PART 6 FEEDING FOR SUCCESS NUTRIENT ROLE Water Often overlooked, water is one of the most important nutrients. Poultry require twice as much water as feed. Water is essential for keeping the bird hydrated, carrying nutrients around the body, and is involved in many other essential body functions. Energy Laying eggs is an energy-expensive process, and a laying hen needs good sources of this from the carbohydrates and fat in her diet. Protein Dietary protein provides amino acids, which are the building blocks to most structures in the chicken and its egg. THE KEY NUTRIENTS To achieve good health and well-being a chicken’s diet needs to provide the following key nutrients. The diet of domesticated chickens should aim to provide a similar range of nutrients to what they would get in the wild. It should also encourage the chicken’s natural foraging behaviours. Your garden is unlikely to provide everything your chooks need in sufficient quantities, especially if they’re laying hens, so commercial feeds (which also include complete vegetarian varieties) are indispensable for a happier, healthier flock. CHICKENS ARE OMNIVORES, SO THEY ARE HEALTHIEST WHEN THEY HAVE A DIET CONTAINING BOTH MEAT AND VEGETABLE MATERIAL. IN THE WILD THIS WOULD CONSIST OF FORAGING FOR INSECTS, WORMS, CARCASSES, SEEDS AND OTHER PLANT MATERIAL. 52 | THE CHOOK BOOK