Whole corn...do hens eat it?

[Crazy Maizie]

I saw Becky's youtube as well. I'm a new chicken owner and after listening to her, it seemed limiting my chickens to bread, layer crumbs, and corn just didn't seem right to me. Just a gut feeling. I went with a vegetable layer feed and add some layer crumbs in the mix - but I'm wondering if I even need the layer crumbs. However, I do give a handful of whole corn, half piece of bread, and meal worms for snacks on occasion.

The original post is a little old, but the only thing the hens would need is a complete feed. It looks like to me that you are feeding 2 separate feeds? You can narrow that down to 1. Anything other than feed is considered treats and that should be 10% or less of what they would eat of their feed. Otherwise, it throws off their nutrition since they won't need to eat as much feed.

 

[Hopelives07]

The original post is a little old, but the only thing the hens would need is a complete feed. It looks like to me that you are feeding 2 separate feeds? You can narrow that down to 1. Anything other than feed is considered treats and that should be 10% or less of what they would eat of their feed. Otherwise, it throws off their nutrition since they won't need to eat as much feed.

Yeah I kinda figured that I could stop the layer crumbs. I like them having the veggies. It seems to be a more balanced nutrition for them.

 

[Kiki]

Yeah I kinda figured that I could stop the layer crumbs. I like them having the veggies. It seems to be a more balanced nutrition for them.

Stop the what?

I think you are not understanding that the layer crumbs IS a complete balanced feed and exactly what laying hens need.


This Becky person does not understand proper nutrition. I highly recommend not listening to anyone who tries to convince you your birds are better off not getting a balanced diet and wants you to feed too many treats.

I also highly recommend spending a few weeks reading every single thread in the emergency section pay particularly close attention to people mentioning whole grains and daily treats.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Stop the what?

I think you are not understanding that the layer crumbs IS a complete balanced feed and exactly what laying hens need.


This Becky person does not understand proper nutrition. I highly recommend not listening to anyone who tries to convince you your birds are better off not getting a balanced diet and wants you to feed too many treats.

I also highly recommend spending a few weeks reading every single thread in the emergency section pay particularly close attention to people mentioning whole grains and daily treats.

I thought they meant to stop the layer crumbles because the other feed they posted would be enough. They have 2 whole complete feeds posted above. My advice was that they didn't need both and to limit treats. I'm not familiar with the first brand, but that's made for laying hens and what the op is referring to as the "veggie feed" - unless I totally read the whole post and response wrong?

 

[raingarden]

The only supplemental feed our feral flock gets is whole corn. Most of their day is spent foraging. The feral chickens, pea fowl, ginea fowl and ducks are all 100% free range. When they hear the lid come off the metal Buhl can of corn, everybody comes running and the spotted doves fly in from every direction. It a maddening free-fo-rall.

A good thing about whole corn is that you can throw it a long ways. We try to spread it out as much as possible in hopes that everybody gets some. The best thing about whole corn is there is no waste. The kernals are large so the birds will find every one of them.

The fancy penned chickens will sometimes get a little bit of whole corn as a treat and they love it. They also love the millet/milo/sunflower wild bird food mix and dog kibble. But, the bulk of the diet has to be a complete poultry ration or they will develop deficiencies or fatty liver.

 

[Kiki]

The only supplemental feed our feral flock gets is whole corn. Most of their day is spent foraging. The feral chickens, pea fowl, ginea fowl and ducks are all 100% free range. When they hear the lid come off the metal Buhl can of corn, everybody comes running and the spotted doves fly in from every direction. It a maddening free-fo-rall.

A good thing about whole corn is that you can throw it a long ways. We try to spread it out as much as possible in hopes that everybody gets some. The best thing about whole corn is there is no waste. The kernals are large so the birds will find every one of them.

The fancy penned chickens will sometimes get a little bit of whole corn as a treat and they love it. They also love the millet/milo/sunflower wild bird food mix and dog kibble. But, the bulk of the diet has to be a complete poultry ration or they will develop deficiencies or fatty liver.

Poor things.

 

[Kiki]

I though they meant to stop the layer crumbles because the other feed they posted would be enough. They have 2 whole complete feeds posted above. My advice was that they didn't need both and to limit treats. I'm not familiar with the first brand, but that's made for laying hens and what the op is referring to as the "veggie feed" - unless I totally read the whole post and response wrong?

The first one that you're saying is made for laying hens is actually not. I read the nutritional value content... There is not enough calcium in that for laying hens.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

The first one that you're saying is made for laying hens is actually not. I read the nutritional value content... There is not enough calcium in that for laying hens.

I didn't look that close. That's a little deceptive that the manufacturer is calling it a laying feed. I use an all flock and add calcium on the side, but I don't think I'd support a deceptive company.
Good eye.

 

[Kiki]

I didn't look that close. That's a little deceptive that the manufacturer is calling it a laying feed. I use an all flock and add calcium on the side, but I don't think I'd support a deceptive company.
Good eye.

I think it is part of the job when it comes to making labels for food for both humans and animals... To trick people.
A regular person would see that bag and see the word layer on it and assume it is appropriate for a laying hen but it's not.
It's pretty sad.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It makes logical sense that a high carb food would produce more heat in digestion than a low carb food, but whether it’s a noticeable/useful difference you’d need to see some actual research on.

That being said, my flock gets a little corn now and then as a snack, and full size birds swallow it no problem.

There's some recent studies suggesting high fat foods are beneficial in hot summer months because of the way they are converted to energy by the body as compared to high carb foods like corn, which are exothermic (as in, heat is generated by the process) - its an area of feed science being researched now. I've not read enough to have an opinion of value, or even a comfortable grasp on the theory - I'm simply aware that its out there.

I'm in the nutritionally balanced diet, all the time, camp and dislike "routine suppliments", whether it be corn, cracked corn, boss, bsfl, scratch, or something else because just a tiny amount, routinely, can negatively impact the nutritionally balanced diet I'm trying to offer - more when the base diet is as borderline as the typical layer feed. Add the fact that I already have only limited control over my bird's feeding as they free range acres of mixed pastures all day, and its one more variable than I'm comfortable adding to the mix.

*** and ***

Not related to your comment, I have yet to see a home made chicken feed recipe on a slick Youtube video or a fancy web page which is nutritionally superior to what I can buy from the local mill, or what was being published in Farmer's Almanacs of the (19)20s, 30s, 40s, 50s - at a time when they openly admitted that components of the feed were providing important nutrients, they simply had no idea what they were.

In the case of Garden Bett's no corn, no soy recipe, while I've not corrected for "as fed" (which will make most of these numbers *worse*!), her feed profile looks like this:

15.08% Protein (this will drop under 14%, as fed!), 8.72% fiber (not fantastic, not optimum, but not as bad as the rest of her formulation), 14.75% fat (I have no words), Calcium and Phosphorus are fine (with free choice oyster or similar), I've not looked at vitamins or trace minerals, and the amino acid profile (which will decrease when corrected for "as fed") is 0.3% Methionine, 0.57% Lysine, 0.53% Threonine, 0.21% Tryptophan (the four most significant limiting amino acids in a typical poultry diet).

For reference, numerous sources (UGA, NRCS, USDA, etc) put targets for those (age and breed dependent) at 0.4-0.6, 0.8-1.1, 0.6-0.8, 0.2-0.3 (respectively).

In short, she may know how to make a Youtube following, but she doesn't know how to make a chicken feed.