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My neighbours chickens wont eat the standard layers mash despite it being put out for them in quantity.
They only want to eat 'human food' - bread, spaghetti, rice, melon. They still eat the garden stuff - grass- bugs, slugs, worms etc.

But the eggs produced dont have shells.

How can they be made to eat the correct food ?

strange

never heard of that one - is it made as a mash always - what about dry do they eat it then

do they other poultry food - corn etc

providing baked, crushed eggshells should work viz no shells

Have they tried poultry grit as a supplement?

Or maybe layers pellets instead of mash?

Ours will eat any human food in preference to pellets... They're locked in with free access to pellets (plus a bit of grit/shell mix) & only get other stuff when they're let out at around 9, by which time they've had a healthy breakfast. Mash will spoil, as will pellets, if it's allowed to go damp...

I agree with RotH, try pellets and grit.

Treat as you would your kids... nutritional stuff first and treats later ::)If they don't eat the good stuff, no treats, they won't starve themselves ;D

Mine have constant access to pellets and grit all day, and when i get in from picking up sprogs from school, they get treats.

leave nothing but there food avalible. eventually they will get hungry and have to eat it, thats what i did, and now they cant get enough of the stuff.

Let them go hungry. They'll soon be eating the chicken food. You could try mixing a little human food in with it to get them started.

when we got the ex batts, we mixed the pellets with some liquid from cooked veggies, they didn't half wolf it down  ;D

I feed mine the layers pellets and mixed corn together in the feeder, they have this during the day and i let them out when i finish work to eat the weeds and bugs.
This works as i'm getting 4 eggs a day from 4 hens

Is it possible to over feed hens ?

Grit is used by the birds to 'grind' hard seeds, etc in the gizard (the muscly sac below the crop) - its not used for making shells.

Shells are made using calcium so they need to get enough of that intheir diet to produce hard shells. You can provide calcium via ground up sea shells or baked and crushed egg shells as mentioned above.

Most good chicken feeds (mash or pellets) have enough calcium for the hens to produce good shells without any extra required.

Maybe so, but the sacks of poultry grit I buy are actually ground sea shells, perhaps that's the difference between grit and poultry grit?

Quote from: Slug_killer on October 21, 2009, 03:05:53
Is it possible to over feed hens ?

Not with layers pellets/mash as they seem to get bored with it before they overeat.

However, put corn/maize in front of them and they will eat forever and ever! Its often said that eating corn/maize makes them fat and lazy layers too.

I leave their feeders out all day with pellets in them - just take away at night to stop the rats eating it whilst the chickens sleep.  More often than not, there is lots left over at the end of the day - so they are stopping when they have had enough.

Quote from: marc555 on October 20, 2009, 19:26:23
I feed mine the layers pellets and mixed corn together in the feeder, they have this during the day and i let them out when i finish work to eat the weeds and bugs.
This works as i'm getting 4 eggs a day from 4 hens

i do this with mine but they seem to pick out the corn just leaving the pellets.?????

ours just get pellets and weeds etc in the morning, I throw 4 to 5 handsful of corn around in the afternoon so they can scratch , we have 113 :)

Mine did the same picking the corn out and leaving the pellets at first so i stopped putting the corn in and just gave them pellets for a week during the day and when i went down at night scattered a handful of corn for them.
After a week i mixed the corn and pellets 50/50 and they eat the lot now.

Quote from: marc555 on October 24, 2009, 17:32:08
Mine did the same picking the corn out and leaving the pellets at first so i stopped putting the corn in and just gave them pellets for a week during the day and when i went down at night scattered a handful of corn for them.
After a week i mixed the corn and pellets 50/50 and they eat the lot now.

only problem is i've already pre mixed 20k of pellets with 20k of corn.......DOH!

I'f agree with an earlier statement about layers pellets in the morning and mixed corn in the afternoon. We have chickens and started mixing pellets and corn but found they were just picking the corn, now they know that its pellets in the morning then in the afternoon they get let out and fed corn, and monday normally means left over sunday roast and gravy day!! No harm in giving left overs but they must have pellets as their main diet as this aids for there eggs and well being. If you just have egg layers like us the corn helps for the creamy yolk but scatter it to encourage them to scratch and get natural grit. I do add grit once a week but they are an evolved animal and know when they need to take in grit!
Happy keeping!!

hiya, jono, welcome to a4a.. ;D
what sort of chooks do you have?

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome. We currently have 2 black rhodes and a brown hen, although if I can get a break in the weather I will finish the new coup and run then get one more brown hen/warren and two columbian black tails, as they like to stay to their own type I though it best to keep different breeds in pairs.
I dont have many but enough for me my partner and our son. We also have a Gordon Setter but she is ok now with the chickens, but jittery at first!!!