What do you feed during cold weather?

[K0k0shka]

If I give my girls treats they mainly get fruit and vegetable scraps and whatever pieces of cat food they manage to snag before I can pick up the cat bowls when I let them free range. If I need to lure them with treats (not often as I can usually just herd them back) I just use a bit of cat food as I always have that on hand anyways

Yes, produce is mostly what mine get for treats too, because it's low calorie. Though it tends to freeze and get mushy in the winter if they don't eat it fast enough.

 

[cluckin along]

Welcome to BYC!!

We're up in Wisconsin where it can get very cold. Some of us will feed our chickens a little bit of cracked corn (I have silkies) or corn before bed. This is said to help them keep themselves warmer as they work to digest it overnight.

I wouldn't do it all day long though as too much corn can be harmful to our chickens. I just feed them their layer feed and the usual house scraps and other things we do to keep them occupied if cooped up too long.

I add red pepper flakes in the winter. My aunt gave me this advise. Also helps with parasites and egg laying. It has been cold all week and out of 8 girls I gathered 6 eggs today. I also supplement with warmed up mixed veggies and scraps of meat in their afternoon treats.

 

[Debbie292d]

I add red pepper flakes in the winter. My aunt gave me this advise. Also helps with parasites and egg laying. It has been cold all week and out of 8 girls I gathered 6 eggs today. I also supplement with warmed up mixed veggies and scraps of meat in their afternoon treats.

I posted that over a year ago, until I read up on feeding corn to chickens doesn't do diddly and can actually cause fat to build up around their heart and kidneys, as seen by necropsies from people who fed their chickens excess corn.

They get Kalmbach's Henhouse Reserve now for scratch, zero corn, zero most anything else as the dogs eat the table scraps. We'll make them scrambled eggs about once every couple of weeks.

I ferment grains a couple of times a week, and I've mixed those red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of garlic in that when serving, for whatever it's worth. I do some of those things I only half believe in, but why not? If it works, great; if it doesn't, so what?

 

[K0k0shka]

I add red pepper flakes in the winter. My aunt gave me this advise. Also helps with parasites and egg laying.

Red pepper flakes won't do anything for heat in the winter (if that's what the reasoning is here). Chickens lack the receptors to perceive capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers hot. So they can't taste the heat. And even if they could, that's not the same "heat" as in temperature heat. Spicy heat is an entirely different thing. It sends a similar signal to the brain, tricking it into thinking something is "hot" (as in, temperature hot), when in fact it isn't. The brain responds by putting your body on cooling mode - you start sweating, even though you aren't actually warm. Chickens don't sweat, so they won't even get that, and it's a bad idea to sweat outside in the cold anyway, you'd freeze. So basically, hot pepper flakes don't do anything for the chickens in winter. And they certainly can't increase egg production. There are so many old wives' tales about increasing egg production, but there's no magic bullet. If their needs are met, how much they lay is a matter of biology plus the number of daylight hours in the day. You can't make them lay any more than that.