Should I feed my hens scratch or layer feed?

[Dustystrail]

This is what I put the oyster shell in.

I bought it a long time ago to put minerals in for the horses. I never liked it for that so I pulled it down and put it in the coop. I also moved the grit to this since it has 2 sides and the old grit container was in the way.
If this works out with my main coop, I will be switching all the birds over to flock raiser since I nearly always have birds of various ages in one pen and the bantams are spending the winter with the peafowl.

 

[sadr1925]

I don't want to jinks myself but I have been getting 2 dozen or more a day from my girls and I only have 38 layers. I feed them layer pellets, scratch, grit, and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. About every 10 feedings, I put in the oyster shell. I let them out everyday. I sit outside with them and freeze while they are running around scratching and having fun, but I want to make sure they go back into their coop at night. I also feed them mealworm as a treat and they love them. I am also raising 150 babies and my electric bill is killing me but I will have layers for the spring. Good luck to everybody with their flock.

 

[jerrey]

I feed my girls separate oyster shells and grit they go to the pans that I put them in

 

[MyAgentRocks]

Not sure how scientific it is, but Often I will take the shells from the eggs that I use from my girls and dry them. I use them to feed the flock (They love it but it must be smashed) and save some for my garden starts in the bottom of the peat pellet. plants love it, too!

 

[Van Kirby]

The feed bucket is kept full of layer feed. Have a small container where I fill half full of scratch once per week. I think they need some scratch for their "craw".

 

[ThePRfan]

Scratch for the crawl?Your mistaken,they need grit for the crawl,may I remind you of what scratch is?
It has corn,bird seeds etc in it,it is also a filler more then something actually good/assistive to them.
The PRfan

 

[jerrey]

Scratch for the crawl?Your mistaken,they need grit for the crawl,may I remind you of what scratch is?
It has corn,bird seeds etc in it,it is also a filler more then something actually good/assistive to them.
The PRfan

you are right

 

[Chris09]

Scratch for the crawl?Your mistaken,they need grit for the crawl,may I remind you of what scratch is?
It has corn,bird seeds etc in it,it is also a filler more then something actually good/assistive to them.
The PRfan

Scratch is by far a filler, it has a purpose and it has nutrients.
If used correctly it has a good place in the diet of poultry..

 

[ChickenRisa]

I'm glad I ran across this thread. I recently have been trying adding some scratch to my hens diet (previously fed exclusively on layer pellets) to save money since it's the winter and my mom told me corn helps them stay warm and to save a little money. Sounds like I should use it a little more sparingly than I do now though, since I've been doing about half scratch half pellets. I have noticed they really go for the scratch, which probably means they are not eating as much pellets, which sounds like will cause problems in the long run. I have some oyster shell but haven't really been putting it out since they have the layer pellets. Perhaps I will switch to mixing some grower feed in there and putting out the oyster shells, since I do have a couple hens I think are not laying, but I think pretty much all the rest are.

I also feed my hens some bread every day, as a treat in the morning. Is that going to cause problems nutritionally? It's just regular inexpensive wheat bread.

I also have saved my egg shells and crushed them to feed to the hens in place of oyster shells. I was told you have to make sure to crush them really fine or the chickens will realize they are egg shells and start eating their own eggs. How fine do you really have to crush them? I usually blend them a little in my blender just to be safe (I had an egg eater for a little bit and don't want that again!).

 

[CrazyTalk]

@ChickenRisa,

Conventional feeds are 70% or so corn. There's no reason to add more to their diet - there are very few things you can feed a chicken on conventional feed that actually improves their diet - most of the treats people feed them just lead to nutrient deficiencies, or protein deficiencies.