FEEDING FOR SUCCESS

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.

FEEDING FOR LIFE STAGE

Just like us, chickens have different dietary requirements at different stages of life.  Chicks will mature in only a few months, so they require a diet that can provide the nutrients needed for rapid growth and feather development. As such, chick feeds have higher levels of energy and protein than adult bird feeds. Chicks also need their feed supplied in a form that they can eat with their much smaller beaks.

Once pullets are fully feathered, their energy requirements are reduced. Feeding layer pullets aims to maintain a growth rate that will lead to the pullet reaching physical maturity at the desired age. And just like us, it’s important to regulate her diet to avoid obesity.

Adult layer feeds are different again, aimed at providing a balanced diet that supports consistent egg production, while maintaining healthy weight and overall condition.

THE KEY NUTRIENTS

To achieve good health and well-being a chicken’s diet needs to provide the following key nutrients.

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.

Fibre

Fibre plays an important role in the overall health and wellbeing of the bird in the gizzard and small intestine. In laying hens, providing fibre has been shown to reduce the number of dirty eggs.

Vitamins and minerals

These support essential body functions and build resistance to disease.

Calcium

Calcium is required for strong bones and good quality eggshells. It can be beneficial to also offer coarse sources of calcium such as shell grit or limestone chips. These provide a sustained slow-release of calcium and allow for the selection of extra calcium by hens.

CHICKEN KNOWS BEST

A chicken knows how to self-regulate its food intake (worth pointing out to your dog or cat) to meet its needs and should have 24/7 access to feed. You can still get enjoyment from scattering food for your chickens (and it’s a great thing to do with kids) but make sure that this is not the only way you feed them.

Chickens feed according to their pecking order, with dominant chickens feeding first. Remember this when scattering out food and make sure that there is enough for the submissive birds.

PACKAGED COMMERCIAL FEEDS

While it is tempting to think that your home flock will be able to get enough food from hunting down insects and eating greens from free ranging, the reality is that most backyards are neither large nor diverse enough for this to be possible.

Commercial feeds provide a convenient, reliable and safe way to ensure that your flock gets enough to eat, day-in and day-out.

Commercial feeds are formulated to provide a chicken with all the nutrients it requires at its different life stages. Better still, most packaged feeds are complete feeds, meaning that the feed provides all the nutrition your chicken needs to survive and thrive. Be aware that these are distinct from supplementary feeds, which are intended to be used from time to time, either as a treat or to encourage a particular behaviour.

YOU DON’T NEED TO WET DRY FEEDS BEFORE FEEDING TO CHICKENS.

GREENS

Green vegetables and plants are sources of vitamins and can contribute carotenoid pigments for yolk colour. Hens that are allowed to free range in the garden will happily graze on plants and you can provide leafy greens as treats.

Greens must always be viewed as a supplementary food source however, as they will not provide the balance of nutrients a healthy chicken requires.

KITCHEN SCRAPS

Contrary to conventional wisdom, chickens will not survive on vegetable scraps alone! In fact, feeding your flock too often from the scraps bin can result in nutrient dilution, where the lower nutrient content of the scraps ‘dilutes’ the good stuff obtained from quality feed sources.

This in turn can compromise your hen’s health. Veggie scraps should therefore only be given as an occasional treat for your hens  – turn the rest into compost.

Take extra care to avoid access to mouldy or ‘off’ feed, such as old damp stored grain or mouldy bread. These can contain toxins that can affect the health and performance of laying hens.

HARD GRIT

Grit is generally described as small, insoluble stones of approximately 3mm (1/8”) in diameter. Hens don’t have teeth, so they use these small stones to grind their feed in the gizzard. This is why you need to give them grit when you feed them coarse grains like wheat, or any other foodstuff which needs to be broken down.