To much scratch?

[Sherri1990]

No.
It's not ok.

What do you recommend?

 

[cmom]

We maybe getting snow. The ground is frozen though.

I am originally from Michigan a little north of Traverse City but have lived most of my life in Florida.

 

[Allthefloofs]

Ok. I wonder if they can go back to grower feed?

I give them grower if that is what I have. It usually coincides with a molt anyway so they go off lay. If I don't have grower around for chicks/adolescents then I get all flock and just always put oyster shell to the side for the one or two that are laying. Some of the more experienced people might chime in if this isn't a good plan, which would be great so I know too. I have done it for a couple years now and it hasn't seemed to hurt anyone.

 

[Allthefloofs]

Is it ok to add fat? I want to be smart about this.

Adding fat, especially for larger birds can be harmful and lead to hemorrhagic liver syndrome. Orpingtons and heavy bodied birds seem to be more prone to it. It is fatal, the liver bleeds out internally. We lost two orps to it and just like that, all the scratch went in the trash.

 

[Bird_Lover_17]

I personally don't feed scratch . I give a handful of mealworms instead.

Make sure that they are eating more layer food than scratch.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You can list me as among those using a 20% All Flock blend with free choice oyster shell for those few birds still laying every other day or so. Like Cmom, also in FL, also had the hard frost and a local low of 27 - took out my whole garden, and accumulated like snow in the crooks of some of my woodier plants - the tomato and basil particularly.

Its balanced, I use it year round, and it requires no particular thought on my part.

Yes, I have some scratch, throw out a few cups once a week or so, mostly to encourage my flock of near 30 to go claw up another area of the acreage, rather than in the illusion that its any kind of dietary supplement. At best, its entertainment. At worst, its an impediment to their health by contributing to an unbalanced diet. If it should go to seed, that's OK too - they have acres in which to free range.

and when all flock wasn't available (due to COVID etc) I've briefly substituted with Grower - its mostly the same (though not guaranteed to be exactly the same, as some All Flock is made with higher trace minerals for other fowl, like Ducks)

 

[Sherri1990]

Adding fat, especially for larger birds can be harmful and lead to hemorrhagic liver syndrome. Orpingtons and heavy bodied birds seem to be more prone to it. It is fatal, the liver bleeds out internally. We lost two orps to it and just like that, all the scratch went in the trash.

Oh noooooo!! That’s so sad what do you give them now?

 

[Sherri1990]

You can list me as among those using a 20% All Flock blend with free choice oyster shell for those few birds still laying every other day or so. Like Cmom, also in FL, also had the hard frost and a local low of 27 - took out my whole garden, and accumulated like snow in the crooks of some of my woodier plants - the tomato and basil particularly.

Its balanced, I use it year round, and it requires no particular thought on my part.

Yes, I have some scratch, throw out a few cups once a week or so, mostly to encourage my flock of near 30 to go claw up another area of the acreage, rather than in the illusion that its any kind of dietary supplement. At best, its entertainment. At worst, its an impediment to their health by contributing to an unbalanced diet. If it should go to seed, that's OK too - they have acres in which to free range.

and when all flock wasn't available (due to COVID etc) I've briefly substituted with Grower - its mostly the same (though not guaranteed to be exactly the same, as some All Flock is made with higher trace minerals for other fowl, like Ducks)

I live in South Carolina and my flock is going to bed at 5:30 when it gets dark. I have 13 Birds and all of them are lame right now I can at least expect 10 eggs a day. When will this change? Then it should be OK to switch over to Flock?

 

[Sherri1990]

I live in South Carolina and my flock is going to bed at 5:30 when it gets dark. I have 13 Birds and all of them are lame right now I can at least expect 10 eggs a day. When will this change? Then it should be OK to switch over to Flock?

Laying... not lame! Sorry!

 

[Allthefloofs]

Oh noooooo!! That’s so sad what do you give them now?

Kale baskets maybe once per week, a few meal worms if I need them to go in their run, playing greek yogurt is a favorite. But I don't give them "treats" daily, just once or twice per week if they are cooped up a bit more than usual. The saddest part of the HLS is that you feel forever like you killed your sweet hens. We were just new and didn't know. Our vet gave us the rule after our necropsy that treats should always be less than 10% of the feed ration, the feed ration should be about 100g for med/small bird and up to 120 for large bird per day. Now we just don't treat or snack them much at all, save for special occasions. They got about 3 TBSP of plain greek yogurt and a bit of warmed up frozen plain quinoa for Thanksgiving because they were in most of the day, that was split between 5 large chickens.