Scratch - how much is too much?

[wild chick]

I have 13 total: 7 hens, 5 pullets & 1 cockerel, free range to their hearts content from daylight til sunset on 7 fenced acres (they have never ventured more than a couple of acres tho). They have 24/7 access to layer pellets and crumble, grit & oyster shell. I've been tossing scratch in the morning when I let them out and in the evening when I feed the horses. The evening scratch is mixed with a boiled egg and/or sunflower chips to increase the protein, and sometimes a plop of yogurt or cottage cheese, and sometimes chopped up fresh spinach in the winter since they miss their greens. Too much? I feel bad that in the winter they don't get as much greens & bugs. I don't know how to measure the store-bought kibble because the juncos & sparrows go at it during the day. I have no idea how much they eat so I don't know the percentage of "treats" to ration. And in the summer they just have a ton of stuff to eat on the free range. Basically 1 1/2 cups scratch in the a.m. and a total of 2 cups "protein added" scratch in the evening for 13 birds. They are healthy happy & laying, but I just saw a post on the necropsy-diagnostic skills forum about too much scratch = too much fat/fatty livers, hearts, general bad health....

 

[rebrascora]

Firstly, you need to think of hens as top level athletes. With most breeds, their bodies are productive beyond what nature intended. Their internal systems are working at maximum capacity and therefore a balanced diet is much more important than perhaps other pets or even you are I. Feed companies have studied their nutritional needs and formulated feeds to meet these demands.

Like us, chickens love carbohydrates and will usually eat corn and wheat in preference to higher protein pulses or layer feed. They will only eat a given amount in a day, so if they fill up on high carbohydrate scratch, they will not eat much of their higher protein layer feed or all flock. The surplus carbohydrates get laid down as fat deposits unless the birds burn them off foraging..... penned birds will therefore be more at risk of these excessive fat stores than free range and because their feathers disguise their real size, we are almost always unaware that they are getting obese.... or even understand what obese looks like. Supermarket chickens are so plump we perhaps don't even appreciate that layers and even hatchery dual purpose birds should be lean. These fat deposits develop between the legs and around the vent area as well as on and around the internal organs and can cause a multitude of health issues, many of which do not show until things are too far gone and we all know how hard it is to lose weight, especially when health issues kick in, so it is difficult to save them once we realise the problem. Reproductive issues like prolapse, salpingitis and even internal laying and or Egg Yolk Peritonitis can be caused by these fat deposits as well as the Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome, which can cause sudden death without any prior indication of ill health...... so saying that you feed lots of scratch and your birds are healthy is probably fooling yourself as well as dangerously encouraging others to risk their birds health.

Chickens love scratch and I freely admit that I treat my birds to a little on a regular but not daily basis.... a little is 2-3oz between 9 birds once a day, but not every day. Having just weighed and measured it, it works out about three quarters of a tablespoon each. Alternating their treats on a day to day basis with other more healthy things like mealworms or cottage cheese or fermented feed means that they get a variety without getting a large quantity of treats every day. Free ranging is in itself a treat, so don't feel the need to give them so many extras on top of that. It is important to be quite disciplined with treats and for me the mental image of a necropsy I did on my neighbour's hen that was fed a diet of almost 50/50 scratch/layer pellets and developed ascites and haemorrhaged, keeps me from being too generous with them. The thick layers of yellow fat were totally shocking. I subsequently butchered his other hens for him as they had never laid well and he was sick of feeding them for no gain. Sadly, it was his feeding regime of too much scratch which caused them not to lay due to the fatty deposits. For info, my neighbour is a kindly man and had one favourite hen that he would take in the house when she was sick and sit and watch tv with her, but these particular hens were never people friendly and he had no emotional attachment to them. I took photos of the necropsy I did on the bird that haemorrhaged and I can post them if anyone is interested although I appreciate that a photo of one hen with hick yellow fat is not going to convince the majority of people that scratch is unhealthy.

 

[lazy gardener]

A chicken on a good feed as their only feed will eat .2 - .25# of feed/bird/day according to the producer of the brand of feed I buy. Some folks say up to .3#/bird/day. That's assuming that no other ration is fed, and there is no waste, and no rodent issues.

A diet heavy on scratch is not doing the bird any favors b/c she will fill up on the scratch and miss out on the vitamins, protein, and minerals in the blended feed. Sunflower chips are high fat, and can contribute to fatty liver, increased visceral fat which can cause the hen to have difficulty passing an egg.

You might consider switching to fermented feed to help cut the loss to winged pests.

It's fallacy to assume that birds should get more scratch in cold weather IMO. Simply let them fill up on their regular feed. A calorie is a calorie, so it might as well be a calorie that is packed with nutrients.

 

[Rickba]

I've personally found that free range chickens get all the scratch and forage they need. A little never hurts, however scratch doesn't have the protein and vitamins needed as the layer feed does. I've found that to much scratch' or should I say lack of layer feed, causes reduced egg production, soft/thin shells and pale yellow yolks. Chickens always seem to go for the seeds and ignore the feed. If they forage, cut the scratch to a table spoon each bird a day or less. You may start to have health issues such as leg joint swelling and soreness. Watch for limping and watch their scat.

 

[Kiki]

Regular complete feed will keep them warm at night.
Two good things to read:
http://articles.extension.org/pages/69065/feeding-chickens-for-egg-production
and
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sudden-death-diagnosed.1184523/#post-18692731

 

[wild chick]

@Rickba - I've pretty much decided to cut back, with the thought that if they can't find enough to forage they can visit the feed dispenser. @HenOnAJuneBug - yep, feeling sorry for them when it was 9 F, and the olders were in terrible bald molt, that's when I started feeding them more. But mixing with boiled egg & sunflowers for the p.m. feed to up the protein for their feathers. Now they're spoiled and I have to cut back, I'm pretty sure.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I think a lot of what constitutes too much scratch depends on chickens' daily activities. Chickens cooped up in a run don't get much exercise. Mine free range from dawn to dusk on very hilly terrain. Some of it is at least a 45* slope, but that doesn't stop them. They are up and down and all around all day long.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

In the winter I don't worry about too much scratch. I give them as much as they want. They eat until they're full and actually leave some laying on the ground. I'm more interested that they have enough calories to keep themselves warm.

 

[CCUK]

I give mine a couple of handfuls in the evening if it is cold to keep them a bit warmer overnight. Sometimes I soak some and add it to mash with some rolled oats. There's never much wastage!

 

[wild chick]

I'll be cutting down on the scratch for sure! Thanks for the articles @KikisGirls