Is this diet ok?

[Hyline]

I feed my hens Red Hen Layer mix http://www.lauckemills.com.au/poultry-layer4.html (added a link as it is an aussie product so most of you won't have seen it) and feed their eggs back to them daily (we don't eat eggs and they love them lol). I also feed some natural yoghurt for extra calcium and good bacteria, some fresh greens and occasionalyl scatter some lucerne chaff in the run for them.

As a treat they get mealworms and a bird toy filled with wheat and sunflower seeds - it's kind of like a chicken rubix cube lol. They have to work to get the goodies.

I also every few days feed a small dish of tucker time dog roll (poultry free) and they LOVE it - here is a link tot hat product too http://www.tuckertime.com.au/ingredients.asp

They have free access to a dish of high calcium shell grit also. I find they pick the goodies out the layer mix a bit and don't seem to like pellets, but the pellets contain the vit/min supplement in the mix, so I bought a small coffee grinder and grind their mix daily so they eat all of it. It's the consistency of mash but I feed it dry as they don't like wet food (fussy lol). If they don't clean up their layer food I don't give them treats til they do.

Does this sound like a good diet? They all have beautiful plumage and look very healthy. The vet has told me off for feeding 'extras' but I love spoiling them and I swear they are happier and healthier with their extras lol. This is one of my beautiful girls She has a small faded comb as she is off the lay.

 

[claudicles]

Hmm, that is a lot of eggs to be feeding them. I'm not sure that will be a problem but given the average chook eats 120gms per day and the eggs are what, 70gms? ( a big chunk is water of course). I think you would be better giving your eggs away if you don't want to eat them. Layer foods are carefully balanced to be the majority of what chooks eat so by adding so much egg they could be filling up on the eggs and mssing out on stuff. You'll get a lot of different figures quoted for the maximum amount of treats before chooks may not be getting enough but up to 20% is a generous figure. If you have trouble getting your girls to eat the micropellets in the Red Hen feed have you considered trying the Lauke Mills breeder micropellet. I haven't tried it but I've read peoeple who swear by it. If they don't have a choice of grains they might go for the pellets. I feed mine Red Hen green or blue bag, whichever i can find most easily, and they polish off the pellets as well as the rest. The aren't keen on the cracked corn but that is the only thing left. Mine get free choice shell grit, more greens than they can eat and the odd other thing - with eggs once a week or so.

 

[Hyline]

Oh I should have said - only three are laying, and I give one egg to one of my horses so they get two eggs between four chooks. They only eat the yolks - the whites aren't yummy enough apparently! I will look into the breeder pellets, thanks for that info - I will ask my stockfeeder to order some in for me to try. They have eaten most of their ground up stuff - and mine aren't keen on the lupins and corn either. But there's not that much in there so I suppose it isn't a big deal.