Fussy hens, what else can I give them??

I would quit feeding them the corn till they ate there pellets!! They will eat it if they get hungry enough!!

 

are the pellets new to them? mine won't touch pellets, so i give them crumbles- you might try dampening them, mine love them when i do that- i'd also hold off the goodies in the afternoon- its like candy to them

 

My girls got picky too, so I started mixing some unfiltered apple cider vinegar, molasses, and a little water to their pellets...just enough to coat them (oops, I mean crumbles although they look like pellets to me) and give them flavor, and they gobbled it up like it was candy for a good month or so before they got bored with that. I made an herbal mash that I found on the website for backyard poultry and gave them that recently too. It was really an herbal mash for sick chickens, to help build up their immune system, and I figured since it has been such a nasty winter here in New England this year I would try my best to make sure my chickens get their nutrients, so I'm willing to disguise their food in different but healthy ways to get them to eat it. I think I would get sick of the same thing everyday too.

 

I agree to all of the above.

Mine would not touch pellets, and crumbles get more attention.

Hold back on the scratch or cracked corn. Give that to them every other day (afternoon) and see if it encourages them to eat more of their proper food. Kitchen scraps are still great.

I was having the same problem, so I added vitamins to their water (hoping to get them more nutrients), cut back on the scratch, moved their food feeder to a new place, and now Im filling it every day!

Good luck!

 

If you want your birds to eat the pellets with-hold the table scraps for a couple of days or mix the pellets with the table scraps. My girls were resistant to the pellets too because they were eating pretty well from the table. I first mixed the pellets with table scraps then changed to feeding pellets in the morning and didn't give the table scraps until they were gone. Once they get used to eating the pellets it shouldn't be a problem.

 

You can easily "spoil" chickens. Not unlike dogs or human pre-teens, for that matter. Of course, tasty foods will be chosen over nutritious foods that seem boring. They'll hold out, for awhile, hoping to live entirely off goodies. Not realistic.

To insure proper nutrition, the mainstay of any chicken's diet needs to be their feed, whether crumbles or pellets. Unless you've the time, knowledge and resources to blend foods in a nutritionally balanced diet. Most of us do not have the time or inclination, so we are very careful not spoil our chickens off their mainstay diet. No chicken is going to starve itself to death. Grudgingly, they cave and eat the pellets.

 

I have a certain dish I have always used for treats. Anything I give them in this dish they eat it. Suckers. LOL