Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: legend jeff on November 16, 2008, 16:31
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what would anyone suggest giving my girls, omg your thinking not him again, pellets seem straight forward but what do i do with the mash? no instructions here, any advice would be appriciated
many thanks jeff
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i feed my 3 warrens mash in a long metal trough i used to feed pellets when i first got them but 2 of them were slow to lay so i switched to mash and within a few weeks both layed, i have the trough off the floor attatched to the coop so they don't knock it over and as for how much mine says 120g per hen but i just ensure that they have a fairly full trough and make sure they never run out i never measure and they never over eat. hope this helps
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In theory, there should be less wastage with pellets.
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mine perfer mash , when i feed them pellets i find there is loads left over were as the mash has gone by the end of the day . but each persons birds are different all u can do is try an see what works the best .
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many thanks for the advice all
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This time of year mash can be a pain -for as soon as it gets wet it goes off then it has to be thrown out.
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Mine have layers pellets available all the time and the eat them during the morning. In the afternoon I give them mash just to make sure they are filled up for the night.
Munty taught me how to feed mash. He told me it should not be fed dry as it can give them breathing problems and told me to mix it with hot water in the proportions of 5 parts mash to 3 parts hot water. I add a bit of mixed corn to it to supply heat for them overnight.
Are they spoilt or what :roll:
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i have been told it can be fed dry oor wet by quite a few ppl i know that keep birds an they own a feed shop as well mine seem to eat it dry or wet , but what if u dont have the time to let it cool down before u feed it to them can cold water be ok during this time of year i only get 30 mins to do everything with the girls before its dark.
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I give it to them hot and they blow on it themselves :wink:
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I give it to them hot and they blow on it themselves :wink:
:lol: :lol: :lol: i can just picture that .
i will try mine over next wekend
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I just add enough water to make it like fresh bread crumb consistency.
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its making it sound nicer :lol: maybe i could try some :?
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
I only give them as much as they'll eat in one session. I sometimes add a few tasty morces fo a treat too - sun flower seeds, mixed corn, meal worms even a little cat food if they are in a moult !
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thanks for all the comments jeff
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i add hot water to my mash if it's a cold day/if i remember otherwise they have it dry. mash takes longer to eat and so keeps them busy. it can make a mess if one or more of your birds are idiots and insist in jumping in it and scratching about: fix that with an anti-scratch mechanism. i give my birds mixed corn late in the afternoon to keep them warm at night whilst they digest it.
oyster shell, and especially grit, is fed seperately, non?
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oyster shell, and especially grit, is fed seperately, non?
Oui :!:
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Remember that wet mash soon goes rancid and very smelly where as dry pellets don't.
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Remember that wet mash soon goes rancid and very smelly where as dry pellets don't.
Absolutly Bodger :!:
That's why I said
I only give them as much as they'll eat in one session.
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My piece of advice with regard to the feeding of wet mash was for the information of the general membership and wasn't aimed directly at you Aunt Sally. Plus its very tempting to leave wet mash down in the hope that they might clean it up at the next sitting.
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Yes probably a very good idea to press the advice home as it can be a bad source of infection.
... its very tempting to leave wet mash down in the hope that they might clean it up at the next sitting.
Definitly a No No :!:
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can changing the food from pellets to mash make that much difference to the egg production :?:
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Should be the same.
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can changing the food from pellets to mash make that much difference to the egg production :?:
Made a difference with one of my chooks. She obviously did not care much for the pellets but really wolfed down mash when I tried giving her some. Made the difference between an inconsistent layer of smallish eggs and a regular layer of large ones!
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i mite just experiment with that mash,nothing to loose :D
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Are you having problems with the pellets Nogger ?
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Are you having problems with the pellets Nogger ?
not realy Aunt Sally,but out of 13 warrens i thought i should be getting more than just half a dozen eggs a day :)
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Were they laying that few during the summer or is it just now the darker weather is here ?
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Were they laying that few during the summer or is it just now the darker weather is here ?
to be honest, i bought 5 new birds roundabout july time and the other's are aprox two years old, so maybe the old ones are ready for retirement and that is why i have a low egg production, i think the worst thing i did was to mix new with old :o :)
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I expect the older ones are going off duty for a while, they'll come back into lay as the days lengthern. Are the young one laying now ?
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Yes those are fine, but the trouble is,now the young birds eggs a large its not knowing who is laying and who isn't :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Yes those are fine, but the trouble is,now the young birds eggs a large its not knowing who is laying and who isn't :lol: :lol: :lol:
And they won't tell you :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Correct,not to worry :lol: I am in the process of trying to get some of my pics on here,hopefully by friday I will av sussed it :lol: :lol:
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Am I the only one who doesn't feed either? My hens have whole oats and whole maize ad lib from hoppers, and nothing else - apart from what they find for themselves in the surrounding woods, fields and orchards. They lay well enough, although obviously I lose a lot of eggs from laying out, and the people who buy my eggs say they can't eat any other kind!