New to chickens

[slfisher]

I have 6 young hens (about 10 months old). I have never had chickens before. They are NOT free range because I am afraid the neighbor's dogs will come over the fence during the day after them. That and I live in the desert where there is little for them to eat free ranging. So...how much should I feed? Pellets and scratch?

 

[Judy]

They don't need scratch. There are a wide variety of feeds sold as scratch. Some are fairly nutritious and make a good treat, and some are all or mostly corn, which they love but which doesn't provide a lot of nutrition by itself, kind of like chicken ice cream. All they need is their pellets or crumble -- grower, flock raiser or layer -- and fresh water. You can give them vegetable scraps and many leftovers as treats if you wish. I buy layer pellets and BOSS, or black oil sunflower seed. The love BOSS and it's a lot more nutritious than corn, but then outr scratch is mostly cracked corn. I still don't give a lot of BOSS, a handful or two in a day at most for 9 hens.

I have no idea how much to feed, sorry, because I feed free choice.

 

[Den in Penn]

Welcome to BYC.
For planning your trips to the feed store yours will eat between 1.5 and 2 pounds a day. Between 25 and 33 days for 50 a pound bag. If you are feeding them extras then it will take longer to go through a bag.

 

[BrendaJ]

Hello from Oregon & welcome to BYC. Mine free feed as well plus they do free range so they get all the grass & bugs they can handle. I only feed scratch a few times a week but with the amount of roaming they do im sure thy are not missing much. Some chickens like pellets & some like crumbles - see what your prefer. Enjoy your flock

 

[yreka]

I am new and want to ask a question. where do I do that?

 

[Den in Penn]

Hi yreka: At the top and bottom of each thread is a box that says "Start a New Thread" click on that.

 

[slfisher]

It didn't take long to decide to let my hens free range as well. I talked with the neighbors with the dogs and we made some changes to the fence line and so far so good. My dog doesn't bother the hens either...he is just curious about them.

Even though they free range and do find a fair amount of bugs (we have cockroaches in So NV....candy to the girls!) we don't have much vegetation yet. My hens are spoiled rotten and don't eat their pellets, crumbles or mash. I have tried different kinds and they just turn up their beaks at it. To get protein in them, I give them meat at times (they love turkey) and black oil seeds. I give them spinach, kale, mustard greens and other groceries and sometimes scramble eggs for them. Seriously, I spend more on their groceries than my own. I add oyster shell and flax seed to their mash and sometimes add some milk. They love milk in their food and that's about the only time they eat it.

But, they seem healthy and with 6 hens I get 6 eggs every day. The only time production was off was when we had 113 degree weather and even then, they gave 4-5 a day. I have misters on timers in their yard so they were fairly comfortable even with the heat.