What to feed when not free ranging

[Hambone]

I am new to owning chickens. I am just about finished with my tractor. It will house 6 hens. I will keep them in it for 8 weeks min. Then they will free range. They will be Golden comets. They may or may not be pullets. It depends on what I can get.

My question is: What do I feed them. Is there a link or thread that explains what they should be fed when not free ranging? Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

 

[1birdlady]

Hi Hambone....is this you from TOL?

What to feed depends on age as well as how much free range they have...there are many posts here on that subject; just do a search.

Our girls (we have only girls), and they are now about 3 months old, get Wendlands "Only One" crumbles for grower. This is all they need til they start to lay eggs. Then they will get an "egglayer" crumble with more calcium and protein for egg production. We will start to incorporate the egglayer crumbles in August, and expect them to start laying in September.

Our girls cannot "free range", but we give them leftovers from both ourselves and our parrot, as well as yard clippings, mowings, etc.

They are thriving well!
PS, we're rather new at this domestic bird stuff too...but did wildbird rehab for many years, some years ago.

 

[phishinchicken]

i am in the same situation. i try and feed ours healthy treats/scraps in edition to the feed recommended by our feed store. we are looking for eggs in september too.

 

[dw_618]

just throw out some cracked corn....you can buy a bag at your local feed store and just toss a couple handfuls out every day...thats what we do

 

[sis_cin]

my baby girls (golden comets) are just getting ready to go to pullet feed, i fed them medicated chick feed until around 2 months, then just plain chick feed after that...but they get a treat daily, my husband brought home grub worms from the local bait shop for them a couple of days ago, he has in the past bought crickets there too for them...they loved it, they also love clover picked from the yard, and over ripe peeled bannana's ( I read not to give them the peel), they also get veggie kitchen scraps like carrot peels, the outer leaves of lettuce, tomato ends, and strawberry hulls, and they absolutly went gaga over watermelon rinds (after picking clean the leftover watermelon in them, they ate the whole rind!), my girls pick around the cracked corn in the scratch we have for them, it is littered all over their "yard", and they eat all of the other grains instead...they just dont like corn...what i did was introduce a treat and see what they did, if they didnt like it the first time, i would offer it one more time (sometimes they decide its not too bad after all) but if they leave it twice i dont offer it again. it is so much fun to offer a new treat, they are so nosy, they all come running to see what it is and peck around at it before someone gets brave and runs off with a chunk, then they all want it. when its something they know they like, they start jumping up and down at the fence and making all kinds of noise until you get there with it, then they jump all over you to get to it (poor starving little babies ha ha) they get their treat in the afternoons, and have their feed in the mornings, i usually refill their feed when they get the treats so they can fill up if they want before going in to bed for the night. they all have different tastes...hope this helps