My Chickens Are Pigs!

[enola]

Too much calcium is hard on their kidneys, I believe. I hang the milk jug on the wall with the hole at breast level.

That particular feeder is one of the easiest feeders made for chickens to waste feed out of.......

Hang it high enough so your girls need to stand on their tippy toes yo eat. This will prevent them from billing the feed onto the ground.

 

[Cknldy]

I've read that for every 10 laying hens only give 1/2 pound of feed. When I weighed that out I couldn't believe how little it was! It's like a handful. Granted the info was on several different states extension service sites and probably leaning towards commercial poultry but sheesh. I weighed what I had been giving and it was like 2 1/2 pounds- what my 6 large fowl currently laying eat during daylight hours only. I did cut that back to about half so the girls won't get too fat but they also get scratch during cold weather, free choice grit and oyster shell in separate containers. I wet their feed too (you'd probably be giving a lot more if you were doing all dry feed) except on the coldest days when the food would freeze before they could eat it. Hanging feeders at the chickens' shoulder level definitely helps reduce waste too. Edited to add- I've also got 39 others varying in age from 8 weeks to 16 weeks and go through a bit over 50#s of grower feed per week. They would probably eat more than that if I just put the whole feed bin in their coops and let them go at it

 

[alaskanchickens]

That's not very much at all! My mother-in-law, who swears by FF and has for over 30 years, fed her girls two decent sized dishes of it a day. She never offered dry feed but did give scratch a couple times a day and kitchen scraps in the evening. For the young birds she said to feed 3 times a day and drop to 2 when they matured and started receiving layer. She had beautiful, healthy, happy chickens that came out of molt sooner and started laying again sooner but unfortunately lost them in a fire we will be hatching in a couple months to help her start again. I have heard from a lot of people and also read a lot online, that dry free choice is the only way to go. I don't personally agree. I also don't agree with limiting their feeding to twice a day, maybe in the summer when they can free range. But I'm still learning! I'm sure I could take it away but Alaska is just so cold! I don't want them going hungry or being cold and I definitely don't want to have pecking (again) out of boredom or hunger and have it lead to cannibalism which I've heard happens more during winter. We have a red light in our roost to try to help prevent that.

 

[donrae]

I've heard a laying hen eats between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of feed a day. using the 1/3c, you'll be feeding 4.2 cups a day, meaning a 50lb bag will last you right at 12 days. You're either feeding something besides chickens, or they're simply wasting a ton.

 

[Mikee1948]

Quote: Say what? 14 birds and 15 eggs??

 

[alaskanchickens]

15 eggs out of 13! Wish the roos layed too lol

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Alaskachicken you said you use FF twice a day and dry feed once a day. As you know FF swells up and goes farther but any savings there is negated by the dry feed at noon. Try using FF all 3 feedings.
I have 16 roosters in a pen that eat only half of what your chickens do, but I think if I dumped the whole 50# bag out I think they'd gobble it down in about 10 minutes
Since you're using fermented 20%, your protein level is high enough that you could probably use scratch for the noon feeding without harm.
Don't pay any attention to what I say though because I know nothing about feeding chickens in -20* weather.

 

[alaskanchickens]

The dry feed is available 24/7. The FF is gone within a couple hrs so they're getting to pick at it for a while. When it's gone, they pick at the dry feed for the day then get FF at dinner time, after it's gone they peck at the dry again until they roost. Today I have taken the dry out completely and am going to feed 3, smaller, dishes of FF. If it's gone every time within an hour I'll know to up it tomorrow. I think the only way I'm really going to be able to tell the right amount to feed is to eliminate the dry feed completely.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

If my pan of FF lasts longer than 2 minutes I think I'm feeding them too much! But they fill their crops and relax till noon when they top off with corn, then relax till evening with they top off with another 2 minutes of FF frenzy.
Since you're FF such high protein layer, to stretch it you could FF layer/scratch mix, and still keep the protein level healthy while increasing volume in their crops.
It takes a while to find the right combination while minding the protein & calcuim levels and not wasting your hard earned $$.

 

[alaskanchickens]

I do use scratch in there FF, could probably use a little more and cut back some on the layer. I also use a little rolled oats and barley and when I can get them (living in a town of 400, we don't have a local feed store) I give them BOSS in it also. Because they are able to process the proteins so much better with the feed being fermented and the other items I add, I am going to drop it to a 16% layer. I have a 25# bag off BOSS coming and with its high protein content (I won't be using a lot of it and will cut it out in summer completely) and my CP calculations, that should more than suffice in that department. Has anyone provided brewers yeast and kelp powder in their homemade feed?