new chicken fan

I wonder if they sold you the scratch to put weight on are they full grown? if so, layer pellet is what most of us feed ours. Plus you can fing a treats list somewhere on here too. Maybe someone will post the link here for you I dont know how There are vitamin/electrolytes you can mix into the water as well as antibiotics if/when needed. How did you get these chickens? Sounds like a rescue thing?
Good luck....sounds like they got lucky finding you.

 

hi there. for feeding you may want to move your post to the "Feeding Time" category, it will get more attention.

as far as what to feed them, scratch is a treat, not an end-all-be-all type of feed. the type of food depends on their age and purpose. if they are egg layers and are currently laying eggs, a layer mash or crumbles such as Layena is good. if they are egg layers but not yet laying (i.e. if they're young) feed them a chick starter.... you can get medicated or non-medicated, there are opinions on both. and if they are meat chickens, they get a different sort of feed that i believe is higher in protein.

as far as recommendations, one of the feed manufacturers had a chart online.... try googling Purina Mills or Honor feed. i'm not sure which had the chart. or, go to TSC or your feed store, on the back of the bags it usually says.

if you need help to figure out breed, you can take a photo and post it up here and the folks might have some ideas.

good luck with them, glad someone is taking such good care of those girls.

 

If they are real skinny I would go buy a starter grower feed to put some weight back on them. It has higher protein then a layer feed. If they are laying then offer some oyster shell too for their calcium needs. You should be able to get those at your feed store or tractor supply if you have one around you.

If they are not allowed much time outside I would also get them a bag of grit, they need it to help digest their food if they don't have access to small rocks and pebbles outside.

Good luck and good for you for helping those poor chickens. Keep reading this site, there is a lot of knowledgeable chicken folks here.

 

Hi fallenweeble Welcome to BYC. This is in my opinion, the friendliest place to get great information on raiseing chickens....care..feed...and yes, hatching! Now that you have been taken over by a few hens...the addiction starts!
As for your hens...do you know what breeds they are? Do you know thier age!? Can you post pictures of them? If you have pictures, go to www.photobucket.com. Set up a FREE account, and uload your pics in there. Then you can post them in here!
If they are layers...at least 6 months old, you will want to give them oyster shell..for proper egg production. Being that they are underweight..I would give them either chick starter(medicated) or game bird feed.( high protien) To get some weight back on them. Then, you can switch to layer feed. Some like crumbles...but I personally like layer pellets, less waste.
You are an angel for takeing care of those poor hens. Congrats!
Looking forward to seeing many post from you, and lots of pics!!

 

Hi fallenweeble and welcome. Bless you for taking care of some babies that couldn't care for themselves. I hope you enjoy them. I truly believe rescued animals of all types understand that they were rescued and will pay you back tenfold in love.
As for being a newbie around here, you might want to stand over here in the corner with the rest of the newbies...these old-timers are...what's a polite way of putting this ummm...obsessed? And whatever you do, don't go near the incubating category! Those people are really out there!

 

Hi & Welcome to the madness!

to you for helping those poor birds!

Click here--->Chicken Treats Chart

Dawn

 

You might want to meet Purple Chicken...he has a thing about chicken necks too!! I suppose that's kind of an inside joke, but if you hang around here long enough you'll meet PC......

 

Your screen name is wrong! Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down, LOL! I so remember those commercials. Welcome.