How much can one expect to feed? I have 22 chickens, including four adolescents, one roo and two of the remaining actually laying fairly regularly. I know they slow down in colder weather, and I'm impressed with whichever two are staying busy.
I'm paying about $14 for 50# of the Layena, and I supplement in the cold weather with oatmeal. I found some for 59 cents a pound at the grocery (bulk) and make that with some juice and coconut milk, some pieces of cut up fruit and whatever I might have. They get enough to nearly fill them up (judging by the apparent volume of their crops when they have finished eating), and i still am going through 50# every 10 days or so.
The DH has been very kind not to kid me about this cost saving measure I have gotten us into, making our own eggs. But I can tell if he doesn't get to joke about the $10 per egg soon, he is going to burst.
Am I underfeeding? Overfeeding? Should I be giving them something different during colder weather? Maybe mixing with scratch? Incidentally, the adolescents actively refused scratch when they were in their own room next to the house. They actually went days without eating--I watched the level of the feed for that amount of time, then couldn't stand it anymore and gave them other stuff.
ALSO--we made one of those waterers with the little nipple things, PVC pipe, 15 gallon plastic jar recycled from the pool chemicals, etc. Worked great until the weather got cold. We find no splits or other damage (and this is north Texas, so we rarely get a good enough freeze to damage anything), but now the farthest nipple just keeps dripping. DH took that one out, taped up the hole, and the next one started doing the same thing. The ones closer to the reservoir don't leak and seem to work fine, until the water has all leaked out the most distal nip, and then we have thirsty chickens and muddy chicken feet.
I'll probably just start carrying a bucket of tepid water out there so they have something to sip on, but if anyone has any ideas about how to adjust the waterer so that it works even when it is cold (obviously it isn't going to do anything if the water is ice), I'm sure open to suggestion. I thought about making the holes bigger and putting some kind of silicon or something around the nipples, but I'm not convinced that would work.
TIA!
I'm paying about $14 for 50# of the Layena, and I supplement in the cold weather with oatmeal. I found some for 59 cents a pound at the grocery (bulk) and make that with some juice and coconut milk, some pieces of cut up fruit and whatever I might have. They get enough to nearly fill them up (judging by the apparent volume of their crops when they have finished eating), and i still am going through 50# every 10 days or so.
The DH has been very kind not to kid me about this cost saving measure I have gotten us into, making our own eggs. But I can tell if he doesn't get to joke about the $10 per egg soon, he is going to burst.
Am I underfeeding? Overfeeding? Should I be giving them something different during colder weather? Maybe mixing with scratch? Incidentally, the adolescents actively refused scratch when they were in their own room next to the house. They actually went days without eating--I watched the level of the feed for that amount of time, then couldn't stand it anymore and gave them other stuff.
ALSO--we made one of those waterers with the little nipple things, PVC pipe, 15 gallon plastic jar recycled from the pool chemicals, etc. Worked great until the weather got cold. We find no splits or other damage (and this is north Texas, so we rarely get a good enough freeze to damage anything), but now the farthest nipple just keeps dripping. DH took that one out, taped up the hole, and the next one started doing the same thing. The ones closer to the reservoir don't leak and seem to work fine, until the water has all leaked out the most distal nip, and then we have thirsty chickens and muddy chicken feet.
I'll probably just start carrying a bucket of tepid water out there so they have something to sip on, but if anyone has any ideas about how to adjust the waterer so that it works even when it is cold (obviously it isn't going to do anything if the water is ice), I'm sure open to suggestion. I thought about making the holes bigger and putting some kind of silicon or something around the nipples, but I'm not convinced that would work.
TIA!
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