Topic: how much corn should i feed 6 hens.....

[gunnerbee]

per day? i feed them a large bowl of corn and biol up peelings for them, but each time i go out into the garden they follow me like im the bleedin pied piper!!! just want to make sure they are getting enough without attracting the Roland family!!

[kt.]

Feed them and watch. If they demolish all the food within a few minutes then it is too little. Different breeds eat different quantities. Last year I had 24 Bantams who ate 1 & 1/2 square sandcastle buckets full (made up of about 65% Layers pellets, 25% mixed corn and 10% grit.) They got the odd greenery thrown in as and when with a little bread & fruit.

My current 12 hybrids eat the same amount of food as their predecessors did... and produce loads more waste than they ever did. :o :o :o The bright side being that I now get very large eggs, and loads more chicken manure. So technically I guess, you could say it comes down to what you want them to produce for you. ::) ::) ::)

[teresa]

I agree with KT, think I read somewhere about 2oz of pellets per hen per day. One thing is if your the main feeder of the hens everytime they see you they expect something else ( I know I feed ours)  ours have feeders full of pellets so they have them in the morning and  boiled peelings or left overs in the afternoon any extra is green leaves.
If your worried about rats lift food out of runs in late evenings, I am lucky I have two dogs terrier Xs and a neighbroughs cat.

[RW]

Another way to look at it is one 20kg layer pellets bag per hen per year.

[kt.]

Another way to look at it is one 20kg layer pellets bag per hen per year.

For my 12 hens I buy about 18x 20kg bags of layers pellets, 5x 20kg bags of mixed corn / maize. This does not include the greenery they get from my brassica leaves, bread & fruit just passed its best.