A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (25 page)

These days it’s very easy to feed chickens. Ready-made feeds have been formulated to contain just about everything a chicken needs for a healthy egg-laying life.

Feeding Scraps

In the ‘old days’ chicken feed was regularly supplemented with table scraps. Even potato peelings were boiled up for the chickens.

Since the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, it has been illegal in Britain to feed kitchen waste to any chickens – including those kept as pets. This causes a fair amount of debate amongst chicken keepers, as many cannot see the point of it.

The law is intended to prevent the spread of disease due to food-producing animals being fed anything that could have come into contact with products of animal origin.

Nothing that has gone through the kitchen should be fed to chickens because there is a risk of cross-contamination. You can feed vegetables straight from the garden but not if you have first prepared them in the kitchen.

Even garden vegetables grown on kitchen-based compost shouldn’t be given, and the chickens shouldn’t have access to the compost heap either.

Phew – you probably didn’t realize your kitchen was such a hotbed of infection! Only vegan kitchens are exempt.

While it’s unlikely that someone from DEFRA will pop up just as you throw the chickens a few crusts, it’s as well to know the rules and the implications of breaking them. Substantial fines can be imposed, and should there be an outbreak of a major disease, many chickens will die while many others will be culled. This applies to back-garden chickens too, as they could potentially pass on diseases.

Commercial flocks are regularly tested for salmonella – it’s especially important to stick to the laws on feeding if you are intending to sell eggs.

Much of the food we eat contains additives and ingredients that are unsuitable for chickens and could make them ill.

Chickens tend to fill up on ‘extras’ at the expense of their carefully balanced feed (like children eating sweets before dinner). Unbalanced feeding can leave chickens short of vital nutrients, which will affect health and egg quality.

Hybrid hens in particular require a good diet. If not fed correctly, they will take the necessary nutrients from their own bodies to aid their intensive egg production.

Chickens are dependent on their owners for food and it is easy to supply them with what they need. Why make life difficult?

Buying Feed

Agricultural stores, feed merchants and some pet shops sell chicken feed or it can be ordered online. Choose a feed that is easily available, buy from a store that has a good turnover of stock and check the ‘use-by’ dates on the bags.

Don’t buy so much feed that it can’t be used before the expiry date but try to keep enough in reserve so you don’t run out. Remember the chickens when shopping for Christmas – unlike supermarkets, feed stores sometimes close for a few days over holiday periods.

Put feed into the storage bin when you get it home, but don’t mix new feed with old – leave the new bag unopened until you need it. If food is left in its bags, you can usually store a new bag under a partly used one.

Complete feeds are sold for all types of chicken: layers, growers, chicks, breeding stock, free-range, etc. Some feeds are organic and some may contain chemical additives (as preservatives, to prevent disease or to make yolks yellow). There’s plenty of choice so make sure you select the correct feed for your birds.

Choose a brand from a reputable manufacturer to ensure a good diet for your chickens. Feed manufacturers often have an advisory service too.

Feeds are available as pellets, mash and crumbs.

These don’t look very exciting, but are designed as a complete chicken feed. Pellets are convenient, clean and easy to handle. Each pellet is the same, ensuring all the birds receive a balanced diet (small size pellets are available for bantams).

Farmyard Layers’ Pellets

Mash can be fed dry or mixed with water. Moistened mash should be fed in a trough and quickly goes sour – uneaten food must be thrown away after a few hours.

Dry mash is more difficult for chickens to eat than pellets. Working for their food keeps confined birds busy and helps prevent sedentary breeds from becoming too fat.

Chickens make a mess eating dry mash and spilt food should be cleaned up regularly. It’s not suitable for chickens with beards or crests as it becomes stuck in the feathers, which can lead to attacks from other birds.

Farmyard Layers’ Mash

Crumbs are usually sold for chicks, although they are now being produced for ex-battery hens, who have only ever known crumbed feeds.

Chick Crumbs with Coccidiostat

Supplying Grit

As chickens don’t have teeth, food is swallowed more or less whole and stored in the crop (a pouch at the base of the neck). The food then passes through a small stomach and on to the gizzard.

The gizzard is a muscular organ that grinds food with the help of small stones swallowed by the chicken.