Feeding { How Much }

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Great information here. I have 15 hens that are only about 2 weeks old now. They are in my barn in a cage with a heat lamp. They seem to be fine on space and since we are in Florida our heating seems sufficient. They aren't huddled together or anything. I do notice that they will knock the food out of their feeder and prefer to eat it off of the bottom of the cage. I see people suggesting pellets in stead of crumbles. I'm wondering if they are too young to try that yet or not. When they are older they do have a coop with a run that is fully enclosed to keep out dogs, coyotes, raccoons and other predators in the area. On the feed thing, how much should they be eating at this age and should I keep refilling the feeder when there is tons of food on the floor or do I let it go a little first?

You have babies yet, and there should be a place in their pen that is 80 degrees F, and an area where they can get out from under the lights if they want to. They should be eating chick starter, which only comes as a crumble. I'm not sure why they're throwing food onto the floor--is it in a chick feeder? If there's a ton of food on the floor and it's not all poopy, I'd get them to eat some of that before I gave them new. They should have free-choice feed and water at all times.

Brooding chicks is a bit different than feeding layer hens, which was the OPs question. You might want to ask your questions in the Raising Baby Chicks forums, too.

 

[MetallicBlue]

I gave letting them finish some of the stuff on the floor of the cage first and it seemed to work well. 2 weeks old and minds of their own