[Rubellite]

Hi all - I'm new here but have been reading the posts avidly for the last week or so. I've kept cats, dogs for years and various small animals (as a kid) but have only had my hens since October (Mary and Dolly) and last week added Myrtle and Lottie, all hybrids.
My question is, what are your preferences for feeding? I bought my hens to produce a supply of eggs although it appears they have settled in to be more pet than provider as I have always been a sucker for animals. That is not to say that the 2 older girls don't provide us with eggs - they certainly do and very well thank you. I feed them a grain mix with a supplement of greens and they have access to grass in a pen approx 10m x 8m. I also give them grit and on cold mornings some bread soaked in diluted warm milk with the occasional dash of cod liver oil! Is this sufficient to keep them healthy? I am loathe to feed them pellets as I would like them to be fed as naturally as possible but so many people have told me that they will not get their fill of nutrients, I just wonder if I am missing anything in their feed. Grain mix changes but at the moment consists mainly of wheat, oats, mixed corn, maize and sunflower seeds. I am not totally sure what they have been eating from that mix as I have just netted over the enclosure as the doves had been getting in and stealing the feed.
They have been laying since the first week in December, Dolly daily and Mary 9/10 on average so I have been able to say haha to all the people who told me they wouldn't lay unless I fed them layers pellets  but my main concern now is their ongoing health, although they look good to my untrained eye.
No doubt this will provoke a lively discussion, but I am used to that with my dogs who have been totally raw fed for the last 5 years. 

[cathangirl]

Welcome Redruby,
Do you mean that your 10m x 8m run still has grass growing in it after your girls have been using it since October?!  Wow!  My run is total mud when wet, or hard as nails when dry; good old Sussex clay (groan).  I let them free range when we are at home.

It sounds as though you are feeding your girls as they were fed before commercial stuff came along and if they seem healthy, good on it!
 
Our farm hens and geese 50 years ago (I WAS ONLY 10), were free range with some corn and a few scraps and they seemed huge to me, so they were OK.
Best wishes
cathangirl

[Rubellite]

I have just read today's posts on natural feeding which of course is what I am striving to. When I first got the chickens the only "recipe" I could find was as follows:-
 

Ronda's Whole Grain Feed Recipe

2 parts whole corn (in winter increase to 3 or 4 parts)
3 parts soft white wheat
3 parts hard red winter wheat
1 part hulled barley
1 part oat groats
1 part sunflower seeds (in winter increase to 2 parts)
1 part millet
1 part kamut
1 part amaranth seeds
1 part split peas
1 part lentils
1 part quinoa
1 part sesame seeds
1/2 part flax seeds
1/2 part kelp granules
free choice of granite grit
free choice of oyster shell

"Ronda" (and I can't remember from where I got this) goes on to say "Note that all items are whole grains and are certified organic. If you are looking for the cheapest feed, this isn't it. If you are looking for a healthy natural feed for your flock, this is one way to go!"

I have tried to adapt this, many of the items I haven't even heard of, some, like the split peas and lentils, my girls would not entertain. I have finally found a good grain merchant (just up the road) and ran around with my trolley like a kid in a sweetshop. I am not that much of a purist that I insist on organic (yet) - enough for me to avoid the chemical additives and preservatives in commercially prepared feed. (Though still feed the household cats on commercial). Jane.

[Rubellite]

Hi Cathangirl
Thank you for the welcome.
We did have to move around the fencing as they had made it a mudbath in the recent bad weather - the new area has held up well since it has been drier. We are trying to extend it and I would like them to be free range but the henhouse is in our field which only has post and rail fencing and such is the layout that they would be wandering into neighbours' bits of field. I have another area which I have started to secure that I plan to use as "summer quarters", to give the old henhouse a chance to be cleaned and re-creosoted etc. We only moved here last August and have a lot to do. There is plenty of space but also a lot of scope to lose the animals  :blink: it will all come together in the end I am sure.........

[noshed]

Nice looking hens - and welcome

[shiatsusu]

Your myrtle is a dead ringer for my mavis!! If they look well and are laying fine sounds like you're on to a winner to me 

[Rubellite]

Aah - does Mavis liked to be cuddled too? She has more colour than Myrtle - she's very pale - and makes very un henlike noises compared to the others, a real sweetie, I'm very taken with her and sh's only been here a week!

[shiatsusu]

Mavis is more timid as she's our new girl and the others are a bit horrid to her, but she's getting there. I'm looking forward to blue eggs! We'll both have to post picks of our first blue eggs to compare  And yes, Mavis makes a different noise too- I call it her trumpet 

[Rubellite]

Ok - race for the first blue egg it is. I don't expect one for a few weeks yet though.
 
I also can't believe how my first two girls have turned into pecking demons since I bought the other two home. I think they will come unstuck as Lottie looks to be trying to get the favoured perch from Dolly and I think she'll grow larger than the other two, so with a bit of perseverence she'll soon be top hen. So long as they fight it out between themselves and leave little Myrtle alone, I'll be happy.

[shiatsusu]

Ruby we have a lottie too! Only our's is Rennie, and she's just laid her first egg yesterday (I've posted it under wind egg with pics). Mavis won't lay for a while either so the race is on... Here is Ren...

[woodburner]

Ahh the joys  of chook politics, far more entertaining than any soap! 

Welcome to the forums. Nice to see someone else interested in getting away from formulated processed feed.  
I'm surprised at chooks turning their noses up at lentils and split peas as I think they are the highest protein items in that list, but it's quite possible that they are getting enough protein elsewhere, bugs, worms, vegetation etc. as well as the samll quantities in the other grains ofc. Before the winter set in, mine were even sniffy about worms!! I thinkas long as there food isn't blended into homogenity, they can pick and choose what they need.