Layers pellets

[fluffchucker]

Hi all,

My wife and I are new to chicken rearing and this website. We hope to acquire a brace of chickens and ducks within the next few weeks. The pen we have is well built and predator proof.

However we have noticed that the holes of the wire are large enough to let small birds through such as robin's, sparrows etc. We have no concerns over such birds picking up a little corn that we throw down for the chickens and ducks. What I'd like to know is, if we put a feeder down with layers pellets in, are the aforementioned robins etc likely to eat the layers pellets and consequently mess up their own body functions and begin to lay eggs like a bantam? Giving us a little bit of an ecology complex.

If so shall I just throw some netting over the pen or do I really not need to worry?

Kind regards

Tom and Ali

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

You need to keep the wild birds out of the chicken feed and water. Wild birds do eat chicken feed. Robins won't eat it, but the smaller finches and other small birds will. Wild birds carry all kinds of diseases your chickens are not immune to even if the wild birds are. And they will transmit this disease through the chickens water and feed. I had this trouble years ago with wild birds getting through poultry netting and into their food and water. My entire flock turned up with all kinds of bacterial and viral infections, the worst being MS. Mycoplasma Synoviea. Generally flocks are put down when they contract MS. I chose to heal them, which I did. But not at the expense of some very sick birds for nearly one year, some nearly died, huge amounts of money on antibiotics and surgeries I needed to do to heal these birds. So trust me, it is not worth it letting these wild birds into your feed.

So glad you could join our community and welcome to our flock!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi Tom and Ali

Glad you could join the flock! Excellent advice there for you from TwoCrows on wild birds and the disease they can carry. I have my runs netted so they can't get into the feed and water. We recently had a bird flu outbreak in my county of the UK and although they kept it under control the wild birds could have easily spread the disease around. This really made me think twice about how I kept my flock.

Wishing you the very best of luck with your new chicken and duck adventure I'm sure they will bring you lots of joy. Do you have breeds in mind? Be sure to ask any questions you may have, everyone here to help and very friendly.

Enjoy BYC and all the chicken chat, duck chat too here is the link for the duck section https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks

 

[NickyKnack]

Hello Tom and Ali!

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family.

 

[nj2wv]

Welcome to BYC !!

 

[drumstick diva]

If you use 1/2" hardware cloth for your run, and net or a rigid run cover , you won't have wild birds eating your feed and possibly bringing diseases to your flock. The hardware cloth will also repel several types of predators.

 

[fluffchucker]

Thank you everyone for your answers much appreciated

 

[redsoxs]

Good luck to you and your flock!

 

[Flock Master64]

Good luck