Chicken feed

[dave45]

We are new to keeping chickens and were led to believe that they will eat veggie kitchen scraps... well ours seem to be fussier than the average cat and leave most things.... any recommendations?

[Thomzo]

Hi Dave
Firstly, just be aware that DEFRA guidelines say that you shouldn't feed kitchen scraps to chickens if you sell the eggs. If this is not a problem then it's probably just a case of getting them used to the food. If they have only ever been fed pellets or mash before then they simply won't recognise the scraps as being edible.

A tip is to deliberately underfeed them on the food that they are used to and then put the scraps down. They will be so hungry that they will be forced to eat the scraps. This may sound cruel but they will thank you for it.

My ex-battery hens (CMA they are kept separate from the main flock and I don't sell their eggs) wouldn't touch scraps at first. So I fed them only on scraps for a couple of days. Now when I put a mixture of scraps and pellets down they rush to the scraps first and pick out the best bits before they hoover up the pellets.

Finally, be aware that the layers feed is designed to maximise egg production. Scraps may not provide enough of the right nutrients and you may find that egg production decreases.

Finally, cook everything well to avoid possible contamination with salmonella. I pop the scraps in the microwave for about 5 minutes.

Happy feeding time
Zoe

[Odsox]

The only "scraps" I feed mine are potato peelings cooked for about 5 mins, and like Thomzo's there is a mad dash to get the peelings, with one picking up a peeling and the others chasing her round the run.
When I feed peelings I reduce their pellets by a little, but not much, also they get the outside lettuce leaves, cabbage and cauliflower "stumps" and any other leafy garden waste.

BUT, I have kept chicken for many years and I can confirm that although they have always been the same breed, they are always a little bit different. What one generation does naturally doesn't mean the next is going to do the same things, and even hens from the same hatching can be individuals too. Over the years I have had some chicken that will clear a rough area of all vegetation and some that just treat the grass as something to sunbathe on ... some that will tear a spent sprout plant to shreds and others that just look at it wondering what on earth they're supposed to do with THAT.
So be prepared for them to ignore your best intentions.

[dave45]

well they already ignore my intentions :-)

as to restricting food - their pellets are in a big plastic hopper suspended on a piece of clothesline - they eat as much as they want... should I be measuring and rationing the feed?

[Odsox]

should I be measuring and rationing the feed?

That depends on how you're keeping them.
Mine have always been kept "sort of" free range (see the other chicken thread on here), so they get a proportion of their food through grubs, insects and grass.
Chicken can only eat so much at a time, when their crops are full they stop. If they had pellets always available I think they would become lazy and ignore the harder work of finding food themselves, and remember it's the "other" things they eat that makes their eggs so much different to battery ones. Mine get fed pellets twice a day, once when I let them out in the morning and again in the late afternoon when I pick the eggs up.
But if you keep them in a restricted run with perhaps a concrete floor, then of course none of the above applies.