Laying hens - what do you feed yours?

[slowworm]

Following on from the egg thread, those of you who have hens or help look after them what do you feed them?

To avoid going of course we'll ignore the topic of kitchen scraps.

Ours will have access to grass and garden fruit and veg waste etc but I'm more curious to know what corn/layers rations you feed - if any and how the hens cope?

 

[mousey]

Dodson and Horrell or maybe Badminton layers pellets. My wife picks them up, I just pay, I don't pay much attention but it comes in a bright yellow bag.

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We have 4 chickens and a bag lasts a month or so.

 

[Dogoak]

Our hens are for egg production, given feed is layers pellets and mixed corn. There's some oyster shell (and old egg shells, baked in the oven and then crushed) available and they're wormed once a month or bi monthly.

 

[erehwon]

Ours are free ranging and only locked away at night for their own safety (jackals, foxes, polecats etc) so they feast on all the insects they can find in the grass, we feed them a mix of corn and wheat/barley that we either grow ourselves, glean from the fields or source from the landowners at harvesting time, this we grind to a 50/50 mix and supplement with loads of fruit, veg, bread or anything else going spare. We also dry and crush all our egg shells and feed back to them in their food for extra calcium, helps with their bones and for stronger egg shells, oyster grit is also recommended for this purpose. Nearly forgot we have a wormery and they like a handful of worms for a treat as well.

 

[Nomad64]

Layers pellets plus oyster shells and whatever they can forage.

Corn and broccoli are popular as treats as are slugs which result in a rugby scrum or Benny Hill style chase.

Picked up a secondhand treadle operated Grandpas Feeder locally from the Bay of E. Although I would baulk at paying the full price, it has been a real asset holding several days food and being vermin proof.

http://grandpasfeeders.com/

 

[Fraxinus]

Mine used to forage with a top up of corn feed and a variety of uncooked greens though I did see one of them with a still wriggling lizards tail in her beak and one found some polystyrene to be palatable.
( I was in Greece at the time) Chickens will eat most things and seem to enjoy attacking a half of cabbage left in their coup.
(took me half a day to excavate the polystyrene that someone had buried in the olive grove)
Rob.

 

[R.G. Barjey]

My ducks and chickens get mixed corn, layers pellets and rolled barley.
To touch slightly on the kitchen scraps thingy .... I buy a bag of spuds, cut then into chunks and boil them.
They`re not kitchen scraps this way.

 

[richy3333]

As everyone else layers, mixed corn, oyster grit. Ours wait by the back door every morning for bread scraps and readybrek (that’s a third our stock in the photo).