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Post by Farmer Annie on Aug 2, 2005 14:29:02 GMT -5
Those of you who have laying hens, how do you feed them?
Any favourite recipes...? (favourite grains/mixes...?)
What do you find best encourages good health and productivity?!
We used to feed ours organic grain (and mash made with it), but although the price of the grain was fine, the cost of getting it transported to here (which cost was increasing) made it so uneconomical we eventually stopped getting it!
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Post by sparks on Aug 13, 2005 10:59:04 GMT -5
I feed my chickens corn & left over vegies & they free-range.
I keep their coop clean and raked, make sure they always have fresh water.
Right now with the Fl. heat and humidity they are slowing down on laying, but give us enough for family use and selling. I have 30 chickens right now and 2 roosters and I'm raising 12 for family consumption.
Sometimes when the humidity is really high with the heat I put a sprinkler out in their area to help cool them down and it sprinkles on their coop to cool the inside.
Chickens will also slow down on laying when they are molting.
Hope this helps.
Cyndee
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Post by Farmer Annie on Aug 15, 2005 20:44:31 GMT -5
Ours free-range - except for the ones in the cage for breeding (we have 3 roosters, and want a bit more control of the parentage of our chicks). They get wheat and home-ground mash morning and night. They get scraps sometimes, but usually scraps go to the goats or pigs...!
We just seem to have a problem getting our pullets to start laying by a reasonable age, yet some of them were putting on fat in the meantime. I suspect they need more protein in the mash we make for them, to balance the carbohydrates, fibre etc. (- both in the mash and the grass). Thus my interest in mixtures of grains and such. Peas, for instance, are supposed to add protein to the mash. Barley is supposed to have vit.B5 in it. etc.
Here near the bottom of NZ, our temperatures are reasonably comfortable, most of the time, and we don't get too much humidity here (not even like what we got in the Waikato, when we lived there). Even in summer, there is usually somewhere the chooks can go where there is shade and/or breeze...
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Post by Farmer Annie on Sept 11, 2005 17:51:07 GMT -5
I discovered this website this morning - all about feeding chooks! inc. lots of recipes and information, so I thought I'd share it! www.lionsgrip.com/chickens.html |
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