New adult chickens with clipped beaks, not eating

[amama]

We recently (here 2 days now) took 30 laying hens from a factory that culls them at 2yrs old. They are regular size hens, a red crossbreed. Most of them have clipped beaks, and they aren't eating the feed yet. I've never had chickens with clipped beaks, and I'm concerned my setup (which is great for us) is not going to work for them, but maybe I need to give them more time?

Most seem healthy, some seem a bit underweight and many of them are molting. I checked for mites and see none, and see no active lice, but some irritated feather shafts. I dusted them with poultry dust.

They are using the nipple waterer just fine and we've gotten about 16 eggs each day. They are enjoying foraging in the grass in the run, but completely ignore the layer pellets that are in the feeders, and the ones we scatter where they are foraging. If I put them in a bowl they ignore them.

They pick up pine shavings and grass just fine, and sometimes pick up a pellet, but then drop it back down. They also seem to eat the oyster shell ok out of a 2L bottle. Our feeders are PVC feeders (see attached pictures for similar to ours). Our feed store does have crumbles instead of pellets but they cost twice as much.

Are they physically unable to eat our feed, or do they just need more time to get used to the new setup?

Thanks!

 

[nuthatched]

This is all very new to them, they've been kept in drastically different housing, now they have to adapt.

 

[townchicks]

They may not be used to pellets, you can make a crumble by smashing the pellets until they get used to them. You can also soak them to make a mash, see if they do better with that. Once you find something that they will eat, observe their technique, can they peck it, or do they have to scoop it up? That will inform you better about the type of feeder that will work for them. If they have to scoop, they may need a deeper container. Good for you for giving them a chance to have a decent life.

 

[amama]

I will watch some more, but it seems like some peck and some scoop. I just gave them a mash with oatmeal/yogurt, and some scrap bell peppers. They peck and pick the peppers up, and seem to know it's food but can't quite get anywhere with them after pecking at them for a while. They just leave them. Some are enjoying the oatmeal mash. I'll see about smashing the pellets.