For the MINIMALISTS - those who think less is more in chicken keeping - Please help

[Folly's place]

We feed a balanced all-flock diet free choice, with oyster shell and grit in separate containers, all year. I give a small amount of scratch maybe once or twice weekly, as a treat, so they will come when I call them.
If possible, the birds free range outside of their coop and covered run, although that depends on predator visits, snow cover, and this last year, the AI situation.
Mary

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

No, at least not initially.

Let them destroy the grass first then start adding litter as needed. It can build up, but you don't start with a deep layer.

So when it becomes dirt, then add a layer of litter where I can still see the ground but there is a slight covering. Then as I see it getting gross, add more... then more... then more. Then after some time, change it out and repeat.

How often do you find you're adding more? Is it days or weeks or months from one layer to the next? I know it depends on how many chickens you've got but a general idea...

I really appreciate your thorough responses and somehow finding all of my questions and answering every single one.

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Not sure. I pound my bucket with the base of a wine bottle a couple of times. I guess mostly the pieces are about a quarter inch. But baked eggshel crushes easily so some is almost powder.

Okay this gives me an idea. I didn't know if they should be itty bitty or larger. Thanks

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Note,

They don't need eggshells or oystershell until they reach Point-of-Lay. The extra calcium is for egg production.

I keep it out all the time for my mixed flock and after trying a few samples the juveniles and the males don't eat it.

Oh, this brings me to yet another question. I'm getting mine at 8 weeks old. When do they start producing eggs? Do I need to give them certain feed while they are little and switch to something else as they get bigger?

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

I give them their scratch in their yard but sometimes if the weather is bad in their run. Just a little and they clean it up very quickly. I have had a couple mice before but the girls made short work of them.

Right, I bet they don't leave many crumbs ha ha.

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Here is the buffet line I have for eggshell (empty in the picture as I was going out to fill it); grit (probably not needed as they have access to regular dirt but it is clay soil with few rocks and I had one with a crop issue); and oyster shell (which I have never seen them eat).

I keep them all topped up so they are there if anyone wants some.

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Ah, that's great! I love this idea - and those feeders. Thanks for sharing

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

They won't be around long enough for the mice to find them, I bet.

Riiiight, yes

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

Commercial chicken feed from a standard source has all the nutrients chickens need for a balanced diet if that is all they eat. A lot of us like to feed extra that we call treats. As you may have noticed "treat" can mean different things to different people. If you control everything that they eat a rule of thumb is that all treats should constitute no more than 10% of their diet so their diet stays balanced, whether it is a good treat or bad treat nutritionally. The attempt is to be balanced in all ingredients. Scratch is not a balanced chicken feed, it is a treat.

Good to know that I'm covered buying regular feed.

I don't know what to suggest to you. There are people on here that can do an excellent job in helping you micromanage everything they eat if you want to go that direction. I'm not one of them.

I definitely don't want to micromanage what they eat. I'm trying to keep it simple. Regular feed is great with some extras of leftover appropriate food I have when I'm making food for my family. And maybe a bag of meal worms or flies. That's a wrap.

As you can tell, I like getting ALLLL of the info though.

Thanks for the info, Ridgerunner.

 

[GetFitWithKrista]

We feed a balanced all-flock diet free choice, with oyster shell and grit in separate containers, all year. I give a small amount of scratch maybe once or twice weekly, as a treat, so they will come when I call them.
If possible, the birds free range outside of their coop and covered run, although that depends on predtor visits, snow cover, and this last year, the AI situation.
Mary

I think I may need to use some extra treats and such in the beginning while they're getting used to us.

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh, this brings me to yet another question. I'm getting mine at 8 weeks old. When do they start producing eggs? Do I need to give them certain feed while they are little and switch to something else as they get bigger?

When they produce eggs depends on breed (supposedly) and on individual. My lovely Bernadette went a full 11 months before gracing us with her first egg. My others a more normal 6 month (approximately).
Before they lay they should not have too much calcium and then when they lay they need calcium.
People solve this one of two ways:
- Feed an 'all flock' feed (I actually feed grower feed) to everyone, all the time, and provide calcium (oyster shell and crushed egg shell as we have been discussing) freely. What you find is only the chickens that want/need the calcium help themselves to the oyster/egg shell. I think most of us answering your questions on this thread use this method.
- Other people switch to a layer feed once they are laying or just about to lay. Layer feed is a kind of feed that has the calcium built in to the feed. This doesn't work for folk who have mixed age chickens and/or roosters because you are sort of forcing them to eat calcium that isn't good for them. Also, I prefer to give mine a slightly higher % of protein than is typical in a layer feed (most layer feed is 16% protein which is sort of a minimum).