Not a fan of new food

[miles2go480]

That's actually where I get it. Might be a regional thing, you can put in a request with the manager to carry specific items at any major retail chain. They also do shipping to home or store.

Found it in mine. Had overlooked as I had been trying to feed organic... just want them healthy

 

[My Three Chicks]

How do you ferment feed?

Here are the instructions I follow (I feed my girls Grubbly layer pellets) but you can find slight variations online. Basically you're soaking their food!

Also attaching a link to the benefits:

https://grubblyfarms.com/blogs/the-flyer/benefits-of-fermenting-chicken-feed

 

[MadamContrary]

Found it in mine. Had overlooked as I had been trying to feed organic... just want them healthy

I rotate organic and non GMO. Unfortunately it's just necessary due to availability in my area. Chick starter I always do full organic feed, I also sprout and grow fodder from organic whole grain scratch year round, as well as grow meal worms and soldier fly larvae. I think all the extras and forage make it extra important to offer a higher protein nutritionally complete feed free choice, so they get everything they need. Plus they have free access to the compost pile, that's thier main job. I'm an organic gardener fist and foremost, however chickens are definitely some of my favorite subcontractors

 

[miles2go480]

Here are the instructions I follow (I feed my girls Grubbly layer pellets) but you can find slight variations online. Basically you're soaking their food!

Also attaching a link to the benefits:

https://grubblyfarms.com/blogs/the-flyer/benefits-of-fermenting-chicken-feed

I will try the fermented feeding. Thanks for the information. Gonna feed mash this morning.

 

[3KillerBs]

I personally expect my chickens to eat anything I put into their feeder and I don't particularly care if they "like" it or not.

How much they eat may or may not have to do with "liking" the feed.

Over Christmas I had to buy an emergency bag of the cheap layer feed from Walmart because we couldn't get to the farm store before it closed for their usual all-flock. I noticed that they went through that 50lb bag faster than usual -- my guess is that the lower nutritional quality resulted in them eating more.

IMO, if you are satisfied with the nutritional profile and the feed is not moldy, bug-infested, stale (check mill date on bag), etc. there is no reason to fuss with it to try to get the chickens to eat it.

No healthy animal will starve itself in the presence of food. Put the feed into the feeder, walk away, and let them eat what they eat.

 

[miles2go480]

I personally expect my chickens to eat anything I put into their feeder and I don't particularly care if they "like" it or not.

How much they eat may or may not have to do with "liking" the feed.

Over Christmas I had to buy an emergency bag of the cheap layer feed from Walmart because we couldn't get to the farm store before it closed for their usual all-flock. I noticed that they went through that 50lb bag faster than usual -- my guess is that the lower nutritional quality resulted in them eating more.

IMO, if you are satisfied with the nutritional profile and the feed is not moldy, bug-infested, stale (check mill date on bag), etc. there is no reason to fuss with it to try to get the chickens to eat it.

No healthy animal will starve itself in the presence of food. Put the feed into the feeder, walk away, and let them eat what they eat.

It rained all day yesterday so they didn't free range and emptied the feeder! I still made them mash this morning and they are still working on the trays! Hope to see new feathers soon.

 

[saysfaa]

I have 21 hens and 2 roosters that are 8 months old. ...I give 2 trays of a mix of scratch grains and dry fly grubs (about 2 soup cans of each) every morning while I clean the coop and run. Could the food be the issue? I have 60 pounds of this food left.

Even a small soup can (10-11oz; Campbells condensed) holds a cup. Double sized or ready-to-eat are usually bigger. 4 or more cups of scratch/grubs may be at least part of the issue.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It rained all day yesterday so they didn't free range and emptied the feeder! I still made them mash this morning and they are still working on the trays! Hope to see new feathers soon.

Free ranging - depending on what's in the pasture - can have a marked effect on how much they eat. My own birds, seasonally dependent, eat between 15% and 35% less than expected as a result of free ranging my acres of weeds. In spite of, one of the hens I butchered yesterday had a little more fat than I like to see, so it appears I transitioned to winter-ration quantities sooner than I needed to. From crop contents, they've been finding a high tannin seed somewhere which I've yet to identify, roughly the size of a small-medium pinenut. Not knowing what it is, I don't know how much of it they have to eat, but nuts being high fat, and their crop having more than a few, I suspect its part of the cause.

If you are feeding a lot of driid flies and/or scratch, that would contribute to the birds eating less of the complete feed, whatever feed you offer. If you give a teenager doritos and hamburgers, they are going to eat doritos and hamburgers most of the time, rather than sitting down to the lean chicken, brown rice, snow peas, carrots, and peppers you've offered as a main course.

 

[miles2go480]

Even a small soup can (10-11oz; Campbells condensed) holds a cup. Double sized or ready-to-eat are usually bigger. 4 or more cups of scratch/grubs may be at least part of the issue.

Small. I am cutting back

 

[Cindy in PA]

I never mix feed they eat what they get. I would think the cans of scratch are filling them up before they eat the feed. The missing feathers could be over mating. I know they always say 1 rooster to ten hens, but that always gave me bare backed hens. YMMV