Summer scratch

[duckinnut]

I think it is fair to say that at times certain things get attached( or blamed ) to sickness or death without just cause. For example, Farmer Smith back in 1920 feeds his chickens the scratch he has feeding them all winter and now it is summer and it's 102 degrees. He see's his chickens are sick and dying and quickly blames the scratch for the birds overheating but is more likely the heat itself or some other underlying condition. Of course this is a hypothetical story but the point is we have to blame something and the "scratch" was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The farmer changes his scratch for next year and has great success but fails to figure that it wasn't as hot as last year. All that does is confirm his thinking that you have to change their scratch in the summer even though his thinking is misguided. This is how myths start and passed down from generation to generation until we believe its fact even though there is scientific evidence to the contrary. This is where the controversy of what can be fed to chickens started. Some say you can feed them "xxxx" and some say you can't. The ones that say you can't feed them that is sometimes based in myth because at one time that particular thing got tied for just being present at the time unfairly to mortality or sickness. When it was more likely something else.

The main reason chickens get hot in the summer is the heat. Picture yourself with a down coat on and then put on welding leathers over it in mid July. Now you feel like a chicken. Don't really think those 3 ears of corn you ate are making you hot. The only time I change the scratch is to adjust to the number of birds. They get the same stuff every day whether it be 19 or 95 degrees. As they say the proof is in the pudding, haven't lost one to overheating yet even in their corn based feed of layer and scratch. So myth it is.

 

[summerchicks]

I don't get it. It's not rocket science. Just go to your local feed store and ask. Get some feed, a little cracked corn or scratch to throw in the pen with them. Give them some table scraps now and then. this is what I have always fed my chickens in the past and my eggs have been fine and so have my chickens. So, you are telling me if I don't have the exact % of carb,protein ,etc. that my chickens won't lay eggs?