Second chicken feed

[robinwhiskers]

I have 7 chickens that are 11 weeks old. They are not free range but stay in their coop. I'm not exactly interested in making a homemade feed, having a bowl of food in their coop also of an alternate feed with things like leftovers, mealworms, fruits, dried fruits, etc. Anything to give them variety. Every day it would be different what they have in there to keep things interesting. What do you think?

 

[rjohns39]

I have 7 chickens that are 11 weeks old. They are not free range but stay in their coop. I'm not exactly interested in making a homemade feed, having a bowl of food in their coop also of an alternate feed with things like leftovers, mealworms, fruits, dried fruits, etc. Anything to give them variety. Every day it would be different what they have in there to keep things interesting. What do you think?

Unlike us, chickens are not real fans of change. There are a variety of treats that they like--but they should not be more than 10% of their total diet. You'll want a good quality feed that is consistent. You'll also want to provide grit and oyster shell free choice. At 11 weeks they should be on a grower with about 18% protein and when they reach laying age transition them to a good quality layer ration. When transitioning them do it over about a week, by mixing in new with old and adjust it daily until you're 100% new.

 

[robinwhiskers]

I've started giving our chickens bananas, strawberries, and frozen treats made from such along with some different veggies and it seems like they'll eat anything. Would it still be alright to make a small tupperware of these foods for them daily and not refill it with any more food until the next day?

 

[rjohns39]

I've started giving our chickens bananas, strawberries, and frozen treats made from such along with some different veggies and it seems like they'll eat anything. Would it still be alright to make a small tupperware of these foods for them daily and not refill it with any more food until the next day?

Here's a good article on treats: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens.47738/ Your girls should be getting about 4.5 oz per bird per day of formulated feed. Some feed once a day, others twice and some load the feed into a bulk feeder and let them go free choice. All seem to work well.

 

[robinwhiskers]

We leave food out for them 24/7 but I mean a bowl of whatever leftovers we have or anything I can find in the pantry they may like.

 

[rjohns39]

We leave food out for them 24/7 but I mean a bowl of whatever leftovers we have or anything I can find in the pantry they may like.

Sorry, I mis-read your post. Thought you were saying to substitute treats for feed. The feed article is still a good one.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We leave food out for them 24/7 but I mean a bowl of whatever leftovers we have or anything I can find in the pantry they may like.

You shouldn't leave feed out at night, it will attract rodents more than it does during the day. You need a rodent control plan either way but the little things of metal feed storage can and putting feed away at night do help too. For rodent control we use tamper proof bait boxes with chunx bait.

Kitchen scraps and uneaten leftovers all go to the birds. This time of year is all the garden culls too. There isn't a need to ensure they get something different everyday and in reality that is taking away from the balanced feed nutrition your providing with chicken feed. Even though the extras given may be healthy the amount given can be so much it's offsetting a balanced optimum diet. This is why anything extra than chicken feed is usually considered "treats" and people recommend not to provide too much of it.