Feeding your chickens

Baby chicks should be fed a commercial chick starter feed with a coccidiostat for the first six weeks and then gradually weaned off the mash by adding whole grains to it. Small grains such as soft winter wheat or oats should be used. Be sure to include grit in their diet so they can digest the whole grain. Grit will help them to grind up the grain in their gizzards so they will get more nutrition from it and there is less of a chance for impaction in their system. Grit can be supplied in the form of coarse clean sand for young chicks. By eight weeks their diet should consist of 50 percent whole grain and cracked corn -scratch feed, and 50 percent grower mash. They can be kept on this diet until full size at some four to six  months.  A high protein (20 percent) mash is important for the growing stage of the young chick's life, especially for larger heavier breeds. Some young pullets will start to lay in the fall of their first year while most will start the following spring. Unmedicated laying mash can be fed to laying hens for top production, but this can be expensive. I feed my 40 laying hens whole grain yellow corn and oats with no laying mash and they lay well.

For meat production young cocks should be kept in a confined area so they do not develop tough muscles from running around and they should be proccessed before 6 months of age. If you wait till they are older they will start fighting and have to be seperated to prevent them from hurting one another. Starting around 4 weeks of age young cocks should be fed a high protein and vitamin fortified feed that has a coccidiostat and possibly antibiotics if the birds are numerous and kept crowded. When you have more birds housed together the danger of infectious diseases rises. You can use either crumbles or pellets but you should also offer whole grain yellow corn to get them use to eating it. Whole grain corn is the best feed for fattening cocks for the last two weeks before slaughter and should be the only feed offered for that period. It will clean the medications out of their systems and give the meat a better color and texture. Birds raised for meat use should have feed kept before them free choice, at all times and may have to be debeaked to prevent pecking and cannibalizism.

Young baby chicks should also have access to all the feed they want until around six weeks old, then about the same time that you start offering them whole grains, cut back to twice daily feedings. This will help them to accept the grain and start eating it. For the laying flock you can cut back to once a day feedings if they have a large enough yard to scratch in and stay busy. If they are confined then it is best to stick with two feedings, morning and evening, with the evening one being larger. Feeding in the evening is more important because it will help the birds keep warm over night due to the digestion going on in their system. Don't over feed the flock especially in the evening as any uneatened food will only serve to attract pests such as rats, mice, birds, and insects. Feed the flock only what they will eat completely in 20 minutes and when feeding crumbles or pellets use feeder trays to control wastage. When you feed whole grains they can be tossed on the ground to promote scratching. Be sure you spread the feed out so all the birds can feed not just the largest dominant ones. If you are only feeding whole grains you might want to supplement their water with vitamin supplements.

Don't be afraid to feed your chickens scraps such as fruit and vegetable peelings, old bread and cereals, soured milk, insect infested grain products, and most table scraps. None of these except for large amounts of onions or garlic will flavor the meats or eggs. Meats and egg shells are two things you should not feed to chickens. These things can lead to cannibalism and egg eating in the flock. Also don't feed chickens melons unless you cut them up into small parts, because if fed as large sections the birds will get melon juice all over their heads. This will attact flies and cause the birds to peck on each other. Weeds and spent plants from your garden and yard can be fed as long as no dangerous chemicals were used on them. If you fence off part of your chicken yard, you can plant a food crop in it for the birds such as millet, oats, turnips, sunflowers, and any other crops that are easy to grow in your area. Turnips will feed them twice, once when they eat the tops and then again as they dig up the roots.

During their off season and when molting, you can stop feeding the laying mash and only use whole grains. Chickens still need an adequate diet when not laying especially in the winter to stay warm. Another item that layers need added to their diet is a source of calcium such as oyster shells. If their diet is lacking in calcium soft shelled eggs will result. Other feed grains that I find can be used in moderation are grain sorghum and millet. If use alone or for too long a period I find these can cause some birds to get a white pasty diarrhea and overall flock production to fall off.