Not eating...

[Rorie]

We had 5 hens and a cock in a small run. They went through about 6kg food a week easily. Sometimes more.

Now we have 11 hens and a cock, but they are in their new big run.....they have hardly eaten 5kg food in the last month!

All the hens are well, so i was wondering why! I do see them eating, but obviously not very much. The weather is now drastically better (11 - 20 degrees C rather than 0-5 degrees C). The run is large, but nothing is growing in it (the grass is now long gone!), so its not like they are eating from else where. We do give them goodies such as seed, bread etc, but not much more than we did before.

Any ideas?

 

[ChickenMack]

Unless they are lethargic and losing weight, I wouldn't worry too much. With the warmer weather, they need less food to produce body heat so that could be one reason. But look for mites or lice just for good measure. Once they go to roost at night, go in when it's really dark with a flashlight and grab a hen and look at the area around her vent or just where the feathers start on her legs and you might see them if they are feeding off your flock. If no bugs on them, look at their poo, is it looking normal? If their poop has changed, they could have worms. Have you changed food or did the feed source change their formula and they don't like it now?

Lots of questions, but weight loss will be the biggest indicator to whether or not there's a health concern.