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Two weeks ago I just did not have the £14 for my normal bag of organic layers pellets, I was lucky if I was getting one egg a day from five hens. Plus since the colder weather they are eatting four or five times what they where. So I decided to change them onto Farm gate layers pellets, this was £7 a bag. Now I am getting about three eggs a day

Just thought I'd share that

You would have to look at the protein content for each bag (little label on the side).there is a huge prob in the UK with the term 'organic'.2 years ago at the Ludlow food festival (free tickets or I wouldn't have bothered) I blundered into a tent where the Soil association were banging on about themselves etc. etc. The speaker was apoplectic when a real pig local farmer pointed out that even though his pigs were free range,and fed on cereal grown within a mile of his holding(and by chance 'organically'),and sold as pork,bacon or sausages etc.to people within 5 miles,couldn't legally be described as 'organic' as I couldn't afford the £2000 odd to be registered with the Soil Association (and the few hundred a year to maintain it) and any way there was no way I would give money to a self important ,self established organization,who were,and remain a mass marketing exercise for agri businessmen and the supermarkets.They have hi-jacked the term organic .This doesn't help you,I don't want to spoil your thread,get your feed as cheap as poss,local farm might help,you can always beef it up with a bit of soya(non GM ).I've got some cheap chicken feed mix recipes,would be pleased to help if needed,but your new stuff sounds like it works! Best wishes.

so long as it isn't hijacking the thread then id be interested in the recipes OJ. as for the organic classification to call your chickens free range you can keep up to 6 per square meter and up to 9 for organic.

Mine at present have 2 sq ft each.

I've found that my ladies lay less towards the end of the bag of pellets, then spring right back into full lay when I open a new sack. I'm wondering if it's to do with freshness. Of course, I've only had my chickens for 8 months and I feed them corn, greens and scraps as well, so we haven't got through very many sacks. It could be nothing more than coincidence, but worth considering.

Rosendula wrote:I've found that my ladies lay less towards the end of the bag of pellets, then spring right back into full lay when I open a new sack. I'm wondering if it's to do with freshness. Of course, I've only had my chickens for 8 months and I feed them corn, greens and scraps as well, so we haven't got through very many sacks. It could be nothing more than coincidence, but worth considering.

when I got my second bird the dealer told me to only buy small 2.5 kg bags as it goes off and they wil;l end up not eating it if I bought a big 15 kg bag with only 2 birds.

my banty's are in moult so im not getting many eggs at all atm i get my feed from a farmshop i know i dont mind whats in it really i know the farm produces it and i know they bag it all up so as im unemployed i pay less for the feed than i would if i bought farmgate i only buy 20-25kg bags last trip there i got 9 bags as i have a few friends i buy for atm iv opted to feed layers mash instead of pellets as i feed wet and i mix it with warm water on cold mornings

Matt

How much are you paying for a bag?

Nikki

bag of mixed corn £3.80 ish sometimes i pay more from same place but its worth while cheaper than shop price i use layers meal/mash £5 ish i add a bit if im buying for other people to cover fuel there 20kg paper bags nothing special but chooks eat it and there alive so im happy i had 177kgs in the boot of my car this time of animal feed last time just from the shop i had 200kg of feed in boot of car plus 3 adults i drank abit of fuel on that run.would you like me to pick you up some next time? i do a feed run if so pm me your number and il txt you when i do a run

i have only used country wide layers and corn and no scraps but when its very cold in the morning i make a mush out of the layers and corn