Think I messed up raising my chickens....now what do I do???

[chookchick]

Since your daughter and babysitter's daughter both love feeding them, here are some "good" treat ideas that are highly nutritional. I would go ahead and pre-portion them out anyway. Black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS), mealworms, grated mozzerella cheese, tuna fish (low salt), and grapes (great fun!). Give these out in moderation and they can still have the fun of feeding them. I'm sure they'll be just fine, and this is a great opportunity to learn about nutrition. Good food=eggs!

 

[gsim]

Drop the scratch except for treat time. Give them Calf-Manna for increased protein and a high protein layer mix as well. They will come around. You did not harm them, but you did hold them back. I would not overdo the lighting thing in the coop either. It is natural for chooks to rest during the wintertime and not lay as much. Today's layers will lay around 6 months of age for sure most times. Mine started at 4 months( right after Sept molt) in Oct and are gangbusters ever since.

I gave them lots of greens from the garden and lots of grass to eat constantly from day one. They have been super. I do give them some scratch grain every day now that I have run out of home grown greens, but they get all kinds of salad leftovers, etc daily. Greens will not hurt them but scratch grain will definitely lower the egg output as more is added. Around here, it is only a dollar a bag cheaper for the scratch grain.

 

[lex381]

uhhhhh sorry but im a newbie here and im not all the way familiar with chicken talk so what does "scratch" mean? i know it's food but....

 

[tundrachicks]

Yeah cut back on the scratch.


I got my chicks ate 2 days old in the post and fed them starter for the first few weeks, after starter I went straight to layer crumbles (not pellets) and only gave them scratch when they were outside in the run or as a treat when I was cleaning their coop.


I also had a light in my coop because right now where I live the light is only out a couple of hours a day and we dont start gaining sunlight until winter solstice on Dec. 23. I didnt have a "white" light in there at all this winter I only had a red heat lamp and they started laying at 5 months. I was SO surprized. Only after they started laying I supplimented them with a white light. So they have a heat lamp at night because its 40below right now and then the white one during the day to trick them into thinking its sunlight. I also give them oyster shells in thier food, mixed in thier food, so they really dont have a choice but to eat it. And, thier first eggs were nice and hard.

So I have 14 happy layers right now. To me it didnt really matter if they started laying when they were "suppose" to but it was such an awesome surprise to find eggs in the MIDDLE OF WINTER!

 

[Qi Chicken]

Feed them whatever you want but don't trick your daughter!!!

What a fantastic lesson here, good food (not too many treats) will make a chicken healthy. And good food (not too much candy!) will make a 4 year old healthy. Think how much of an impression it will make on her when you change their food and she finds an egg! Boy, I really hope you DO find an egg..............