Chicken feed

lukin

Not a reference to what I get paid, rather I was just wondering if anyone could tell me of some alternative food I could give my hens. They are ever so good to lay and all I have to feed them is bags of that Layers mash hen feed.
They eat it but not as enthusiastically as they used to. They love stuff like lettuce and rhubarb leaves but I don't have that very often.
Something that is green and has leaves and is cheap and easy to get hold of really is what I am looking for.

oconnell.angela

I kept some very healthy chickens until the fox finally got them all, and they were fed on a mixture of barley and rolled maize - but they were free range (hence the fox problem) so got lots of grass and bugs too. Initially, before letting them roam freely, I used to cut a piece of turf from the garden and put it in their run, complete with worms, etc, which they loved, but the garden started looking a bit patchy, so I gave that up. Hang a cabbage by its stalk and they'll love to peck it, give them carrots too. Hope this helps.
I'm getting my chicken run reinforced now, and want to get some chickens - I'm in East Cork, but would travel if anyone knows where I could get some.
Thanks

lukin

oconnell.angela wrote: »

I kept some very healthy chickens until the fox finally got them all, and they were fed on a mixture of barley and rolled maize - but they were free range (hence the fox problem) so got lots of grass and bugs too. Initially, before letting them roam freely, I used to cut a piece of turf from the garden and put it in their run, complete with worms, etc, which they loved, but the garden started looking a bit patchy, so I gave that up. Hang a cabbage by its stalk and they'll love to peck it, give them carrots too. Hope this helps.
I'm getting my chicken run reinforced now, and want to get some chickens - I'm in East Cork, but would travel if anyone knows where I could get some.
Thanks

Cabbage yeah, they might like that. I'd prefer not to have to buy something that would otherwise be eaten by humans though. Any further suggestions are welcome!

arctictree

Mashed potato, peas, breadcrumbs. Just try it, you'll soon see what they like and dont like...

lukin

Bought them a head of cabbage today. Only costs a euro but I'll make it last for a few days. They eat it anyway.

kerrysgold

lettuce etc is fairly cheap in aldi, lidl etc. Would they bother with a turnip? only about 99c for a huge turnip.

As for getting hens, would you consider getting some ex-battery hens? They "clear out" the battery cages and send all the hens to be slaughtered after a year but you can offer to buy some to save them. Very worthwhile thing to do, that's what I'm going to do when I can get some hens.

luckat

They love grain; in the place where you buy the feed you can probably get sacks of grain too. Wheat's the most nourishing, but you can always get two sacks at a time - one wheat, one barley; next time one wheat, one oats, and so on - and fed them some ad lib.

Never feed hens anything mouldy, ever.

My chickens loved the inside parts of peppers, and apple and carrot peelings, and cooked potato peels. They didn't like anything oniony much. They loved greens, and I gave them plenty from the Superquinn cut-these-bits-off-if-you-don't-want-them bins.

They also liked yogurt a lot, and I used to make a kind of Finnish yogurt called viilli for them. It's very, very easy to make, and one starter will keep going for years. You just add some to milk and leave it in the hot press, and next day you have viilli.

Most humans (non-Finns, anyway) don't seem to like it that much, except it makes spectacular smoothies. Spectacular, but strangely fattening.

You'll get a starter online if you hunt around a bit. It's a great added food for hens, and costs very little.

I got some of my lovely little silkie and araucana bantams from Buy & Sell, from a woman in Wexford, and they were happy pets. They did have a little problem with the scales on their legs when they arrived, but some Vaseline on the legs every day sorted that out fairly fast.

oconnell.angela

Yes, I'd love to get some rescue hens but don't know where to go to get them. Do I just ring up an egg producer?

kerrysgold

That's what I was going to do, just call up a battery egg farm and say something like the next time you're clearing out the hens could I buy a few or something like that. If you're on petsireland there's also a thread about them with some contact numbers, here: http://petsireland.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=11360

Our man in Havana

Prestige feeds make a FAB food for chickens - it has a mix of grains & some corn in it as well - our eggs are very yummy.

oconnell.angela

I rang Riverview eggs in Watergrasshill near where I live just outside Cork City, and they are clearing a hen house on April 28th so wanted me to collect the hens on the 26th. But my chicken run isn't done yet and I'm going on holidays for 2 weeks from April 23rd. Is anyone in or around Cork interested in getting some hens from them? I spoke to Mary and you can call her on 021 4889276.
The next clear-out is in 15 months time after this one. If any kind soul would mind four hens for me for a couple of weeks, I'd really appreciate it! But good luck anyway :-)

Lauragoesmad

kerrysgold wrote: »

lettuce etc is fairly cheap in aldi, lidl etc. Would they bother with a turnip? only about 99c for a huge turnip.

As for getting hens, would you consider getting some ex-battery hens? They "clear out" the battery cages and send all the hens to be slaughtered after a year but you can offer to buy some to save them. Very worthwhile thing to do, that's what I'm going to do when I can get some hens.

The lady my Mam buys her eggs from did this. She lives in Leitrim and has ducks, hens and geese. They look like the happiest birds ever now.
Originally when she brought them home and took them out of the car, they wouldn't move because they were so used to being caged! They soon snapped out of it and are more pets than anything. Her lads and lassies love corn but I don't know what she always feeds them on. If I was ever going to get hens I'd get ex-battery and give them a good home!

Sigma Force

RE person looking for hens theres a lady in cork that rehomed battery hens they still lay just need a little tlc log on to the petsireland board i think kiokio on it may still have her number.

You can get free veg. in Superqueen by the broccoli there is a bin thing that has all the ends that people don't want its perfect I get them when Im there for the guineapigs sometimes theres broc. cauliflower and cabbage leaves. Just bag it up and say at the till its just a bunny bag they dont mind at all in fact they are glad to get rid.

As far as I know chicken love slugs and all that too so digging around the garden will bring up all sorts of juicy creepy crawlies.
You could plant a few apple trees, you can buy crab apple ones that arent very large that will give you apples for a few months.

If you have a local fruit and veg shop they might be glad to give you the ends of broc. and bits of cabbage etc.

luckat

In my experience, hens aren't that crazy about snails - they'll gobble up one, but reject the next six. They don't like slugs at all.

They like slug and snail eggs - but letting them root for these puts your seedlings at risk. Worth it in early spring, though.

Rescue hens: try the zoo. You'll be brokenhearted - it's a side-effect. Battery hens are bred to have huge hearts and weak legs, so they don't live long. But they're lovely girls for the short time they live.

I used to chat to a nice young lad in Newlands Cross garden centre, whose chorus was "You have them hens spoilt" - before he admitted that he himself used to have pockets full of chandlers as treats for the rescue hens in the zoo when he worked there.

Incidentally, if you're introducing new hens to a flock, the best thing is to take out one flock hen at night, and put her to roost with the new hen. They wake up together and you feed them, and leave them together (under supervision) that day.

Then the next night (or the night after, if you're cautious) you introduce *both* into the flock when everyone's fast asleep, putting them into the roosting flock with the two girls snuggled together next to the others.

kerrysgold

That is brilliant, good luck with the hens, I hope you find someone to look after them for you! I wish I was able to get some now! you should probably post about them on PI incase anyone else could save a few

a bit OT but I hate how the names of these places are so misleading! riverview farm and the hens have never "viewed" anything in their lives!

Lauragoesmad

kerrysgold wrote: »

That is brilliant, good luck with the hens, I hope you find someone to look after them for you! I wish I was able to get some now! you should probably post about them on PI incase anyone else could save a few

a bit OT but I hate how the names of these places are so misleading! riverview farm and the hens have never "viewed" anything in their lives!

Yeah, too true, Kerry. And I bet their egg boxes have pictures of chickens in a field looking happy!! There should be rules in Advertising to stop that sorta stuff. I know in England they have to write on the boxes that aren't free range or organic: Laid by caged hens. I used to give people evil looks in Asda when they would buy them because there is no excuse for buying battery eggs nowadays. My mam and dad are big meat eaters but only buy a free range chicken twice a month now after seeing Madaline's (the leitrim hen lady!) hens.

kerrysgold

yeah they usually do. an appropriate picture would be a half-bald hen, with half her beak sliced off squashed into a cage! I agree there is no excuse for buying battery eggs, the free range eggs are only a few cent dearer anyway. I tend to give people evil looks as well if they are looking at the cheap eggs lol.

kerrysgold

hmm I just emailed the Co. Co. to see if they'd say if it was alright to keep hens where I live, do you think they'll say yes? don't see the problem myself, we have nearly an acre and we are a couple of miles from town, and even though the neighbours aren't friendly, I don't see what problem they could have with hens.....

lukin

Some useful suggestions about alternative food for my hens, thanks.
The apple skins and carrot peels in particular, wheat and barley too.

kerrysgold

we are hopefully getting some of the watergrasshill hens!

called the farm yesterday and they are "clearing out" 40,000 hens :eek: so hopefully some more people will "adopt" a few. they are only €2 each.

meathstevie

kerrysgold wrote: »

hmm I just emailed the Co. Co. to see if they'd say if it was alright to keep hens where I live, do you think they'll say yes? don't see the problem myself, we have nearly an acre and we are a couple of miles from town, and even though the neighbours aren't friendly, I don't see what problem they could have with hens.....

Why bother with the Co. Co. ? It's not like you need a permit or a licence for a chicken run.

kerrysgold

according to them I need to get a certificate of exemption in case the (evil) neighbours complain. :rolleyes:

ardara1

Picked up 4 hens on Saturday
Replaced on Sunday - picking the hell of the others.
3 eggs Sta
2 eggs Sun
2 eggs mon
2 egss Tus
2 eggs today

chickens happy
garden cover in poo.
1 escapee - 3 hour hunt - six bruises - 2 pretty sever bleeding cuts chasinf thru bushes.

2 happy kids
Chickens are getting used to us - I think they're happy

I'm glad we got them.

- Oh yea - nieghours are a bit pissed off - but hey! - it's worth it!;)

kerrysgold

congrats!

etcetc

@bond 007

where did you buy the prestige food stuff you recommended?

luckat

The other thing you should do is find other people near you who have small numbers of hens.

A good place to start is your local farmer's market - go and talk to the people selling free-range eggs, introduce yourself, say you have a few hens and you're looking to know other people to share help and advice. Invite them over, tell them to bring their henny friends, feed them a bit of nice home-made food, and you'll have an instant circle of hen advice.

There's an excellent English magazine called, I think, The Kitchen Garden, that has a hen column every month. I occasionally get it in Eason's in O'Connell Street, Dublin. You could ask your local newsagent if they could get one copy for you to try, and if you like it, ask them to get it every month (or if they can't do that, subscribe).

You'd probably also get local help and advice in your local Irish Countrywomen's Association branch.

As for hen treats: the inside of peppers, a handful of sunflower seeds (some garden shops sell *big* bags for feeding to birds, but only buy the big bags, not the little seed packets, which are (a) dear and (b) covered in poison); a handful of wheat seeds (get them where you get your feed); anything green - the outside leaves of lettuce and cabbage and cauliflower, the chopped-up stalks of broccoli. Apple peel and cores, tomatoes if you get a surplus, strawberries, parsley stalks. They don't like oniony stuff.

Don't chase your hens, by the way; teach them to come to a whistle for a treat from your hand. If they escape before you've taught them, watch where they go and then go and get them at night. (At night, hens go into a kind of coma as they sleep, and they're easy to move then.)

It's also not good to teach kids that it's fun to chase hens. Kids are only human, and will want to repeat the fun.

LisaO

@bond 007

where did you buy the prestige food stuff you recommended?

+1. Would also be very interested to know where to get this from - sounds like a good alternative to the layers pellets which is only feed I can get at the moment.

meerkatliam

lukin wrote: »

Cabbage yeah, they might like that. I'd prefer not to have to buy something that would otherwise be eaten by humans though. Any further suggestions are welcome!

I have a fine hen that you can have as he was dumped over the wall when the tenants next door left last week as a city dweller I have no clue so I was on the net looking to see what to feed him as he is producing an egg every day and saw your quote I'm in Cork City

él statutorio

meerkatliam wrote: »

I have a fine hen that you can have as he was dumped over the wall when the tenants next door left last week as a city dweller I have no clue so I was on the net looking to see what to feed him as he is producing an egg every day and saw your quote I'm in Cork City

I know someone who might take that hen from you. If it's still available let me know?

boxerly

kerrysgold wrote: »

That's what I was going to do, just call up a battery egg farm and say something like the next time you're clearing out the hens could I buy a few or something like that. If you're on petsireland there's also a thread about them with some contact numbers, here: http://petsireland.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=11360

There is a rescue in kildare and northern ireland with LOADS of etc battery hens,I adopted 5