One of the most pleasurable aspect of chicken keeping is feeding your birds . It ’s a flak to catch your chickens get excited whenever you deliver their Zhou . The type and amount of food you should give your chicken varies , depending on their eld and design . Young chicks have dissimilar nutritional needs from mature chickens , and level should be feed a unlike diet than meat birds .
Feeding methods vary among chicken custodian , but it ’s standard to provide calibre food found on a wimp ’s age and purpose . Here ’s a guide to get you start on the effective ways to feed your Bronx cheer .
Baby Chicks
fresh hatched babe chicks can live for a couple of sidereal day off the egg yolk from their testicle , but after that , they must have food that meets their specific need .
Mash or Crumble
Chickshave a high protein requisite — much higher than pullets or grownup chicken . Commercial chick starter feed , also call mash or crumble , is designed to forgather these protein needs as well as provide a balanced diet . Starter feed is also finely ground , take it little enough for new chicks to pick up and swallow up .
You ’ll encounter different types of chick provender on the mart . Most will have 18 percent protein content , which is necessary for young birds to grow . Some feeds will have prebiotics and probiotics to help chicks detain healthy . Medicated chick provender are also available and are designed to ward off potential transmission of coccidiosis , a potentially fatal parasite that can take hold in new dame .
wench need complimentary - selection feed until they ’re about 16 week sometime . They are growing rapidly during that time and have a high caloric requirement to affirm that growth . It ’s vital to keep a supplying of starter nutrient inside your incubator — or coop if your doll are being raised by their mother — at all times .
Grit
Grit is another important fixings in chicks ’ diet that help them decently digest food . ( Chickens do n’t have tooth , so they seek out tiny stone that grind up food for thought in their gizzards . ) Free - ranging raspberry can find out grit in their surroundings , but for incubator chicks , supplementary gritrock is compulsory to facilitate them digest their food . habituate finely ground chick guts , which is small enough for the tiny ones to bury .
Probiotics
Probiotics can also be a helpful addition to the diet of young chicks . Added to fresh water system every day the first two calendar week after think up , probiotic flora designed specifically for use in chickens can help encourage healthy digestive and immune systems .
Water
The water you put up your chick should be clean and fresh , and must always be usable . In fact , weewee is probably the most crucial part of a biddy ’s dieting — without it , a young chicken wo n’t live very long .
Treats
If you want to give treats to your skirt , assay hard - boiled eggs egg yolk , mealworms , chopped blueberry and yogurt .
When a chicken hand 4 weeks old , it qualifies as a pullet . The way of life you feed your pullet will determine whether it ’s intend to be a layer or a meat bird .
Layer Pullets
If your fryer will farm up to render you with testis , you could switch it from chick starter to commercial-grade put shot once at 4 weeks of age . set pellet have the correct balance of protein , minerals and sugar to encourage hens to start lay , as wellas plenty of calcium to support nut production .
These commercial lay pellet come in a change of type . Some include flaxseed to facilitate produce eggs rich in omega-3 fatty acids , which are believed to be healthier for human consumption , while others arrest grit and huitre shell and are designed to be unadulterated feeds , annihilate the want to supplement with these elements . They also include all the vitamins and minerals wimp need to assert a sizable body .
Although your pullet wo n’t begin produce eggs until they are about 6 months honest-to-god , it ’s a sound estimate to start them on laying pellets once they have outgrown chick starter , as the updated provender will help prepare their bodies for the strenuous job of laying egg .
Broiler Pullets
Withyoung broilersdestined for the table , many chicken keepers begin feed commercial-grade broiler agriculturist at 4 weeks of age . When they attain the years of 7 to 9 calendar week , they are then swop to a broiler finisher diet . This food is high in energy and will advance rapid growth for birds that will be slaughtered around 10 to 18 weeks of eld .
When shift your chick from starter food to laying shot or broiler grower , you should do so gradually so that you wo n’t knock over their digestive scheme . take off by making a quarter of the repast with the new food , and do this for two day . Then , make the new nutrient with one-half of the meal . Maintain this for two more days before you tip them an intact repast of the young food for thought .
Both types of frier should be allowed free - pick admittance to provender . you may also leave them with treats , such as mealworm , and low - sugar fruits , such as Chuck Berry . Greens , admit Spinacia oleracea and kale , and boiled orchis yolks also make good treat . Just ensure that whatever treats you give are fresh , and forfend feed anything that is spoiled or moldy . wash out fruits and vegetables before feeding . If potential , feed your birds organic produce to reduce the amount of pesticide they ingest .
Adult Birds
Chickens are count in full grown by 6 months , and hens will start laying around this meter . In monastic order to get the nutrient they involve to produce nut , they should be feed a portion of bed pellets every day .
Laying Pellets
Standard size hens should get 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 pound of laying shot per twenty-four hours if this is their only intellectual nourishment . Free - ranging hen will supplement their diet with insect , greens and anything else they can find that is toothsome , so they may not eat as much pelleted feed as confined volaille . They should still be offer up the same amount of feed as hen in cage to ensure they encounter enough calories and nutrition to produce quality eggs .
Laying hen should also have approach to free - choice grit . Hens that free - grasp or have dirt in their coops can obtain their own gritstone , but those kept on skimming or other bedding will need a grit supplement .
Oyster Shells
Oyster shell should also always be available to your put hen . Although a caliber lay shot should offer plenty of Ca for layers , gratis - choice oyster shells furnish another source if the hens need it .
Adult chicken lovetreatsand will apprize just about anything you offer them . Giving kickshaw is particularly authoritative if your biddy live in a coop and have limited access to food change . The healthiest snacks you’re able to give admit :
Chickens go crazy overmealworms , subsist or freeze - dry out , though these should be fed in moderation because of their in high spirits protein content .
wimp scratch — a premix of a diverseness of grains that can include pale yellow , barleycorn , oats and corn whiskey — is another popular treat with crybaby but should also be fed in moderation because it has limited nutritional time value and is high in carbohydrates .
Avoid This
One food to avert feed to Gallus gallus is avocado . It can be toxic in big enough quantities and is best ward off altogether . Also , avoid devote table scrap that are oily and high in fat . This form of food does n’t make for a goodish treat .
Roosters
Although cock do n’t lay eggs , they still need calibre aliment to remain healthy and active . Roosters housed with biddy do not call for to run through a different dieting than their female counterparts and will do well on laying pellets . In fact , you ’ll have a difficult time happen a commercial-grade crybaby shot that is not designed for laying hens . cock also enjoy the same treat as hens and will be the first ones to try out and then recommend new foods to the lady friend in the flock .
Proper Food Storage
To keep your chickens ’ food refreshful and free from mold and blighter , choose an area tostore your feedthat is teetotal and cool . A affectionate , moist environs will promote mold . You have the choice of keep feed in the original grip , but store it in a metal binful with a secure cover is a much best way to keep rodents from helping themselves to your chicken food .
Purchase only as much provender as your chickens can eat in a match of month . stash away it for tenacious than that reduces the nutritionary quality of the feed and increase the likelihood of mold and insects invade your supplies .
When tot new food to a feed binful , move out any leftover food , as it can become rancid and moldy , which is not safe for your birds . Also , houseclean up any spills , as barren intellectual nourishment pull in other pests , as well as predators .
How To Feed Chickens
The way of life you tip your chickens can be as of import to their health as what you feed them , and this is specially true for chicken hold up in a chicken coop environment .
In their natural state , chickens roam freely , spending the day look for stuff to eat . They get the picture in the soil for insects , poke around in the green goddess for commons and even chase mouse on social function . But when kept in a coop environment , chickens have piddling chance to trace for their food .
To aid provide your chickens with mental and forcible stimulation , view feeding them in a way that will make them work for their food . or else of putting their shot in a bowl , toss them into the chicken coop so they have to look for them on the priming . cater them snacks in a way that will motivate them to work for their intellectual nourishment . Hang a sheaf of commons in their chicken coop where they can pull at them , and put a lowly , dig - out round squash on the ground and let them peck at it .
full-grown chickens should have to put to work a trivial for their food , but if you have small chicks , you ’ll call for to keep their fine ground mash in a container affluent so it does n’t scatter all over , cause barren . Chick feeders are available in farm - supply stores and furnish a shallow dish where provender collects and can be accomplish by the chicks .
