Winter feeding

[Mimi and the Peeps]

My chickens have been total free range, with added scratch. During the winter, is scratch enough, or should crumbles be included as necessary? I have 13 laying hens. I've been told that the scratch is enough, the eggs will be fine.

 

[teach1rusl]

Well I'm not a fan of MOST scratch feeds at all...most sold in feed stores has very low nutritional values. I only feed scratch as a treat, about two handfuls a day. But to answer your question, it depends on your area. If you're in an area where grasses and insects thrive year round, then your birds would have no problems finding plenty. But if you're in an area where the grasses/plants die off and insect populations seem to vanish, then you'll need to feed them a formulated feed so that what they're losing in plant/insect manner can be made up.

 

[TigerLilly]

You dont say where you live. That might be a factor in the answers you get. Someone from Alaska will tell you something totally different than someone living in Florida.
Do you not feed your chickens any feed at all, besides the scratch, since they free-range? And if that is the case, how well do your hens lay? Just curious--I feed & free range, but it seems like if they go without their pellets for one day here & there, they refuse to lay!

 

[MIKE555444]

They need about 18% of there diet to be protein for good health and good egg production. The question is will they be able to get that from free ranging this winter... It might depend on your area but I doubt it... So will your scratch feed have enough added protein? I kinda doubt that also but the tag should tell you. If it were me I'd start them of layer pellets for the winter if the protein is not available any other way.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Most scratch sold in stores around here falls woefully short of being a complete diet. Many key minerals are simply missing, to say nothing of the typical scratch only being 8% protein. That's roughly half what they need.

That scratch also cost about the same as a complete feed? Not a good value, imho.