Just wondering if anyone have tried mixing the chicken feed with water? I have very picky chickens who LOVES to spread their feed around and a lot of it end up getting wasted. We've had a lot of rain lately and the feed bowl got drenched in water and I noticed that the chickens ate ALL the feed, no picking, no spreading. Because it was wet, they couldn't spread it all around- which means none wasted! I've started pouring water in their feed bowls now. Just wanted to check if this affects their digestive system at all? Do chickens NEED to have dry chicken feed? Cheers
Hi and welcome to BYC! Its perfectly fine to add water to feed - i guess the downside is that you can only feed in small amounts to prevent mould and fungus growing in the wet / damp feed. CT
Alright great to have you joining the BYC flock Now that is a good question and it is well written about in the Learning Center and many people have argued this in many different Trends here but as personal experience goes yes it is a good way to save feed and cut down on waste and more so with water foul cut my chickens are very happy to eat chicken scratch that has been soaked in water for several days and allowed to dry out ...
Thanks all, yes I feed the chickens every morning and I haven't noticed any mould growing on the bowls, but I'll keep that in mind
My girls have dry feed available to them at all times but I do give them a small bowl of wet feed every day too. Since they only get a small amount, it doesn't have time to go bad. I've read that it's easier for them to digest...not sure about that but it does make a nice alternative for them to their usual dried. Thanks for joining us!
Usually they will eat it if moistened too, I don't know that I would actually "soak it". Hot temps + wet feed = mold pretty fast. Moldy food can kill chickens.
