What is better, the mash or the scratch. How much per laying chicken per day? Thanks
Gary
new to chickens
Chicken mash or scratch?
Scratch isn't formulated for laying hens. It is better to feed a layer ration: pellets, crumbles or mash. It will contain the optimum amount of protein and calcium to support production.
That's what I fed mine, and kept it out all the time for them. They will lay their butts off for you!
Personally I agree with Porkpal, and Doe. Some choose to limit them, and I suppose if they cannot get out and run around then maybe a limit should be set so they don't get to fat which hinders production. If they are able to run around and get excercise I don't see fat as a problem and they will choose to eat other things which will help on the amount you have to buy. It is true they love scratch, but it is also true that scratch has no nutrional value. Hay.
The scratch I buy is a mix of grains...not just cracked corn. So it does have a decent amount of nutritional value. But it is not formulated for health and egg production.
I give my chickens scratch first thing in the morning and sometimes late in the afternoon if the weather is cold and miserable. It does have a lot of calories and can help chickens in very cold climates.
I just throw it out...not very much....and they scratch it up. It seems to make us both happy.
I gave a little scratch during our really cold months, but now that it is warming up and they have started laying, I am cutting it back..
OH Forgot to mention, and unrelated to this thread, but I got my first Rubber Egg the other day, that was such an interesting egg and Billy had fun playing with it until I gave it to the turkeys.. He wanted to keep it.. I did pick up some oyster shell for them though...
Sorry garyt for hijacking your thread.. Now returning you to your regularity scheduled thread..
and Welcome Garyt to chicken ownership... These peeps on the forum will help you with all you need to know..
I feed mine laying pellets in the morning and then throw some scratch out for them in the afternoon. I started adding sunflower seeds to the scratch and I swear it was as though someone turned on the egg-laying machine. It may have been coincidental, but they really do seem to lay better with a bit of extra protein. I am cutting back now that the weather is warming up, but they patrol their huge yard so well that's there's usually nothing growing there. At least there are bugs...
Sunflower seeds.. Good idea...
Like I said, it really does seem to make a difference. I don't give them much, just enough for a snack.
I mix 2/3 crumbles to 1/3 scratch. And it's a good mix, as Catsy said...not just corn (bleagh)
Yeah I also feed scratch during the winter month as it does warm them up, but the scratch I have sound here is just cracked corn, nothing added, so I only use it during the winter. I also raise sunflowers and just throw the whole plant in when it's ready to shed it's seed and they love pecking at it. Brown rice and french toast seem to be the big craze here...LOL
I mix my scratch with black oil sunflower seeds
I know how stupid this question sounds but... When you say Scratch warms them up what does that mean? Scratch is thrown on the ground and when they have to scratch for it they get hot, as in thier body temp goes up? Or, corn makes more body heat? What are the ingredients in a bag of Scratch?
NOT a stupid question! Ya never learn if ya don't ask! My explanation, not scientific! The corn causes the body to generate heat, just as all starches help us to stay warmer in winter. Or summer! We sometimes tend to eat lighter foods in summer, it somehow helps us to stay cooler.
Does this make any sense to you?
Corn also helps create fat, also, and that helps with body warmth.
This message was edited Apr 3, 2010 9:54 PM
Protein digestion raises body temp, generally, I believe. In humans and chickens, lol. Fresh rare hamburger is really good if you're catching a cold. Seeds are good for hotting up a bird. That's my rumor and I'm sticking to it. I've got the people health books somewhere, can't find anything on chickens, lol. Sorry.
Sugars too, but...hmmm....
This message was edited Apr 3, 2010 9:57 PM
Well, scratch is sort of intended to get them up and scratching...its main ingredient is cracked corn. Sometimes that is all it is. Other scratch mixes include other grains.
The good thing about it is it is very high in calories through carbohydrates, so it provides the chickens with quick and easy energy. So it does heat them up that way and by getting them moving.
The potential problem is that it is not a balanced diet and can provide too many calories to chickens that don't really need it. And chickens really like it, so they will eat it to the exclusion of a healthier food.
Most people use it as a treat. And it can be helpful in very cold climates where the chickens need extra calories to make it through long freezing nights.
Dang. I've always wondered why scratch is supposedly such a bad balance, but mine is full of millet and sunflower...fairly protein rich...if they were bug deprived I'd worry, but...hmmm.
Got any balance sheets and 'fo handy, Catsy?
Well, grow, I do have a book that gives directions for mixing your own rations....shall I look it up or would that be too geeky?
Thanks, got it, makes perfect sense. Scratch is Comfort food for winter. Will have to watch it because I like to "feed" people and animals LOL The crew got a banana today, they went crazy for it!
That is what is so seductive about scratch...they love you for it.
This message was edited Apr 4, 2010 3:35 AM
Catscan, WHY did you have to add that???? I love when my chickies love me!!
LOL banana?? I have one that is going bad, maybe I should throw it in there??
Chickens love anything you don't want anymore, except for citrus fruits for some reason. We even give them our tea leaves and coffee grounds, sometimes. Bananas are great, but those are also good for your rosebushes. When I'm together enough to remember, I put the peels at the base of the bush du jour. Otherwise the chickens get them. I tear them into long thin strips so they go farther.
I didn't feed them the banana peel, will have to try that when they're older. Good to know roses like the peels. YES, mine love bananas! The first time I put one in there they were all suspicious, wouldn't go near it so I chunked it and fed it to them by hand. Took them about 20 seconds to decide it was Good Stuff and the frenzy started! The other day I put about a 1/4 of a cantalope in there, they cleaned it down to the rind in minutes.
Easter started at 5 AM here, egg hunt is over, basket has been gone through, new summer clothes tried on and DN is busy with an activity book the Easter Bunny brought LOL. Whew!!! I need a nap!
Well, I am probably the farthest north & coldest climate chicken raiser on Daves. Year around feed, 17% egg mash.
We are going for a bit of profit. Everything in the scratch is in the egg mash. It is a balanced ration which makes for a better diet for your hens.
Early this winter, lots of people had a problem with no eggs. Never happened here, even when temperature reached -29º. Our barn is not heated.
We have 9 hens left from last years flock. They began laying in Feb. 2009. We still get 7 to 9 eggs a day from them.
Our new flock, 100, started about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday 79 eggs from them. Still getting some pullet size eggs, so all are not in peak production.
Bernie
Bernie what breed are this year's pullets and how old were they when they started to lay?
Bernie -mine get the 20% layer crumbles...and they stopped laying almost entirely. It just occurred to me to wonder whether our dark, wet spring and summer had something to do with the stoppage. That is possibly the one thing all of us whose hens didn't lay had in common. And a strange year could conceivably mess with their biological clocks...if they were old enough to be affected.
As to feed -most around here use a 16% layer mash with great results. I use the 20% crumbles (mash [powder!!] disappears for one thing) mixed with about 1/3 high seed content scratch. Possibly it works out to be about the same. But the only people I know in my area who had no trouble were those with pullets coming along at just the right time...
Is "mash" a crumble like mixture that has grains in it, or is it a feed that you add water to?
"Egg Mash" is that the same thing you're referring to as "mash" but fed (wet or dry?) to them when they're too old for chick crumbles? Pellets I'm guessing are just that, pellets.
At what age should they be switched from chick crumbles over to mash/pellets? Does grit need to be added (mixed in) too or provided as a side order with the mash/pettets?
Another dumb question - -We used to keep our show horses under lights starting in early August to keep their winter hair from coming in until show season was over (November). The lights were on a timer. They only got 8 hours of darkness in 24 hrs. Once we shut off the timer their winter hair grew in no time flat. Funny thing, you could keep them under timer lights all winter long and the'd keep that sleek show coat. Mother Nature still has the last laugh, once a year they'll still get their winter coat no matter what you do. Keep the lights on all winter and even though the sun hours are naturally longer in spring/summer they'll get a winter-ish coat in July.
I was wondering if timer lights in the coop for a couple months would help prolong the laying season and then shut them off and let their body do what is natural and slow down on the laying in early winter?
My chickies were born March 15th, (the Silkies on 3/10) about when will I be able to start doing the "OMG Their Laying EGGS" dance?
Bernie, what are your hens, the ones that laid through the winter? That's very unusual! I need some of those! Do you have pix?
They are called Gold Star layers. This year they were hatched Oct 27. Started putting out eggs around March 10.
Last years flock laid around 95% straight through. They started mid Feb, because they were hatched Oct. 1. We sold all but 10 in middle of October 2009. All went to people for laying hens. The 10 we kept never let up on laying. (Had to pick eggs often or they would freeze.)
We do have light on 12 hours a day, or more.
They are in a large coop with an outside exercise run. That was closed off as soon as cold weather set in.
http://www.hoovershatchery.com/
This is our new flock in December.
.
Nice hens! These are similar to what I raised, back in the mid 80's. Mine were Sil-Go-Links, they looked much like yours, they were "little red hens with white underwear"! The roos came white. I ordered 50 the first year, then 100 the next. When they were big enough, I let them range free. I used a 5 gal. bucket to gather eggs, and it would be full!
Do you have much breakage? I did, but I got HUGE brown eggs, lots of doubles, and they all thought I was their mama! They looked like a flock of geese coming to meet me when I came home from work!
Alas, I'm not able to do this anymore, nor do I live where I could! So I live vicariously on these threads!
Oh yes, very friendly hens. Always under foot. Broken eggs are an accident. They don't break them on purpose. A couple years ago we had other breeds. Lots of broken eggs. They would even break them from a roll out nest.
These hens have no interest in setting. Only 1 out of the 120 last year.
I know, I had to keep them in shell to eat. Some of their eggs were just thin shelled.
As to the feed names...they seem to vary somewhat region to region, but mash here looks like powder, crumbles like really small Grape Nuts and pellets like the big goat pellet feeds or some wormers...
Ours is just ground feed made by local elevator. Way to expensive at TSC or place like that. I'm paying $7.75 for 50 lbs right now. It follows corn & bean market. Was as low as $7.10.
I'm moving to MN!!
Lots of people travel back & forth. Here in summer, Arizona in winter.
Nice little farm sites go for around $150,000 or less. Taxes are minimal.
As they say on Price is Right, Come on down! Maybe that would be up!
Bernie