Those roosters in front of the fire are precious!
Mosey, what do you feed? I never found anything reasonably priced that wasn’t vegetable based, and I didn’t want them having corn during the summer.
Oh, I see. Interesting!
Seems that everything I have locally is a vegetarian formula, except for the special “Feather Fixer” feed…and I’ve read that can make eggs taste fishy.
Maybe I should add a handful of cat food to their treats?
Feather Fixer irritates me. It’s not especially high in protein, yet it’s marketed as super special and costs more. You can use some cat food, or good dog food, or mealworms. Or you can look and see if you have broiler/meatbird feed, it really ought to have animal protein. You can mix that with 16% layer and come up with the same or better than Feather Fixer and probably do it cheaper.
I do the grublies, which I think are black soldier fly larva. I like that they’re a US product :yes: The feed brands I have available are blue seal and kalmbach, plus the typical nutrena, purina, dumor. I think they are all vegetarian, even the meat bird.
But adding some cat food is easy enough! Thanks!
Kalmbach is working on insect protein for feeds, that’s pretty interesting. I hate that the fad is all vegetarian fed now, chickens are omnivores. I might feed the cheaper layer in the heat of summer, but for breeders and chicks, I’ll continue to spend more for animal protein.
Sorry, I missed this before. Right now I’ve been feeding Rural King’s store brand Meatbird Crumbles, they’re 21% protein and include animal protein. I feed that to my layers and rooster and chicks after 8 weeks. I’m feeding Nutrena medicated Turkey Starter to chicks for the first 8 weeks and super pleased with their growth. I also give them kitchen scraps from anything meaty, like turkey carcasses, pork chop bones, etc. Dad throws them garden castoffs through the summer. Like I said earlier, I’m gonna start feeding the cheap layer during the heat of summer, they don’t need the protein then and it’s $6/bag cheaper. I leave a dish of oyster shell and a dish of granite grit out at all times for them. The layer shouldn’t hurt the rooster to eat for a couple months of the year, though I generally avoid layer because of him.
I had no idea feeding chickens was as complicated as feeding horses/ponies. So many choices. Guess when the time comes I’ll need to find a safe spot to keep scraps and left over veggies - somewhere our dogs won’t get them… maybe the fridge.
Are chickens not prone to overeat? Do they burn a lot of calories in winter keeping warm and need more added to their diet?
Not really, their crops can only hold so much at a time. You can get in trouble with them getting obese though, if you feed a bunch of extras. A good commercial feed should be 95%+ of their entire diet. If you feed lots of scratch grain, they’ll put on fat and that’s not good for them. Anything extra you feed like treats and vegetables will bring down the overall protein content of their daily diet, so it’s something to keep in mind. They can have some treat stuff, just not constantly.
In winter just make sure that they have access to enough feed and they’ll be fine, especially make sure they can fill their crops before dark. There’s a persistent rumor that whole grains or corn specifically is more warming than feed, but it’s been proven false. If it makes you feel better to throw a handful of corn out at the end of the day it probably won’t hurt anything, so long as they aren’t getting more than a tablespoon each.
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Okay - so treats are fine, just not daily. And keep their feed dispenser full so they don’t run out. I have not bought one yet, but like the kind you can hang up, to keep it out of the bedding. I have to go to TSC tomorrow for alfalfa pellets for the horses, so I plan to peruse the chicken aisle. Chances are I’ll come home with an item or two on my (growing) list!
Wow, that’s cool! And makes a lot of sense, considering what chickens eat. My selection of kalmbach is pretty limited, but I’ll keep an eye out for that. Thanks for the info!
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They can have a small amount daily, just not tons. I don’t know how many you plan to get, but those feeders let them waste a lot, they like to fling the feed out. What I really like doing is using two cinder blocks with the holes, standing upright. I get a 10’ length of PVC gutter from Home Depot and cut it in half and stick it through the top holes and put the feed in there, that way they can’t fling it out. A 5’ section works really well for about 10 birds, 12 if they’ve grown up together and get along well.
For baby chicks, I use the long thin plastic ones with the lid that has holes on top. Once they’re big enough, about three weeks old, I go to a 36" galvanized trough feeder with the spinner bar on top, because it’s deep enough they can’t fling the food out as well. But if you use that one when they’re too small, they’ll either not figure out the feed is in there or they’ll be inside it, pooping on the feed. You want to prevent chicks from getting poop in the feed as much as possible because it increases the chances of them having a coccidiosis overload. They can die rapidly from that.
Fun fact: if you catch some of the “Great chicken keeping ideas” lists online, I think Buzzfeed did the latest, they actually stole a photo I put up years ago of my PVC cinder block feeder with my Buff Orpingtons all around it :lol:
FWIW, I have the tractor supply hanging feeder–the 10# one, I think? You can see it in the pics I posted earlier–and the birds don’t waste any feed at all with it. They’re very polite about it and just eat. So it’s not quite a foregone conclusion that they’ll make a mess 
I DON’T like the smaller TS waterer, though. The white and red hanging plastic gallon one where the base twists on? That mfer is SUCH a pain to undo and then get back together :mad:
I agree on both products.
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Hahaha, right? That waterer is such a pita! Do you have one you actually like? “Indifferent” is about as good as it gets for me. The big three gallon version of the red and white hanging twist off base waterer also kinda sucks. This little one that screws together is at least easy to take apart and fill, but it’s small and doesn’t have a carry handle. I liked the “no drown” chick waterer but it’s just a quart and only for the teenies.
Is there a perfect waterer out there?
I use a gallon-sized heated pet bowl (from TSC) set off the ground on some bricks for water.
It gets messy from the freeloading sparrows that bathe in it, but easy to dump & refill.
When it is plugged in, I dump into a bucket, scrub & refill. In warm weather the cord fits into the underside of the bowl.
The ramps to my nestboxes are just some boards, no cleats & hens walk up them w/o a problem.
Nobody better tell my hens No Daily Treats!
They get a handful of BOSS twice a day.
For the Omega-6s… Yeah, that’s why :uhoh:
Okay, so stupid question - what is BOSS?
Black oil sunflower seed 
2dogs, don’t your hens perch on the edge of the bucket and poop in the water? Mine would! :sigh:
AH! Somehow I feel I should have known that! :o
Go to the bakery at your local grocery store (or any bakery) and see if they will give you buckets that will be thrown out. Then you can either install one of the various chicken nipples or cut large holes near the top for them to put their heads through and drink. The buckets are free, really sturdy and food safe. With a lid, the water stays clean.
