it's fairly cheap. Soy isn't as good as any animal protein, but it's more complete in terms of amino acids (important) than other plant proteins. In fact, the basis of many chicken feeds is corn and soy. Since cost is a factor to you, you might try your local grocery stores to see if they might be willing to give you their produce they are no longer able to sell, for cheap or free. Perhaps food banks might also have something to contribute?

Also, free range them as much as you possibly can...they can forage for quite a bit of their own food if they have good land to do it on and have enough time to do it. Predator attacks is an increased risk, but that just tends to go with free ranging.

In terms of scraps, give what you have, ideally a variety. Nothing with too much salt or cheese, ideally.

 

[tcriswell13]

Ok thanks for all your help !!! We have tons of produce stands around our house and are good friends with the people that own one so I'll see about some rotten fruit.

 

[chickengr]

i got some laying pullets that are about 6 weeks old and I was thinking of feeding them a diet of all cracked corn. They are not free range but they are kept on dirt and have plenty of hay and bedding to scratch in and some grass sprouts to eat. I give them tons of table scraps on top of that so would it be ok if I just gave them cracked corn in the feeder. They're not laying yet so I'm not really concerned if it messes with their laying. Any and all advice is appreciated... Thanks

I feed my chicken mostly cracked corn (about 70%), but I also give them some other grains, seeds and vegetables. they are free range so they eat some grass, worms, stones, etc. chicken are happy and the eggs are very tasty. when they grow a little bit I will give them whole corn, not cracked because it has more nutritional value. corn only would not be enough.

 

[ggeorgas]

just food for thought and yes this is my perspective. Corn has no nutritional value other than some warm in winter as gathered by reading this.
Why feed your chicken mainly corn when corn has no value and unless your buying non-gmo corn you are poisoning your chicken and yourself. Save all the trouble and by the in humane eggs at the grocery store. I really get sad when people eat this. It really is frightening what it will do to you health and animals.
I'm not a fan of corn at all. I have popcorn once in a while with my kids but I buy all organic. It is more expensive to buy, but I save a hell of a lot more in not going to the dr. Way the cost benefit. Cut cost somewhere else.
Healthy life is a happy life.

 

[chickengr]

just food for thought and yes this is my perspective. Corn has no nutritional value other than some warm in winter as gathered by reading this.
Why feed your chicken mainly corn when corn has no value and unless your buying non-gmo corn you are poisoning your chicken and yourself. Save all the trouble and by the in humane eggs at the grocery store. I really get sad when people eat this. It really is frightening what it will do to you health and animals.
I'm not a fan of corn at all. I have popcorn once in a while with my kids but I buy all organic. It is more expensive to buy, but I save a hell of a lot more in not going to the dr. Way the cost benefit. Cut cost somewhere else.
Healthy life is a happy life.

I feed my chicken with non gmo corn. My grandparents fed their chicken mainly corn and they were healthy, eggs and meat tasty.

 

[Chris09]

just food for thought and yes this is my perspective. Corn has no nutritional value other than some warm in winter as gathered by reading this.
Why feed your chicken mainly corn when corn has no value and unless your buying non-gmo corn you are poisoning your chicken and yourself. Save all the trouble and by the in humane eggs at the grocery store. I really get sad when people eat this. It really is frightening what it will do to you health and animals.
I'm not a fan of corn at all. I have popcorn once in a while with my kids but I buy all organic. It is more expensive to buy, but I save a hell of a lot more in not going to the dr. Way the cost benefit. Cut cost somewhere else.
Healthy life is a happy life.

Quote: Corn has no nutritional value other than some warm in winter as gathered by reading this.

The above post is incorrect, corn has a nutritional value in fact it has more digestible nutrition than other grains used in a feed mix or as a treat. As for adding " warmth" in the winter, corn does very little in warming a body.

Here is a chart that compares corn with a few common grains.

TDN = Total Digestible Nutrients​

NEm = Net Energy of Maintenance​

NEg = Net Energy of Gain​

CP = Crude Protein​

NDF = Neutral Detergent Fiber​

ADF = Acid Detergent Fiber​

​

Table 1. Nutrient content of various feed grains (NRC, 1996).​

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Corn Barley Wheat Oats Sorghum
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TDN, % 90 88 88 77 82
NEm, Mcal/lb 1.02 0.94 0.99 0.84 0.91
NEg, Mcal/lb 0.70 0.64 0.68 0.55 0.61
CP, % 9.8 13.2 14.2 13.6 12.6
Escape Protein, % of CP 55 27 23 17 57
NDF, % 10.8 18.1 11.8 29.3 16.1
ADF, % 3.3 5.8 4.2 14.0 6.4
-----------------------------------------------------------------




Table 2. Mineral content of major feed grains (NRC, 1996).
----------------------------------------------------------
Corn Barley Wheat Oats Sorghum
----------------------------------------------------------
Calcium, % 0.03 0.05 0.05 0.01 0.04
Phosphorus, % 0.32 0.35 0.44 0.41 0.34
Potassium, % 0.44 0.57 0.40 0.51 0.44
Magnesium, % 0.12 0.12 0.13 0.16 0.17
Sodium, % 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01
Sulfur, % 0.11 0.15 0.14 0.21 0.14
Copper, ppm 2.5 5.3 6.5 8.6 4.7
Iron, ppm 54.5 59.5 45.1 94.1 80.8
Manganese, ppm 7.9 18.3 36.6 40.3 15.4
Selenium, ppm 0.14 - 0.05 0.24 0.46
Zinc, ppm 24.2 13.0 38.1 40.8 0.99
Cobalt, ppm - 0.35 - 0.06 -
Molybdenum, ppm 0.60 1.16 0.12 1.70 -
----------------------------------------------------------




Table 3. Nutrient content of corn using different harvest, storage,
or processing methods.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Escape
Dry TDN, NEm, NEg, Protein,
Corn Type Matter % Mcal/lb Mcal/lb CP, % % of CP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dry Rolled Corn 86 90 1.02 0.70 9.8 60
Ear Corn 87 83 0.92 0.62 9.0 60
Steam Flaked Corn 82 94 1.06 0.73 10.0 45
High Moisture Corn 75 90 1.02 0.70 10.0 40
High Moisture Ear Corn 75 83 0.92 0.62 8.7 40
High Moisture Snapped Corn 74 81 0.90 0.59 8.8 40
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[sandybow]

I just feed my girls layer crumbles but as a treat they get a handful of scratch and some meal worms. I tried whole corn and boss but they dont like them. They also dont like peas, bread, or table scraps.i never knew chickens are picky.

 

[ggeorgas]

@chris09
Thanks for posting that! I'll check it out

 

[pdirt]

just food for thought and yes this is my perspective. Corn has no nutritional value other than some warm in winter as gathered by reading this.
Why feed your chicken mainly corn when corn has no value and unless your buying non-gmo corn you are poisoning your chicken and yourself.

Corn, by itself, has good nutrition, as Chris09 points out. I think where corn has gotten a bad rep is from High Fructose Corn Syrup. Nasty stuff, but mainly because so much of America consumes a TON of this stuff. Very hard on digestion. Anything that is highly refined, like HFCS, generally lends toward poor nutrition, for a variety of reasons.

And I know this is a hot topic now, but I'm with you, GMO corn is something I avoid if at all possible. Too many reasons to avoid it.

 

[ggeorgas]

Corn, by itself, has good nutrition, as Chris09 points out. I think where corn has gotten a bad rep is from High Fructose Corn Syrup. Nasty stuff, but mainly because so much of America consumes a TON of this stuff. Very hard on digestion. Anything that is highly refined, like HFCS, generally lends toward poor nutrition, for a variety of reasons.

And I know this is a hot topic now, but I'm with you, GMO corn is something I avoid if at all possible. Too many reasons to avoid it.

That is a very good point. I won't fear giving them corn so much. =)