What to feed?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "mixed corn" in Ireland. Our common language can sometimes cause confusion. I'm assuming you mean maize and not wheat. But then you may be talking about what I would call scratch.

It depends a bit on how you keep them. If you let them free range and forage for most of their food and only offer the corn as a treat (and only enough that they can clean up in ten to twenty minutes), then that is fine. But if it is a major part of their feed, it is not enough. Chickens, like anything else, require a balanced diet and a diet of pure corn is not balanced. Neither is a diet of pure scratch. The Layer feed contains that balanced diet plus some supplements that they would normally get free ranging on true pasture, not free ranging on a manicured lawn.

Corn, whether you mean wheat or maize, is a part of most Layer mixes. But there are other things on there to give a balance. Here is an analysis I copied a while back. That Lysine and Methionine are supplements I mentioned. Layer also has the extra calcium that laying hens need for the egg shells. What some of us do, especially if we have mixed aged flocks where the chicks should not be eating the extra calcium is feed all of them Grower or something else and offer oyster shell on the side. That's where this comparison came from.


16% Layer 15% Grower Flock Raiser
Protein 16 15 20
Lysine 0.7 0.65 0.95
Methionine 0.35 0.29 0.35
Crude Fat 2.5 2.7 3.5
Crude Fiber 7 5 5
Min Calcium 3.8 0.6 0.8
Max Calcium 4.8 1.1 1.3
Phosphorus 0.5 0.6 0.7
Min Salt 0.25 0.2 0.35
Max Salt 0.75 0.4 0.85

Good luck! Hope this helps.
 

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