help my chicken transition to whole grains

[TLove99]

I switched my hens to whole grains this weekend and they are having trouble with some of the larger pieces. They are three months old. They pick out the BOSS, whole corn and alfalfa pellets. I tried busting up the corn and alfalfa but it didn't help too much. With the feeder I made it's hard to beak out the food so it was pretty funny to watch them actually pick up each piece and place it on the ground one by one. Some of them tried to eat the BOSS but gave up after a while. It doesn't look too big, I think they could eat it if they really wanted to. I have some BOSS sprouting that should be ready in a couple of days, that may encourage them to eat that. Is there anything I can do to encourage them to not be so picky? They do get to free range a few hours most days too, so they get lots of grass, they aren't real crazy about bugs. I have pointed out bugs to them and sometimes they look at me like, "are you crazy? you want me to eat what?" It's like they will eat ants but spiders cross some kind of grossness line. I'm hoping it's just because they are still young...hopefully....maybe they will branch out. Today I put some of the corn in a pillow case and tried smacking it with a hammer. I got mixed results. some if it was dust while the rest of it was still whole.

Oh, BTW my mix is whole oats, whole wheat, barley, alfalfa pellets, millet, BOSS, whole corn, and kelp powder will be added when it arrives from amazon. That's a 16% protein mix. I don't know if kelp powder has much protein in it but that hasn't been factored in yet.

 

[cavemanrich]

Chickens are picky eaters by nature. Maybe they are just like all other living things. The tastiest food gets eaten first. If you have children, do this test. On one plate put a twinkie, and on the other plate put some broccolli.... Well... You get the idea. My chickens first eat the choice cuts... when they are still hungry, then the less choice gets picked thru. Eventually, all is gone.. Corn is the last to go. Mine is cracked corn. My pigeons act exactly the same way. Pick the choice seed first.
Hope this helps put your mind at ease

 

[TLove99]

So what you are saying is they are taking after my daughter. If I put a twinkie and a piece of broccoli in front of her she would eat the broccoli and thumb her nose at the twinkie. We don't call her picky at our house, we call her weird.

 

[cavemanrich]

So what you are saying is they are taking after my daughter. If I put a twinkie and a piece of broccoli in front of her she would eat the broccoli and thumb her nose at the twinkie. We don't call her picky at our house, we call her weird.

YOU HAVE A ONE OF A KIND..... AND YOU ARE SMOOOOOTH.

 

[pdirt]

Both the BOSS and alfalfa pellets are hard to digest for chickens because of the high fiber. Soaking them rather than mixing into a dry feed should help. Ours hate (won't eat) unsoaked alfalfa pellets. Also, you don't want more than 5% alfalfa pellets, IIRC, again for the high fiber deal, it can make them sick if too much.

Once you use up your kelp powder, you might consider Fertrell Nutribalancer instead. It is kelp based, but has additional probiotics, vitamins and minerals (including methionine) that can fill in the nutritional gaps of a home-made diet, unless you really know what you're doing nutritionally-wise. A 10-lbs bag (I think $25) will supplement 333 pounds of whole grains/legumes.

 

[TLove99]

Thanks for the info on the nutribalancer. I'll look into that. I read about soaking the alfalfa pellets today so I gave it a try. They nibbled on it and did a lot of this:

They didn't go nuts, but they ate it. I'm calling it a success as far as this group goes. The alfalfa pellets and BOSS in the mix are only a one part each of the total mix but seeing as how they will only eat it when served on a silver platter (literally) I don't think they will over indulge.