[Derek.laurence]

Hi folks,
I recently got my first three hens
Everything is going well so far.  They are approximately 12 weeks old and healthy.I have a hen house i bought from a DIY store with a small run inbuilt located inside my barn that they are safely located in at nigh and freerange during the day.
  One of them was sneezing last week with no other symptoms.  I attributed this to the bark i had put down on the internal run because of the concrete floor. 
I changed the bark for straw and the sneezing stopped.
MY first question is this.  I live next to a farm which has just bundled his hay.  Am i able to use this for the nest box and internal run or is it neccessary to use the pet shop dust-extracted stuff?
Secondly... am i feeding them too much?
Like i said during the day they are outside freeranging.  But I am also putting the reccomended portion of pellets into a hopper for them, mixed with a small amount of corn feed for variety and grit.
I have had a feel of their breast bones and they dont appear to be fattys., but they never complete the full amount of pellet feed in any given day.  Should I cut their feed back a bit?

Hope someone can help.

Derek

[kegs]

Hi and welcome. 

I'm sure one of the experts will answer but my thoughts are that so long as your girls have access to growers pellets all day then they will be fine.  They probably aren't getting round to finishing their pellets because they are getting all of the goodies they need whilst they are out free ranging.  Corn tends to be given later on in the day when they've had all of their daily food as it's considered a treat.  Also make sure they have ready access to oyster shell ready for when they start laying (check though as it may be a component of the grit you put out for them).  I'd rather use the dust extracted hemp or similar as it hasn't got a hollow centre so it's one less place for red mite to live.

Don't cut back on their feed but do limit treats and birds that free range all day will have leaner breast bones especially if they are hybrids who put all of their energy into laying.

Oh and we all love to see photos of chickens on this forum. 

[jhub]

Feed them growers pellets ad lib but cut out the corn - give this to them as a treat later in the day and only in small amounts.
Has the sneezing stopped?  Keep an eye on her as it could be mycoplasma
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps034

[grinling]

They shouldn't really have hay as they might eat it and end up with an impacted crop. I line my nest boxes with a few sheets of newspaper with straw on top. I use sawdust on the pull out drawer under the perches.

If poss hang the water and pellet feeder off the ground to help prevent vermin from having it.
I put grit and oyster shell in 2 flower pots with a spike in them to stop them moving and top up as required.

[Derek.laurence]

Thanks for the advice guys.

The sneezing has definitely stopped but i will keep an eye on it.

Its definitely hay on the farm next door so I shall not be using that.

Ill try and post some pics once i get the lil ladies to pose long enough for me.  Theyre getting quite tetchy with each other just now ( trying to assert their authority over each other i assume with no Cockerel present) so might wait until they stop bickering. lol

Thanks again

Derek