Layers pellets ..

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Chicken drumstick

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Hi

My lot dont like dry pellets but will eat a few if nothing else is offered .

They much prefer them wetted with warm water and if i add a few meal worms and corn its a feeding frenzy but the tray of dry layers hardly gets touched .

Is this the norm ?

Its no problem for me , but just thinking if i ever go away for a week i can get a neighbour to shut them and put feed and water in the feeders but i would not want to ask them to prepare a meal for them ..lol..

I take it they would eat dry layers rather than starve if i was away ? , but left to dry layers only they are eating 50 % less :roll:
 
When mine are free-ranging they'll eat ANYTHING but the pellets. Which explains the state of my garden! When they're in the run they'll gobble the pellets down.

If you leave them all day with just pellets, does the level seem to go down at all? I suspect it will, but if given the option of any other treat of any other sort they'll choose that. There's something about the food you've got all day, it just ends up being a bit dull in comparison with anything else.
 
Try the Smallholder range Chicken Drumstick. Ours really like them as the pellets are smaller and the contents are full disclosed. No chemical colorants (yolk enhancers, permitted and in most feeds) they look more grainy. We started with cheap commercial feed and they didn't eat that much. When we tried to use up the remainder after giving them Smallholder they refused it completely.

Problem with dampening the pellets is they go 'off' very quickly. If there is any left over at night it needs throwing away as it will be mouldy by morning and sour crop will follow.

We used to let ours free range only after they had a crop full of feed, otherwise they filled themselves with rubbish and eventually started losing weight (piggy Orpingtons). So they went out at lunchtime for the afternoon and still do.
 
Yes, mine go mad for their warm damp mash in the late afternoon, prepared like you do yours, and I think this is good because they then go to roost with a full crop before the long cold winter nights and many hours of not feeding. Aldo, if you want to add any supplements such as a little cod liver oil or mineral tonic, you can put it in the mash and see it going down. I agree with Chris that you don't want to leave it lying around, but you soon get to know how much they will clear up in the feeding frenzy and just make that much for them. The dry pellets do go down, albeit more slowly, and in summer I wean them off the mash when they get more time outside the run.

As for the neighbours, I provide plastic pots of 'mash mix' and it's no extra trouble to add warm water and give it to the hens, in fact it's very amusing and rewarding to see them so grateful for a visit! In winter its much more problematic to ensure the neighbours understand the importance of going at least twice a day, including first thing, to sort out frozen drinkers. I'm lucky because I have a friend two doors away and we usually look after each other's birds when each of us goes away, so I know he will do it reliably in return for my help. Non- chickeney people do need a bit more training, but I've also found a reliable teenager who will do the routine care for pocket money, plus a promised bonus if I find everything in order when I return.
Since your girls and mine are primarily pets, I see no problem in feeding them like this and the bit of extra daily care and attention is well worth it. Obviously, someone with a larger flock might not be able to take this on, but that's just a different scale of things, isn't it?
 
Thanks everyone for the replies :D

No the dry pellets in the feeder hardly go down this is why i tried the mash after reading up on chicken feeding .

I cannot remember the brand of pellet i bought the bag as part of a starter pack and put the pellets in a large air tight container and threw the bag away :roll:

I will google the small holder range of pellets as i am due another bag , a 20 kg bag has lasted 2 months for 5 hens (3 x bats 2 x warrens) plus healthy treats at night so they are eating it slowly ? either dry or mainly as mash .
 
They should be eating 100 -150g per day Chicken Drumstick, although that reduces a lot when they stop laying. So they should eat about 500g per day between them so a 20 Kg bag would last up to 40 days on that basis. If they are not laying it could be double that. So perhaps they are eating enough? I would expect a starter pack to be a cheap brand of feed anyway. Better quality feed gives better tasting eggs in my experience, otherwise they are just eating what the layers of the eggs in the supermarket have. We have had to buy eggs as ours were all moulting and the yolk and white tasted the same -of almost nothing! If I had eaten them blindfolded I wouldn't have known what I was eating.
 
I'm not saying this is the problem with your chickens but is perhaps something worth considering. Chickens are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for, if they think that something better may come along foodwise then they will hold out for that. A few years ago when I switched a set of chickens who had only eaten mash onto pellets they refused to eat them, luckily I got some good advice which was that they were manipulating me :o . They ate nothing on the first day and moaned very loudly, very little or nothing on the second day with more moaning and on the third morning they went mad for the pelllets and ate them happily from then on as they realised the mash wasn't coming back, if I hadn't have been told what they were doing I may have given in and gone back to mash. I have known people who regularly give corn at set times having the same problem with lack of pellet consumption, the birds know the corn is coming so leave their crops nice and empty so they can filly their boots with the good stuff. They know exactly what they are doing :lol:
 
Good post that Dinosaw. I remember reading about an experiment that proved chickens were capable of self control (think it was in Practical Poultry). If I remember correctly they had the option of a short wait for a small treat or a much longer wait for a much bigger treat. They learned to wait for the big one. Indeed, chickens are most certainly far smarter than people generally give them credit for.
 
I think you are right Dinosaw .

They do seem to hang on until the treats or mash come along .

Tonight a tray of pellets was untouched since this morning so i mixed in cucumber , wholemeal bread and a tiny amount of water , added more pellets and they scoffed the lot in around 10 minutes , the dried pellets would have been left so my theory was they have eaten layers pellets plus some greens so at least they have eaten plenty .

I dont mind doing the mash and i think i have been to soft with them since some are ex battery hens .

I am due another bag of pellets i think i will go for the BOCM farm gate pellets ...they seem a good price and i can get them locally so might stick them on dried pellets for there own good for awhile then introduce treats again .

Are the BOCM farm gate pellets considered a decent brand or are they better ones i can source locally ?
 
I'm sure they're fine.
I get Dodson and Horrell from Pets at Home, which are a good brand, non-GM if that matters to you, and they do free delivery over £30, which is a help to me. I get a couple of bags at a time plus some dog food to bring the order up to £30.
 
Thanks Marigold .

I never thought about pets at home and its only 10 minutes away from me , the farm gate pellets are £9.48 for 20 kg collect which seems pretty cheap but its from a Chicken / egg outlet so they must buy by the truck load .

I will check out the cost of the pets at home pellets i am not to a few quid price difference as long as they like it and its good quality :D


Edit ....

Only £12.49 and as you say GM free i dont think the farm gate pellets are so i will go for the Dodson and Horrell pellets , thanks again :-)17
 
It was the BOCM Farm Gate pellets we had the problem with Chicken Drumstick -it also contains the 3 permitted yolk enhancer chemical colorants which are listed on the contents label. We settled on Smallholder for the smaller pellet size, which makes an easier transition for chicks from chick crumb. We used Dodson and Horrell chick crumb which was an excellent product. In comparison to the growth rate from cheap crumb the birds grew about 30% faster -6 week chicks were the same size as 8 weeks chicks on the cheap stuff. As Marigold says, no chemicals in your eggs with D and H feed.
 
I use the Smallholder range like Chris too. I once bought a big bag of cheaper Countrywide pellets and they wouldn't touch it. I think it may have been because they were in a plastic bag instead of a paper bag and smelt really plasticky and horrible. I am very easily manipulated so binned the lot. I used to buy mash but it's not very easy to find around here so now, first thing in the morning, I just soak the pellets in very hot water to get them mushy, leave it to cool down a bit and take them that for breakfast. On very cold mornings, when they are worried about their little feet getting chilly if they come downstairs, I have been known to give them 'breakfast in bed'. They aren't that bothered about mash in the afternoon but Basil will eat just about anything out of my hand and grumbles loudly if I just put food on the ground rather than hand-feed him. I also give them corn in the afternoon so they tend to congregate outside the glass doors to let me know that it's about that sort of time. However, this afternoon I had already given them their corn and they came back again and were just looking at me expectantly. I finally realised that I had brought the pellet hopper in earlier to wash and forgotten all about it and what they wanted was their pellets before they went to bed. They are indeed more intelligent than some people think.
 
Well they certainly weren't very happy with the management last night. I changed the timer on the pop hole opener a few days ago as it's getting dark so much earlier now. When I went out at about 6pm to make sure they were tucked up ok (and read them a story :-)07 ) I found Basil inside safe and sound, but poor Myrtle had been caught out and was sitting outside at the top of the ramp looking very confused! When I put her inside, Basil insisted on sitting at the opposite end of the perch until I moved them together, so I assumed they'd had a domestic. She's in there in time tonight though - sitting on the floor in the corner with her head under Basil to keep warm! She always moves to the perch later so I just let her sit there. Went to check out some little friends for them today which will hopefully help keep them warmer at night and make life more interesting for them.
 
Hi all :D

Bought the D & H Pellets from pets at home , they look to me loads better than the ones i had , a darker colour and no dust and you can see by the list of whats in them imho they are better pellets than i got as a "starter pack" .

They still dont eat much pellets , not that i expected a massive change in a day and i am so glad of the advice on here :D

I am leaning towards feeding the pellets as i was before .....warm and slightly mushy in the mornings or evenings (not both ) with some greens added and plenty of dry pellets in the feeders for the rest of the day .

This way seems to get them to eat about 50 % more layer pellets anyway than leaving them to eat dry pellets from the feeders :-)11

Sorry to harp on about this but its early days for me and i want to get it right long term for there health .

Basically , if they prefer there food prepared in this way , if i ever go away for a week they wont starve for a week on dried pellets surely , so i might just give them what they like (with plenty of layers pellets) which i know should be there staple diet .

Sound ok ?
 
That's fine Chicken Drumstick, as long as all the dampened feed is eaten and none is left over. It goes mouldy quite quickly when damp and then you potentially have sour crop problems, so yesterdays damp feed could be 'off' the next morning.
 
Gosh - you're either up late or up early Chris! Yes, I always take the mash bowl away in the evening which does entail a bit of wastage sometimes - but they're worth it!
 
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