Is there any way to get hens to eat more corn? They don’t seem to be eating much of it out of the feed I’m giving them, and the eggs yolks are fairly pale and look anemic.
Corn is a treasure and a nuisance . It ’s a chinchy and sluttish fashion to add a braggart punch of immediate get-up-and-go ( carbohydrates ) to nutrient mathematical product and brute feed . But , like most things ready and comfortable , it ’s follow by a itty-bitty cumulonimbus cloud of doom : Its nutritional benefit are very low . Besides a burst of vigour , corn has very little else that chickens need . A diet enceinte on corn and other empty carbohydrates can leavechickens obeseand undernourished , bestow to general ill wellness and disease . As long as corn is part of what ’s reckon a concluded provender , the consumption is fine , but if it ’s for the most part left uneaten , perhaps it ’s the faulty feed or just the wrong provender for your flock .
Scratch Grains
It ’s gentle , especially for beginner crybaby keeper , to mistake feedbags at the store and return home with the unseasonable product . Even after five years of keeping chickens , my hubby ran my errand and buy the haywire bagful offeed . He was appalled to learn that chicken feed grain ( poulet scratch ) is n’t chicken feed at all , but chickensnacks . In his defense , the chickens are my spare-time activity not his , and it ’s an sluttish mistake to make .
Always read the bag to be sure you ’re buying the right-hand product — the bag will note if it hold a consummate provender or not . Scratch is not an appropriate source of sustenance — it ’s mostly corn .
Chickens can be particular about nutrient . I ’ve talked to a lot of the great unwashed about their chicken , and preference seem to alter by spate more than by private bird , even in motley - strain flocks . If you feed starting line , even appropriately , and chicken leave the corn , they probably prefer the other cereal .
Feeding Too Much
chicken are mussy , finical , pecking feeder , and they waste a mess of feed . One fashion I tackle food waste is by feeding them much less at one time . Since wintertime ended , I ’ve stopped giving them invariant memory access to feed in thePVC confluent I built last summer . They get one or two scoops of provender in the morning , free - range kitchen garbage throughout the day , and finally eat one or two scoop of feed before layer — they get fed when they ’re athirst and are less prone to wasting it . However , this is a warm weather docket . frigid months require more Department of Energy and more feed , include scratch grains before bed .
arrant feeds that are made up of identifiable grains ( not march pellet or mash provender ) get out much of their nutrition in the literal dust . Many times , I feed this eccentric of feed to my mess as “ oatmeal ” with water added . This forces the hens to wipe out the micronutrient they would otherwise leave behind . And it ’s great for getting both feed and water into the flock at the same time , especially for mybroody Australorp .
Pale Yolks
Pale white-livered ballock yolks are n’t attributable to a deficiency of iron , as the proofreader suggested anaemia . To get a deep - orange tree egg yolk , chickens postulate to eat their greens , like forage , trefoil and even plantain tree ( considerably eaten after mulched by the lawn mower ) .
Aggressivefree - rangerswill create eggs with the darkest yolks . spare - grasp hen that are , perhaps , a tad lazier and favour feed will have the palest yolks , even if they are eat a complete commercial provender . restrain backyard chickens , like lazy loose - Texas Ranger , will also have pale yolks unless they are append with greens .
Living Plant Foods
We should n’t stop offer up provender containing corn to our volaille , but it is a good approximation to round out out the diet if you have nutrition business . Like human food , nutrition can never be complete if it comes in a traveling bag . I ca n’t get the health welfare of fresh spinach plant from a box of cereal , and neither can my chickens . They call for their green , too .
If you may not innocent - stove your troop , give grass clippings to your chickens in their run . They ’ll forage through it and kick it around , satisfying natural behaviors . Whatever they do n’t exhaust will dry out , break down and become part of their test . you may also construct agrazing frameinside the run to acquire greens for them throughout most of the class .
Egg yolk characteristics are honest indicant of your flock ’s nutrition and overall health . You ’ll notice each egg varies , even when each hen is offered the same lifestyle . study your sight ’s ballock is another fun way to inquire personality differences and individual habit .
Rachel Hurd Anger
