HEN FOOD! please?

[silkiechicken]

Yes, it would be mostly grain. If that is all you want to feed that is fine. Only difference is the trace stuff.

 

[Mareloo]

dlsunicorn suggested in the emergency threads that my chickens might have a "shortage". First i was shocked, considering that I give them way more food than what they can eat. Then I started reading threads in this section and the light switched on.

Devora.. Indeed you do see signs. MissPrissy and Silkiechicken are right. Most notability that they get sick easily and they also die without any outward sign of anything being wrong.. Mine especially when they are still young (between 4 and 16 weeks)

MissP each chicken get about 15 hours a week free range. That is obviously not enough for growing body's.

The only thing I am still confused about is.. Is there a diffrence between starter feed and grower feed? I have never seen grower feed, but if it exist, I think it will be around. If there are, on what age do you switch the chicks over?

 

[silkiechicken]

If you can get grower, ( I can't here), you switch at about 6-8 weeks. The main component to starter and grower is the fact amprolium is added as a cocciodistant to build up their immunity. It is not an antibiotic. Some use sulmet too. I haven't taken pics yet...

Edit:

So since I am home now and this computer sucks... I have pics but they won't get posted from here in a happy format... Here's the tinypic.com pic of the feed... in it's full res 56k might as well take a nap glory.

http://i10.tinypic.com/82ab6n7.jpg
From top left clockwise: 20% layer supplement pellets, Grower crumble, 16% standard pellets, scratch.


The feed looks like the pics that were posted, except my scratch is about 80% cracked corn and 20% barley/wheat... and that's bout it. It is only 8% protein and ingredients say grain products and soybean oil. Under directions it says do not feed free choice and it is not a complete feed.

Marloo, I say your scratch has the added benefit that it even contains things like millet and sunflower seeds! Yet, it should be kept to about 10% of their diet.

 

[MissPrissy]

Mareloo, the more your chickens free range, eating bugs and grass and other things the less commercial feed they will eat. They seem to have an internal mechanism that tells them what they need to eat such as extra calcium or more protein.

There isn't too much difference in starter and grower. I think most places offer a starter/grower mix that is good for them up to the point of lay. There is also broiler feed (which I cannot get) that is less expensive and given to meat birds who will have a short life span. There is also feed just for roosters as they don't need the same calcium as hens. It is a wide and varied feild out there when it comes to feed.

My chickens have free choice commerical feeds available all the time. I have feeders with scratch grains available too. The current scratch has wheat, oat, millet, flax, sunflower seeds, barley and corn. I don't consider it so much of a treat but just extra. They don't eat an over whelming amount of it. In fact one of my orpingtons lays her eggs in that feeder box every day. Go figure LOL with the cold weather setting in (27 F yesterday morning) I do give them cracked corn every evening to ramp up their body temp. When I toss the corn onto the floor they go nuts. They also get an occassional big scoop of black oil sunflower seeds.

I don't worry too much about their nutrition. The commercial feeds is not what they eat as their main diet even though it is available all the time. They get most of my kitchen scraps (raw vegetable peels, meat scraps, whole grain breads, yogurt, rice, boiled eggs, etc). Yesterday I had 4 loaves of whole grain bread and the leftovers from where I had made chicken and dumplings - lots of scraps and bones I boiled down to a rich broth and poured over the bread, a pile of egg shells I had been saving from the kitchen, celery, carrot, and collard peels and stems, deer meat scraps (I had cooked down the scrap meat from where a friend had given us a deer and as I prepared the meat for the freezer the junk/nasty stuff I cut away I cooked up for them). They go nuts for the meat scraps. They also eat whatever they can forage when they are let out of the hen house.

I did an experiment over several days and weeks to see what they eat. With just commercial feed and staying indoors (when cold and raining) I have to fill both of the 12 pound feeders daily. When they free range I fill them every third day. When they forage and I make them a big kitchen scrap dinner they don't touch the feed. This works for me. I cook daily and I have a wide and varied selection of things to feed them.

I know there are some people who advise not to feed the chickens human food. I find this ridiculous. My chickens are working farm animals. They have a purpose here and not just pets. I don't have 3 or 4 fru fru birds that I pamper. I have 47 pullets, 3 roosters and 27 meat chickens, 2 turkey hens and 6 guineas that eat alot of feed. Feed gets to be very expensive when that is all they are eating. It would be extremely wasteful of me to throw out scraps and kitchen leftovers to the garbage pile when it is good, fresh, nutritional food that an animal can eat - just like slopping a hog. The pullets are being raised to provide eggs, the roosters well I might want fertilized eggs (but Elvis and his 3 girls are my husbands - that's his call), the meats birds have a short life here their purpose is for my freezer, the turkeys are for Thanksgiving and the guineas we are testing the waters and soon they will be culled for the freezer as well (pretty sure I have 5 males and 1 hen - just my luck).

This is a really good conversation. I would love to read more of your thoughts as well as what feeds are avialable where you are, Mareloo.

P.S. Mareloo, this is completely off topic and forgive me if I am being rude but - are you a man or a woman? I can't tell by your name and I'd like to know who I am talking too. LOL

When I read often I put a voice with what I am reading with yours I cannot. LOL

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Soy is not a grain, it is a bean and a protein source. The problem with scratch is not just that it is lacking in vital vitamins and minerals, but also that it is lacking in protein. Although there is protein in grains, it is not a complete protein. Over time, you will see muscle wasting. The internal organs will also be effected.

There are a lot of different ways to add quality protein to a bird's diet, but they do need adequate protein.

 

[lacyloo]

i feed my hens layer feed

 

[Chickee's Mom]

Miss Prissy, everything that you said,

Marloo it is so amazing to talk to someone in South Africa, my son has been over twice and always says Mom you have to go, the birds are amazing, ( wild birds ), I am a birder!!
You have given us such insight to a part of the world most of us won't ever get to visit. Love your comments, keep them coming.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, there are many ways to feed chickens and may different "procedures" to go by. Do what works for you and if it's not working, change it.

I too feed lots of human food left overs and old bakery breads that are past date. I just watch for mold. I dump their treats on the ground in the garden areas which include dreaded poisonous uncooked potato peels but they just ignore them and I till them in in the spring.

But since your birds only free range 15 hours a week, or three hours a day, they'll need to get a good diet in the coop as they can't really make up for it in just three hours. Mine are out up to 14 hours a day in the summer and their density is pretty low for the area they roam.