[Mrs Mant]

I'm 6 months into looking after 3 lovely girls.  I have read people mentioning that they give some mixed corn at various times of the day.  I thought corn was a treat and only given as such but some people seem to be giving it to help keep the chickens warm during this cold snap.  Can anyone please explain this?

[raeburg]

Corn takes longer to digest so it can theoretically keep the bird warmer during the night if fed in late afternoon. Only a bit though.

[karlooben]

i feed mine corn in the late afternoon ethier as a treat if i am collecting eggs at ,230 pm before walking the dogs or i use it as thier teatime snack to get them to bed without any stress of chasing them ,i just shake the bowl and shout cornietime an they know whhat that means only my maran gives me the grief of having to chase her for 5 mins .

[Foxy]

If you feed mixed corn, good idea to check you have some poultry grit available to help the hens grind the grain in their gizzard. unless they are truly free-ranging all day then they tend to scratch around themselves for small stones and bit of grit.

[karlooben]

i have at times just got the pellets the mash the grit { i buy the large bags as its cheaper but evil to carry  } and 1/4 bag of corn and mixed the whole lot together into one dustbin the dust from doing it is really bad . i do about 5 inches layer of each get a very strong broom handle an stir like mad then keep going until the bin is full  sometimes the food seems to last longer that way  .

[chooksbury]

We always feed the first nibble of corn from the hand to make sure they associate coming to us with good things .. and the rest of the handful goes in their grit trough.  Bound to pick up grit with the corn then.

[Roughlee Handled]

The one and only time i ever mixed corn in with layer pellets, the layer pellets ended up all over the place.  They where like kids digging for the good bits of food leaving all the rubbish.  I stamp down an area of snow (you do not need snow, at the moment I have lots of it) and spread a couple of handfuls between 13 chickens. I have big hands.

[IMOmimey]

i have at times just got the pellets the mash the grit { i buy the large bags as its cheaper but evil to carry  } and 1/4 bag of corn and mixed the whole lot together into one dustbin the dust from doing it is really bad . i do about 5 inches layer of each get a very strong broom handle an stir like mad then keep going until the bin is full  sometimes the food seems to last longer that way  .

there is no advantage to mixing their food, and lots of disadvantages. The easiest and most popular way is to have pellets available to them at all times, and grit/oyster shell in a small dish or grit hopper. Corn etc is a treat, which they can manage without, but is useful (like doggie chox) as a training and taming tool. Also, a lot of us give it in the winter for supper before bed, and use layers MASH (or pellets) to mix up with hot water to feed them something warm for breakfast. 

[too many girls]

what are the disadvantages of mixing food? i have a 2 big trolley bins on wheels and mix crushed barley, wheat and layers/rearers (depending on who it's for)
4 bags of layers/rearers to half a bag of wheat and barley, i have been doing this for some time and my birds seem to be healthy and happy, i have geese, ducks, and 103 various chickens, i find this way to be more economical (and labour saving) i just wondered why it's not good?

[karlooben]

there is an andvantage  for me  instead of using 3 or 4 bins i only use one .
its just something i started to do but didnt carry on . mine dont like the pellets dry so if they get those mixed in with the mash in the morning they always mostly end up getting left behind where as if the pellets go as a warm mash on thier own its gone within 2 hours at the most .
its ideal to mix it all together if like me u have to deal with them when its pitch black in the mornings u just take out { i use large metal dog bowl as scoop} for me 2 large scoops an spread those around the feeders then if i can get back at 10 am i re fill slighty but i only get a 15 min break all day so i dont  always like coming back home as i dont get to relax when i have a early lunch.

[Foxy]

what are the disadvantages of mixing food? i have a 2 big trolley bins on wheels and mix crushed barley, wheat and layers/rearers (depending on who it's for)
4 bags of layers/rearers to half a bag of wheat and barley, i have been doing this for some time and my birds seem to be healthy and happy, i have geese, ducks, and 103 various chickens, i find this way to be more economical (and labour saving) i just wondered why it's not good?

OK with ducks not a problem, I feed my duck 50:50 grain and duck pellets mixed, with a little extra grain usually wheat in the afternoons.

Chickens are a bit different, more so hybrids who have very precise nutritional needs-due to the fact they were breed for commercial laying -so potential laying problems like prolapsing and egg-binding can occur simply because instead of getting 90% of nutrition from feed they may only be gettting 50%. Pullets are able to store calcuim at higher levels then when older - so offering treats or an unbalanced diet this time iof year to a young hybrid is simply increasing the potential risk of egg-laying problems -not saying that will happen, its just something to be aware off.

Now, as the days start to lengthen and the young pullets come into lay - this is when they trying to build up their calcium reserves,in fact this is one time in their laying lifes that they are able to store quite a bit in preparation for their first laying season.

The situation is slightly different if they truly free-range, as they are able to source natural calcium from fresh grass, dandelions etc.  Pure breds and second year hens dont tend to need quite as much calcium as  POL hybrids- that is just my opinion though -with any breed POL is a critical time where nutrition is concerned. The key time of egg-laying problems is typically when they have been laying well for a week or two. I generally find pure breds have less laying problems overall - and in some cases with large fowl I try and delay egg production until the following spring so they are fully mature, however, early hatched birds I am not so concerned about as they benefit from long summer days, young grass to develop -whooopsie off on a tangent again!!!

[IMOmimey]

what are the disadvantages of mixing food? ..... i find this way to be more economical (and labour saving) i just wondered why it's not good?

Hi TMG, thats good it works for you , but most often, when fed the mixed stuff, most chooks dive in and scatter the layers pellets in their endeavor to get to the favourite bits, mine certainly do  then I had to clean up every day (to avoid rats etc). I found it was very wasteful. Also, the layers mash/pellets have been made and blended to provide optimum protein,mineral,vitamin levels. Mixing in other products changes that balance.

[IMOmimey]

there is an andvantage  for me  ...
its ideal to mix it all together if like me u have to deal with them when its pitch black in the mornings u just take out { i use large metal dog bowl as scoop} for me 2 large scoops an spread those around the feeders then if i can get back at 10 am i re fill slighty but i only get a 15 min break all day so i dont  always like coming back home as i dont get to relax when i have a early lunch.

I have one large dustbin, filled with layers pellets. When I put the choox to be (I have 9 pens) I fill each food container, and hang it up high on the chain, put the chooks to bed, take out the water container. When this is all done, I take the water containers to the tap  ready for the morning. Then each morning, i fill the water containers, take one into each pen, drop down the food container and let them out. At MY CHOICE, I have the pleasure of feeding them all some mixed corn/veggies etc, so I can control what they eat.
Really, even with so many chickens, half an hour morning and night for the essentials (all day on saturday for cleaning )

[too many girls]

the trouble with my lot is they have 30 acres to mess about in and 6 houses to choose to sleep in, they play musical hen houses regularly
tonight i think only the ducks, geese, silkies and polands are sleeping where they're meant to, i know there are at least 2 cob hens in the banty house with the silkies, and 2 of the ex barns have gone to bed with the youngsters in one of the stables, 6 cream legbars are crammed in with the polands, and one house is completely empty,
 i'm afraid when it comes to feeding them it's every man for himself
half of this lot aren't even in the garden gang

[karlooben]

blinky hek tmg    i am confused looking at them  and even more confused with your post foxy  what was all that in english . so for me mixing all my feed into one is wrong ? mine do get mainly layers mash but they get a bowl of pellets seprate which i turn into a warm mash in the mornnigs as they perfer the pellets soaked to dry .
so do i get this right mine would need more layers mash then pellets  me confused.com  yep