I have read many posts regarding supplementing chickens with all sorts of food. My chickens have Layena pellets availble at all times as well as fresh water and oyster shells. I as well will give them a bowl of scratch every day. As I have leftovers I give it to them but this only happens a couple of times a week. After reading sooo many posts I feel like they require more. They are happy and healthy............except they do pick at two chickens BAD and my 2 roosters crow ALL day long. I have read a lot about inadequate protein. I am a little overwhelmed as to how much the chickens have cost me so I am looking at a cheaper supplement. What about cat food? Do I even need anything?
It sounds as if you are feeding them correctly. Do they get a chance to forage at all? Is it possible they are picking because there is not enough space?
What you are feeding them should be adequate. I'd throw the scratch all over the ground rather than in a bowl, so they have something to keep them busy all day pecking and scratching and hunting. Cat food is ok in small amounts, but not too much because it is too salty for them to process all the time, plus here at least, it is no cheaper than buying chicken food. Unfortunately feed prices have gone sky-high in most of the country, so it's not cheap anymore to raise your own food sources. Grass or weeds from your yard/garden also make great chicken treats, I throw my weeds and garden scraps into a bucket and feed it to them every evening while it's fresh and damp from the watering system, and they love it. They could be picking at the two because they are bored or do not have enough room. Or it could be that the roosters have chosen two favorite hens and are pulling feathers from those two from mating them so much. (unless you've seen the hens specifically picking those birds) They will pick on the lowest birds in the pecking order...that's why it is called a pecking order. As for the crowing...my roosters crow for about half an hour at dawn, another hour or so in the evening, and periodically throughout the day. I have had roosters that were nonstop, all day and even at night...those tasted great with orange sauce! I have chosen my current roosters for personality because we don't like tons of crowing all the time. I think you just got a couple of loud mouths if they are crowing excessively. Or they are competing with each other...I have had them do that, two roosters fighting for dominance and they get stressed out and crow at each other all the time even when they are in separate pens. Getting rid of one might calm the other down. Or it might not.
