New chicken mom need feed suggestion

[grinn75]

I am currently giving my hens Layena but they don't seem to like it and aren't really eating very much at all. I was wondering if anyone had other suggestions for feed. I live in St. Peterburg Florida so am a little limited in my selection of feed stores.

 

[twistedwire]

Was this a new bag you recently opened? Is it suddenly much hotter than normal? There are a variety of reasons animals will quit eating-those are the first two that pop in my mind

 

[ChicKat]

ditto what twistedwire said,

chickens will eat less when they are hot.

On the other hand, I also had some resistance to Layena, and back then the temperatures were moderate, but I may have switched them faster than I should have. They say to mix old and new feed for 7-days when you switch feed types.

I would like to get the impression that my chooks are really enjoying their food. They seem to be really hungry early morning and late evening---and it makes me wonder how 'good' what I am feeding them is. I will be interested to see what other answers you get to your question!

 

[twistedwire]

They seem to be really hungry early morning and late evening

As production animals, their jobs are to EAT, EAT, and EAT some more, so by them being vigorously hungry, as long as they *look* healthy, I'd suspect that what they're eating is good

Any time an animal is leery of what is in front of it, something is off-be it the feed, the weather, the animal being sick, etc. I sure wish I could be the same way

As infrequently as I read on this board, it bothers me how often I see threads talking about Layena and how chickens don't eat it...unless it's in my imagination and I've really only read two topics and I'm going crazy

 

[centrarchid]

My free range birds seem to indicate Layena is too rich when weather is hot. Presently they are eating only about 1/4 as much as when temperatures lower. In my case insect and plant forages may be particularly important as well which spares need for pelleted feed.

 

[Arielle]

I would ask if your feed changed from crumble to pellet?

Mine prefer crumble and will hunt down the feed pans for the younger birds with crumble! THe layers have a pan full of layer pellets at all times and free range most days. Crumble is preferred over pellet at my house. HEnce, I keep the hens in their run for the morning and freerange til night. They will eat the pellets when they are hungry. (some people put out oyster shells; my girls ignore it so I do force them to eat the layer.)

 

[rcentner]

my chickens refused to eat the pellet and TSC took it back cause I only used 1 scoop of it. They have been eating less the last few days because of the oppressive heat. Layena is good food and I wouldn't feed anything else, after I switched from a store brand to the layena I notced a difference in the feathers and the eggs