Scratch Grains. Is there such thing as too much?

[Kernel Cluck]

My hens love the scratch grains. The other day my neighbor, who also has a small flock, suggested that you can give chickens to much. Is this true?

 

[animallover505]

yes, it is. Scratch is very fattening.

 

[Kernel Cluck]

Fattening? Really? I would not have thought that. Thanks for the answer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends on what grains are actually in the scratch. Different grains have different nutritional values. A lot of scratch mixes have a lot of corn in them and corn can be fattening, but what is really important whether the scratch mix contains a lot of corn or not is that chickens do best on a balanced diet. They need fats, protein, fiber, minerals, vitamins, a lot of different things.

If they mostly free range and have good quality of forage (different grasses and weeds, grass and weed seeds, and all kinds of creepy crawlies) this is not all that important. But the more you provide of what they eat, the more important that balancing becomes.

The chicken feed you buy is balanced. That’s really all they absolutely have to have. That’s all the hens that lay the commercial eggs get and they lay a lot of eggs. But a lot of us like to do a bit better than the commercial eggs. We give them scratch, greens, kitchen scraps, creepy crawlies, all kinds of extra things. We let them see sunlight and forage where we can.

You’ll have to use your judgment on this because we all have different conditions. A general rule of thumb is that they should be able to clean up a treat in say 10 to 20 minutes and they will maintain a balanced diet. Sort of look at treats as dessert with their regular feed as the main meal. But the more varied the treats you give them or the more they forage the less important this is.

I can’t give you an exact amount of this. I don’t even know the make-up of your scratch. Just use a little judgment and don’t overdo it and you should be fine.

 

[Kernel Cluck]

Thanks for the input Ridgerunner. My girls have a woods/grass area that is fenced in so they have lots of bugs and grass and other things they can scratch up so I guess I won't worry. I try to let them out into the larger yard daily for as long as I can. I feel like they are getting a good balance... so thanks again.