Oatmeal for chickens during winter?

[annampet]

I live in MI On really cold mornings or just before roosting time, I'll do warm water + chicken feed + a little corn-based scratch. Ladies love it!

 

[Annalyse]

I live in MI On really cold mornings or just before roosting time, I'll do warm water + chicken feed + a little corn-based scratch. Ladies love it!

Would it be okay to throw mealworms in instead if scratch bc my flock loves the yellow mealworms or whatever there called lol

 

[annampet]

Would it be okay to throw mealworms in instead if scratch bc my flock loves the yellow mealworms or whatever there called lol

I would assume so I use the corn-based scratch b/c the corn will release heat as they digest it. We get -30 below wind chill on some days so the corn helps them stay warm.

 

[NatJ]

I use the corn-based scratch b/c the corn will release heat as they digest it. We get -30 below wind chill on some days so the corn helps them stay warm.

Anything with calories will release heat as they digest it.
Chicken food usually has a lot of corn in it too.

(What you're doing is fine, but the scratch may not be helping in the way you think it does.)

 

[britinpa]

I would use chicken food + water.

The chickens really like it.
It's properly balanced nutritionally, so you don't have to worry about limiting the amount.
Also very quick to prepare--chicken food soaks up water fast, with no cooking required.
It's often cheaper, too. (Cheaper + healthier is a great combination.)

I did this for the first time for my pullets the last couple of days and they finished it up pretty quickly. Someone on here said that they used half a cup of crumble/pellets per 4 chickens, and then add enough water to make it to the consistency you want. Another tip I got off of You Tube: if you use the crumbles, you end up with a fine powder at the bottom that the chickens don't tend to eat - save that and use it to mix with the warm water, that way you don't waste any of the feed - I used up some this way yesterday, and they gobbled it up.

 

[annampet]

Anything with calories will release heat as they digest it.
Chicken food usually has a lot of corn in it too.

(What you're doing is fine, but the scratch may not be helping in the way you think it does.)

Yes, understood The scratch is a very small part of the mix.

 

[kerbotx]

Yeah, although those are the expensive kind. XD
Remember to keep treats around 10% of their total diet.

Just working out some chicken math here...
If a chicken eats 1/4 pound* of feed per day, that works out to about 1 cup of feed
1 cup = 16 tablespoons
so 10% of total = 1.6 tablespoons per chicken per day of all non-feed foods

Right?
*pound YMMV by feed contents

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Just working out some chicken math here...
If a chicken eats 1/4 of feed per day, that works out to about 1 cup of feed
1 cup = 16 tablespoons
so 10% of total = 1.6 tablespoons per chicken per day of all non-feed foods

Right?

Right. But how you use treats changes that. So if your treats balance out over time you can give more, or if you feed a higher nutrient base diet (like a 20%) you can feed more as long as you're not feeding straight single-source carbs (like corn only).

Would it be okay to throw mealworms in instead if scratch bc my flock loves the yellow mealworms or whatever there called lol

Mealworms make a great treat! They're high in proteins especially.
https://agrifeedpetsupply.com/products/exotic-nutrition-dried-mealworms

You can see here that they have 50%(!) protein, 25% fat. So they're fatty too.
Oats can have about 8-10% protein and 3-4% fat.

If, by dry weight, you fed 4 equal sized oat snacks and 1 meal worm snack in a week it would look like 18% protein 7.5% fat. Still too fatty, but much closer to chicken feed than any one source on their own. Feeding a variety of carefully selected treats makes it much less risky to feed treats in general and you can give them more often that way.

Not all snacks are bad. You just have to make sure you're getting a good balance.

 

[Annalyse]

Update: the chickens had there first bowl of oatmeal just now and they LOVED it

 

[centrarchid]

Soaked oats will be more economical.