Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: mollymawk on February 24, 2012, 22:40
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Hi there, I'm new to the hen game and am excited about getting some ex-battery chickens fairly soon but wanted to ask advice on feeding. We have a huge amount of vegetable and fruit waste coming from our kitchen and I just wanted to know whether I just throw the peelings into the run raw or whether I have to cook the veggie peelings down to a mush before I give it to them. Also, is doing the peelings once a day with both layer pellets and corn sufficient for them (they are not free range but will have a large outdoor area to roam). Thanks
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If you give fruit or veg to the chickens don't give them too much or early in the day or you won't get many eggs :(
If you give them good quality layers pellets, they everything your chickens need. If you are getting ex bats, I think there are special feeds to perk them up but I don't have ex bats so I am not too sure about that.
I give mine fruit, salad veg and green veg uncooked along with squash and melon seed but other veg I cook down.
The chickens love their treats :D but if you give them to much or too early they will fill up with treats and not eat their layers pellets, which will result in no eggs :(
Chickens love peas and corn.
Too much fruit will give them the runs :ohmy:
Enjoy your chickens, don't worry they will soon have you trained! ;)
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Hi you can get an ex-batt food which is more like the food they are used to, but you cant go wrong with layers pellets, just watch that all the birds are eating :D as far as kitchen scraps go DEFRA rules state no kitchen scraps should be fed to any livestock, :tongue2: but as said only give a bit in the afternoon and if you give potato peelings you would need to boil them and then mix with layers mash :D Have fun
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Allen ad Page do an ex batts feed. Sometimes they struggle to adjust to layers pellets if they have been fed on layers mash but you can change over a short period by gradually mixing the two together.
Do not feed any citrus fruit or avocado and as Tony has said no raw potato peelings.
Personally I would withhold the treats for a while as they wont be used to them.
Here we are just found the link to the ex-batts feed
http://www.smallholderfeed.co.uk/Products/ExBattery/Ex-Battery-Hens.aspxx
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Hi you can get an ex-batt food which is more like the food they are used to, but you cant go wrong with layers pellets, just watch that all the birds are eating :D as far as kitchen scraps go DEFRA rules state no kitchen scraps should be fed to any livestock, :tongue2: but as said only give a bit in the afternoon and if you give potato peelings you would need to boil them and then mix with layers mash :D Have fun
I didn't know about the DEFRA rules :(
When you think about it in Victorian times many families would keep a pig and chicken to help feed their families and they always fed them with scraps. How things change ???
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Hi guys,
Thanks for that. So, basically, layers pellets are sufficient, easy on the scraps (especially perhaps fruit) and always mash potato peelings. It's interesting that as Mrs Ball said, back in the day it would just be kitchen scraps and what they managed to find whilst free ranging. I was also thinking of setting up a wormery for them- don't suppose anyone else does this do they?
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Hi i fully agree but the rules were introjuced to prevent crosscontamination of diseses, I know that if you have a chucks in the garden it shouldnt be a problem but rules is rules and they dont distigwish between 1 or a field full of chucks :(