New chicken owner

[BantamLover21]

I'm glad you joined our "flock!"

If your chickens are wasting feed by picking out the "good stuff," the best option is to get pelleted feed. They may still scratch a little pelleted feed out, but they will no longer pick through it and make quite so large of a mess.

 

[Gillian S]

Thanks BantumLover21,
I'll definately get a pelleted feed, I just have 20kg of grains for 3 chickens to get through! I think I might get the pellets and rotate the feed until I run out of grains.
I sweep up the grains and wash the ants off them daily (I only do it once per batch of feed), so I can try reduce the wastage as much as I can without compromising the nutrition. There seems to be a coating on the grains that washes off though. It almost smells/looks like molasses...?
The chickens also freerange a couple hours each day in my backyard, while I am out there with my daughter - she loves them

.
If you have any more advise for a beginner, I'd appreciate it!

 

[ChickyChickens]

Hi Everyone,
I have recently obtained 3 chickens. The classic brown hens...
I live in South Australia.
I am a veterinary nurse, so I've assisted in more medical and surgical procedures on chickens (mostly cats and dogs though) - rather than knowing how to keep them day to day.
I'd be interested to know if anyone on this site is from Australia too and to learn how chickens think...
I am curious to know if there is a way to keep them from picking the good stuff out of their feed and scattering the rest all over the place. I'm considering a pellet instead of a grain mix.
Thanks in advance, hope to get to know some of you well

I hope you have a greta time!! There is LOADS of info on here and @NorthFLChick has given you the link where you can find the chat thread for the the members on here that are in Australia!!! Hope you enjoy!!

 

[Gillian S]

Thanks ChickyChickens
I did check out the link for the Aussie members. A lot of them seem to be in states other than South Australia (not a bad thing!) just a shame that I haven't seen anybody from South Australia so far!
I'll keep checking out the site though - it's so detailed that I can only explore little bits at a time. It's the first forum I've joined, so I'm still working out the most efficient way of finding what I need and getting to know the other members.