Why will they only eat caked corn

[Willowspirit]

That seems rather meager.

They will be the better for it.

 

[Folly's place]

It's about having healthy birds, not fat malnourished hens. Layer feeds are meant for smaller breed hens in confinement, who get nothing else. It's very balanced for them, because other stuff isn't added.
An all-flock feed with oyster shell fed separately works well for our (mostly) larger birds, who do get other foods, either when free ranging, or as treats from us. Corn and sunflower seeds are fine, in small quantities, because hens will eat this like candy, and leave their balanced diet for last.
Egglaying is very hard work metabolically, and it's easy to mess up a laying hen's diet and cause problems.
Mary

 

[yickenscarf23]

If you want to do treats still, I usually feed their healthy stuff in the morning and throw a few handfuls of scratch stuff out in the late afternoon. Timing it that way seems to encourage them to clean up their healthy breakfast.

 

[Henriettamom919]

Mixing doesn't work. Scratch feed is like crack. I once mixed scratch feed with layer feed in their feeder, and they shoveled the feed onto the ground to get to the crack.

Chicken crack, it's a thing

Mine did this, too. I accidentally bought their regular Scratch n Peck layer WITH corn and they left everything else behind. Fortunately, the good people at the co-op were chicken owners and took pity on me allowing me to exchange it!

Mine love treats but it was a learning curve and I had to cut them out for awhile to get them back on their feed.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

They will be the better for it.

I can see too much corn being a problem, but scratch also typically contains wheat and oats, which I can't see being a problem because it's just grass seed, which is part of free rangers' natural diet.

 

[Folly's place]

There's nothing wrong with any of the grains, except as too much of any of them will unbalance an already balanced diet, especially a layer type diet, meant to be eaten exclusively. Chickens are omnivores, not herbivores, and need the right balance of amino acids in their diet, among other things.
Mary

 

[Cryss]

There's nothing wrong with any of the grains, except as too much of any of them will unbalance an already balanced diet, especially a layer type diet, meant to be eaten exclusively. Chickens are omnivores, not herbivores, and need the right balance of amino acids in their diet, among other things.
Mary

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