Hi all,
My set of peeps is now adolescent. They are 9-11 weeks old now and around 1.5-2 pounds in weight. I have 3 SLW's and 6 GLW's with two of the GLW's and one of the SLW' being cockerals. They are outside in their coop which has a sand floor.
I switched their food from starter to a 50/50 mixuture of scratch and laying pellets. I've noticed that they seem to spread the cracked corn and pellets all over the coop and only eat the wheat seeds from the scratch. There's quite a bit of corn and pellets all over the floor right now. I was reading in a chicken book that you can withhold their food in the feeder for a while so they clean up the floor of the food, thus cutting down on waste. So yesterday when their feeder ran out, I removed the feeder and let them start cleaning up. This morning, it didn't look like they've really eaten much of it?????
When I went in the coop, they all come running up to me, looking for food, pecking at my hands. I picked up a handful of cracked corn from the floor and then a handful of pellets and they eagerly pecked them from my hand. They just don't seem to make the connection that the pellets and corn are on the floor and they can get them themselves. Anyways, it got to the point where they were pecking at the tips of my fingers as soon as I touched a piece of corn or pellet to offer them.
I don't, however, see anyone eating corn or pellets without me pointing them out. They appear to be scratching and foraging but it almost looks like the only thing they want to eat is very small specks, like the starter size particles that might still be in the coop.
So I'm looking for suggestions on how to get my girls (and boys) eating this stuff more readily. I'm out of ideas. They had no problem with the starter but now they need to eat grown up food.
Dan
My set of peeps is now adolescent. They are 9-11 weeks old now and around 1.5-2 pounds in weight. I have 3 SLW's and 6 GLW's with two of the GLW's and one of the SLW' being cockerals. They are outside in their coop which has a sand floor.
I switched their food from starter to a 50/50 mixuture of scratch and laying pellets. I've noticed that they seem to spread the cracked corn and pellets all over the coop and only eat the wheat seeds from the scratch. There's quite a bit of corn and pellets all over the floor right now. I was reading in a chicken book that you can withhold their food in the feeder for a while so they clean up the floor of the food, thus cutting down on waste. So yesterday when their feeder ran out, I removed the feeder and let them start cleaning up. This morning, it didn't look like they've really eaten much of it?????
When I went in the coop, they all come running up to me, looking for food, pecking at my hands. I picked up a handful of cracked corn from the floor and then a handful of pellets and they eagerly pecked them from my hand. They just don't seem to make the connection that the pellets and corn are on the floor and they can get them themselves. Anyways, it got to the point where they were pecking at the tips of my fingers as soon as I touched a piece of corn or pellet to offer them.
I don't, however, see anyone eating corn or pellets without me pointing them out. They appear to be scratching and foraging but it almost looks like the only thing they want to eat is very small specks, like the starter size particles that might still be in the coop.
So I'm looking for suggestions on how to get my girls (and boys) eating this stuff more readily. I'm out of ideas. They had no problem with the starter but now they need to eat grown up food.
Dan
