I have EE's and they are 2 yrs old and over this winter have put on too much weight, I have never had over weight chickens before and this is going into my 5 th yr with chickens. They eat fermented feed free choice daily I take food up when they go to roost. It's a mix of Purina Flock raiser at 80% to whole oats and 7 way scratch at 10% each. How does everyone else feed their chickens [layers]? over this extremely frigid winter everyone including my waterfowl got a bowl of whole corn in the afternoon to help with heat over night, that is being cut back to every other day now since temps are moderating. I've been using FF since Oct of 2012. Just not sure how to go about getting my girls back in good laying weight. Oh and now that the weather is getting better they are back to foraging not sure what they are getting since we're still in winter but they are foraging. Thank you anyone who can give advise.
I'd start by just eliminating the corn midafternoon snack. With them back foraging, they are more active than they've been getting more exercise so things might just take care of themselves. You can also cut back on the FF to 50% of the diet. Keep the feeder full of dry layer pellets but only give them a set quantity of FF. They will probably naturally regulate how much pellets they consume.
