Help!! Tired of feeding the squirrels.

[laa56277]

I am tired of feeding the squirrels. I let the chickens free-range during the day but leave the run door open all day so they can get to the fod and water. The squirrels help themselves to the food. I think I want to start keeping the run closed and just feed the chickens and the AM and PM instead of constantly having food out. My question is how much food should a chicken eat per day? And are they okay without food access during the day?

 

[SueT]

I saw wild bird food for sale with cayenne added to it to discourage squirrels. It should work with chicken feed. They don't have receptors for spicy.

 

[laa56277]

I saw wild bird food for sale with cayenne added to it to discourage squirrels. It should work with chicken feed. They don't have receptors for spicy.

 

[laa56277]

Would it make the eggs spicy?

 

[SueT]

Ha! Yeah, perfect for heuvos rancheros...
No, I actually fed my hens hot pepper flakes last winter to improve laying...did not change the taste...

 

[laa56277]

Ha! Yeah, perfect for heuvos rancheros...
No, I actually fed my hens hot pepper flakes last winter to improve laying...did not change the taste...

awesome thanks!

 

[GC-Raptor]

I am tired of feeding the squirrels. I let the chickens free-range during the day but leave the run door open all day so they can get to the fod and water. The squirrels help themselves to the food. I think I want to start keeping the run closed and just feed the chickens and the AM and PM instead of constantly having food out. My question is how much food should a chicken eat per day? And are they okay without food access during the day?

check this out. Grandpa's treadle feeder on this site. GC

 

[laa56277]

Thanks

 

[Pendragonz]

Ha! Yeah, perfect for heuvos rancheros...
No, I actually fed my hens hot pepper flakes last winter to improve laying...did not change the taste...

Did the hot pepper flakes stimulate them to lay more? I've heard you can feed them cayenne pepper to get red yolks. Please advise.

 

[SueT]

Did the hot pepper flakes stimulate them to lay more? I've heard you can feed them cayenne pepper to get red yolks. Please advise.

I didn't think it made mine lay more. I realized that the hens can use a break from laying almost daily, so I stopped the experiment after a couple of weeks. The weekly average seemed to stay the same. If you read the forums on the subject, they fed a lot more hot pepper than I did tho. I never heard of the red yolk thing. Other than eating grass makes the yolks nice bright orange.