Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?

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Little Devil

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Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« on: March 14, 2010, 01:33 »
Hello all

Thanks for the useful tips already given on my first two questions (unfortunately my escapee is still at it  :wacko:

My next question to you all is I feed my girls layers pellets, complete with all the necessary supplements, mixed corn and I add in some  crushed oyster shell.  Is this overkill or am I doing it right?  Only two of my three are laying, and have been for two months.  The eggs are superb and are now a regular delivery.  Hopefully the third one will start laying soon (I think it's the naked neck that's still to lay).  They look healthy and happy but would like reassurance from the experts   :)

Little Devil

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joyfull

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2010, 08:45 »
I feed mine layers all day, mixed corn in the late afternoon only (otherwise they will eat that and not the layers) and then they have either crushed oyster shell or in my case crushed baked egg shells available separately all the time. Suppliments are given to my girls - when they are moulting - in their feed (poultry spice) or occasionally in their water (lifeguard) and at other times they have crushed garlic cloves and apple cider vinegar in their water. When I worm mine or after any medication I sprinkle avipro in their feed as this is a good bird probiotic.  :)
Staffies are softer than you think.

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hillfooter

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2010, 14:48 »
Nutrition is best kept simple. Compound feeds like layers pellets contain ALL the nutrition your chx need there's no need to add anything so don't.  

Just feed layers adlib (available all the time).  Never mix in extras like corn or you will destroy the balance in the layers and they will waste the pellets by scratting it out to get the corn.  Feed mixed poultry corn by hand in the evening when they've filled up with layers.  One small handful each only.  Excess of calcium, particularly for young birds, can cause problems.  Oyster shell can be made available adlib away from their feeders if you feel happier to do this but it's only really needed for older birds.  Calcium on its own will not help egg shell quality and can cause rough shells with pips if fed in excess.  A balance of minerals are needed which are already catered for in the pellets.

Supplements have their place but only when you are aiming at a specific requirement such as a deficiency identified by your vet or during a moult or recovery from illnes for example.  Otherwise don't feed these as a routine.  During moult multivitamin supplements can be used otherwise don't waste your money on wonder foods and supplements.

Avoid over feeding high energy density food via scraps ie refined carbohydrates such as pasta and definitely not cat food protein unless advised by a vet to recover from illness.  Too much high energy feed can cause obesity and behavioural problems. By all means feed a few treats and scraps but keep it to less than 5% of their feed.  An average sized hybrid will eat typically 120grams of layers a day (more when cold) and drink about 200ml of water a day (more in hot weather).  Obviously this will vary by breed and size and season but it's a good rule of thumb.

Hope this helps
HF

« Last Edit: March 14, 2010, 14:51 by hillfooter »
Truth through science.

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hillfooter

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2010, 15:11 »
Joy mentions Poultry Spice and many keepers use this but not many know what it is or why they feed it other than it's  given wisdom.  Poultry Spice is a cocktail of minerals along with a mix of herb appetisers.  It's a very old  fashioned concoction which was designed to supplement an unbalanced feed such as household scraps. 

During the last war the government encouraged people  to keep hens on allotments and in back gardens to help provide eggs as part of the "dig for victory" campaign.  Compound chicken feeds weren't readily available.  People were advised to feed chx on household scraps and to provide the missing trace elements with poultry spice.  These days of course modern feeds contain these ingredients but Poultry Spice has entered chx keeping folklore and lives on.  It just duplicates what's in a modern compound feed.

Regards
HF

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joyfull

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2010, 15:24 »
Maybe, but I do feed mine it during times of stress such as moulting and not all the time (besides it smells nice  ;)  :lol: :lol:).

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Caralou

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2010, 15:29 »
I add it when I make them a warm mash in the winter times and when moulting and although probably not needed I agree with Joy it does smell nice  ::) ;)

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Snoop

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2010, 18:06 »
Thank you, hillfooter. That was very useful for me. I feed a kind of meal they sell here in Spain for layers (not pellets but powdery with bits of ground corn in it), along with leftover greens from the allotment (cauli and cabbage leaves, for example), plus an occasional handful of something they seem to love: olives frozen by the cold and lying on the ground or straight off the trees. My impression is they are very good at regulating their own diet, and do the rounds from one thing to the next, their preference being for the meal. I had no idea what poultry spice was. I've read about it in numerous posts and was a bit worried my chickens were missing out on something essential. But it doesn't sound like it.

Thanks Little Devil for posting your query. I learn so much from questions other people ask that I hadn't even thought of.

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hillfooter

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2010, 22:54 »
Maybe, but I do feed mine it during times of stress such as moulting and not all the time (besides it smells nice  ;)  :lol: :lol:).

It won't do your chx any harm to add Poultry Spice if that makes you happy that's fine and it might help in some circumstances though i doubt it.  Basically manufacturers understand that chx don't buy their products, owners do, so the marketing is targeted at the owner and they appreciate the nice smells but there's no reason to think the chx will.  When I first started keeping chx over ten years ago i bought some poultry spice which I still have.  I thought as it was supposed to make the food more appetizing that it would help them accept feed which had been laced with wormer.  I needen't have bothered they ate the unspiced medicated feed just fine and there was no noticable improvement by addding the spice so it's been sitting on my poultry medicines shelf ever since.  Though I'm tempted to add a bit to the MIL talc occassionally as it smells so nice!.

Talking of which Clare my daughter who is a nutritionist for a well known horse feed company once gave me several boxes of horse treats in the form of horse sized musesli bars.   They were the tail end of a failed product launch which were close to their sell by date and unsaleable so she brought them home for the horses but they didn't like them, however the chx loved them.  If I went into the run carrying a few of these I was almost mugged by the chx.  They contained rough crunchy grain held together with a molasses base toffee.  I actually was quite partial to the odd one too and they certainly kept me regular.  Perhaps I should try the Poultry Spice sherbert too mixed in with a few crunchy crushed egg shells.  Yummy :tongue2:
HF

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joyfull

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2010, 23:31 »
HF the way you keep mentioning crushing those egg shells I'm sure that one day you will succumb to doing it  :lol: :lol:

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hillfooter

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2010, 23:48 »
Actually I'm a secret crusher :wub: :blush:
HF

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joyfull

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Re: Am I Mixing Their Food too Much?
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2010, 23:56 »
 :lol: :lol:
next thing you'll be telling me is that you want to try organic feeds as well  ;)  :lol:



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