Are they eating enough?

clucking chicks

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Please can someone advise me about my 2 new girls, Elsie and Doris? They are my first chickens- now 19 weeks old and love roaming around our little garden. They are only warrens...nothing rare or expensive...but we already love 'em dearly! They have hardly eaten any grain since we bought them a week ago... I assumed they would gobble it. Maybe they are eating slugs etc as they wander around for most of the day. Please could you reassure me!?
 
Dont worry, they will be getting a lot of what they need from foraging this time of year. Just let them have some layers adlib & a small handful of wheat to get them in or to come to you. In the winter you will find they eat more pellets& corn to keep themselves warm. :-)17
 
Agree with ncotb propobly they have plenty to eat from the garden.My chickens in the begining would not touch any corn.I had soaked a little in boiling water and then they start to eat.Chickens are very suspicius of anything new(even when you change pellets sometimes)they need time to try and ajust.Give them more time.If you can try to find out what the breeders had fed them before,somtimes when fed with mush will not tuch pellets straigt away.
 
What sort of 'grain' are you feeding them, and how much? At 19 weeks they should be eating layers pellets as their main food, as this contains a complete and balanced diet which will help them finish growing and prepare them for egglaying. It's quite common for young birds not to like pure grain very much, ie the mixture of wheat and maize which is often sold as 'chicken corn', and in any case the maize component is very fattening, useful in winter as a treat to keep them warm through the night, but should be given only in very small quantities as a treat at the end of the afternoon, when they've eaten their pellets, never as a main food. Are you giving them any other household scraps? If so, cut right back on these, again to improve pellet uptake, as they'll get lots of treats for themselves by foraging. The stuff they find in the garden is very valuable, but warrens have been bred for egglaying and need quite a specialised diet to enable them to do this. So, if they were mine, and I had concerns, I would keep them shut up in their run until the afternoon, so they got hungry and ate their pellets, and then I'd let them out for an hour or two to enjoy all the benefits of foraging in your garden. It'll reduce the strain on your garden as well, as winter approaches!
 
Thank you for the hints.... They are eating some layers pellets and I only give them a little bit of corn for a treat in the afternoon. I think they are getting most of their food from foraging so I may reduce their 'out time' to encourage their pellet eating!! (my honeysuckle will be v. relieved!!!!)
 
We had to reduce the free ranging time of our hens to half a day -afternoons. They were just filling up with 'rubbish' and not eating the pellets. Should be eating about 100 grammes layers pellets each day until they lay when it increases to 150 plus. Remember an egg weighs 50 -80 grammes (I know a lot is water). We give ours corn treats which has the added advantage of being able to 'round them up' when necessary for any health inspections.
 
As of tomorrow, we will do the same as you! I will miss having them wrapped around my ankles as I peg the washing out!!! But I will release them just before lunch. Thanks for your help with this!
 
I kept my girls in this morning so they only had pellets to eat. ;)

It made me feel really mean as they kept walking up and down in their run......looking longingly at the garden. I felt like a battery farmer . It took all of my willpower to not release them!
 
mine eat every thing i give them as noting left of he garden even the bugs are sparce lol.
watch dont get chubby i think mine might be
 

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