Topic: Feeding chickens.

[grannyjanny]

We have 4 bantams & 2 speckeldy's. OH feeds them & lets them out in the morning. He has gone through a 20 kg bag of mash in 3 weeks. I say that's far to much & they are throwing it out not eating it. They won't eat pellets & I do them a large bowl of porridge in the morning. They have corn in the afternoon.

Any suggestions on this one please? 

[goodlife]

 ;D They are spitting all the mash on floor in tantrum..waiting the proper breakkie to arrive..
I suggest that  OH starts cooking the porridge first thing in the morning and let you carry on with your beauty sleep... ;)
And you can then adjust the amount of mash they need for the day once you get up ;D
Surely that sounds fare ;D

[vcatkinson]

I keep chickens, I would say this is far to much food, mine get feed twice a day also corn and kitchen scraps like potato peeling, cabbage, lettuce varied diet.
I tried mash now mine have pellets and corn and also occasional grit
Victoria

[pumkinlover]

Does the manufacturer have a web site with information on feed rates?

[darkbrowneggs]

We have 4 bantams & 2 speckeldy's. OH feeds them & lets them out in the morning. He has gone through a 20 kg bag of mash in 3 weeks. I say that's far to much & they are throwing it out not eating it. They won't eat pellets & I do them a large bowl of porridge in the morning. They have corn in the afternoon.

Any suggestions on this one please? 

With a large bowl of porridge and grain the afternoon you are probably feeding them enough anyway, though it is not a balanced diet and won't do your egg production any good unless they can also free range in the day.

As to where the feed is going consider

Can they scratch it out and stamp on it
Can wild birds get at it
Do you have mice, or even rats
What about squirrels.
Dogs generally like chicken feed

From memory 4oz per hybrid should give maintenance and produce an egg

All the best
Sue

[birdsrfun]

I stopped feeding mash because of the waste - just uneconomical. Wean them off it by mixing in other feed gradually and then replacing. They will eat the pellets eventually.  Feeding them porridge is ok for cold weather as it warms them up but not in summer, also it will make them fat not fit and they will not live as long or produce vitamin enriched eggs. You could try putting some pellets in porridge as well to help with the transition to full time pellets, they'll get the idea.

[cocopops]

I am concerned that I am overfeeding my hens.  When I started I had 23 rescue ASA browns, must be three years ago.  I looked up how much they should be fed per day, weighed it and found a scoop that did half of that amount so that they could be fed twice a day.

I now have 13 hens, lost the others though natural causes.  I have still kept giving them the same amount of food and they eat it all. This is on top of the kitchen scraps, but egg production has gone down and had put this down to the weather.  With fewer hens the 'pecking order' is more pronounced and I think I put too much into their run to compensate for this.

I have always fed them on pellets but  friends of ours lost all their hens to a fox recently and passed on all their pellets mixed with grain.  They did the 'starving chickens' for the first few days and now will eat all.  I just think that they are greedy buggers that prefer scraps; pellets; grain.

Bloomin' hens, they don't half make you feel guilty :'(

[vcatkinson]

I have just found this advice in Country Smallholding magazine March addition
Typical 2kg mature laying hen 120g to 130g per bird per day.
Also says 1 hen 1kg (Feed per week)
5 5kg
10 birds half bag
20 1 bag
50 birds 2.5 bags
100 5 bags
Also mentions that some birds could eat more than others naturally greedy or fussy.
Hope this helps
This magazine is monthly and has good supplement about Hens.
Victoria

[grannyjanny]

Thanks folks. As I thought really OH is ignorant of the fact that as he fills the bowl they are scattering. I bought a bigger bowl & said to only half fill it but that has gone by the board. Tomorrow I shall weigh it out for him ;D ;D ;D.