Feeding too much?

[Kariib89]

now i know what to do with all those tomatoes in my garden that keep falling off the vine before i can get to em!!

 

[Alethea]

Chickens like fresh feed. They should have it available at all times, but it is best to put a little in at a time so it doesn't get old. You want most of their nutrition to come from the feed as it is formulated to be a balanced diet. If they're hungry and don't have yummy snacks around, they'll eat it. We give ours a daily snack at 4:00 p.m., so they've had plenty of time to eat their feed. bok.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I recently switched the brand of feed for my girls and they like it much better. So you might want to experiment w/ other brands of feed.

I also stopped giving them treats in the morning. This forces them to eat their feed all morning and afternoon and only in the evenings when I let them out of their run for a little garden time do I give them a small treat. A handful of seeds or the three of them will share a half a banana or half a tomato.

So try different things till you come up w/ a system that works for you and your chickens.

 

[nwfl]

At the end of every growing season I let my layer flock till everything in. We let our ladies out after 1pm and make sure they don't eat too much forage. They eat tomato, pepper and other plant material, leaves are usually consumed. Eggplant does not usually get damaged by the chickens but my duck hens love them. The only fruit I do not feed them is avacado which trully is poisonous. They don't even eat the fruit if it does fall on the ground. Lately my birds have been stripping my loguats and figs of leaves. There are a few poisonous plants on my property. The birds learn early on their own (I have watched them) which plants don't work for them. I have three types of jasmin and another local wild plant that are never bothered after a few tastes. At different times of the year they even eat from a small asian azalea which I had planted because I thought they wouldn't eat it, but they won't eat my native azaleas. I give them left over bread from our homeless kitchen, in the winter in the evening. Really interesting thread.

 

[JodyJo]

I have a hanging feeder in my run, I have 19 chickens...they have access to feed 24/7...I let them out in the AM, throw them some scratch to start the day, and off they go, they free range, all day...around 6pm, I run out with whatever I have, lettuce, apples, squash, raspberries etc...that is their treat...and in the coop they go by 7:30 (that will be earlier soon with the dark of winter fast approaching)...

I have heard that corn is better for them in the winter to help them retain heat...it fills them up, and as long as the animal is full, they are warm...
(my rancher hubby told me this, as I shuddered every time I saw our cattle braving the bitter cold..."they are fine, they have feed, they are warm" )
He laughs when I cook oatmeal for them in the cold of winter...they DEVOUR it....

Do yours get to free range? Mine run and flap all over the place, so they burn off a lot of what they consume...they need exercise daily...and yes, they prefer fresh veggies etc to their dry feed...!

 

[trooper]

I have 9 chickens.I give them scraps in the morning and a few hands full of oats or boss.I keep their feeder with food inside the coop and they appear to be doing good.I did (but don't now fed them scratch or cracked corn).I stopped this due to the heat that corn produces.As hot as it was this summer I felt that this made them hotter.I will resume feeding scratch and cracked corn when it gets cold.The scraps vary from day to day.