What to Feed Chickens

When you decide to look after and raise chickens you will have to take into account the various things like the chicken coop and food that your chickens will need to live happily. Also, you should find out exactly what kinds of foods are the best to give your chickens at each stage of life. Here are some basic guidelines that you can follow:

Chicken Feed

Most people that look after chickens opt for the pellets of chicken feed to give to their flock, and you can get various types that have different nutritional properties depending on what chickens you have and what you want them to do. If you are interested in your hens laying eggs, then a different feed should be used. For totally naturally fed chicken you can just let them eat grass. Yes, chickens, despite what many butchers say, can and do eat grass. In fact if they are totally free range, chickens will consume more than 30 percent of their nutritional needs from grass. There are many other types of feed that you can give to your chickens that are natural, but be warned that purely vegetarian diets will cause them to be undernourished. The best way to ensure healthy chickens that are free range and that lay eggs for many years, is to supplement their natural diet of bugs, grasses, and wild plants with fish meal for added protein.

Treats

If you want to your chickens can enjoy a number of different kinds of foods and do not only have to eat feed like pellets and live off the land if live in an area where there is not much grass. Some treats that you can give your flock includes lettuce, which is always accepted, raw bananas without the peel, all kinds of raw berries, well cooked beans including green beans, broccoli and cauliflower, whole heads of Brussels sprouts or cabbage, live crickets, cucumbers, raw or cooked seafood, seedless grapes, any kinds of fruit like pears, apricots, and peaches, mealworms, cooked oatmeal, pomegranates with their seeds, raisins, and others.

Make a Chicken Waterer and Feeder

If you want to keep your chickens well fed and hydrated the best thing you can get is a feeder or a waterer. These devices allow smaller portions of food and water to trickle out so that your chickens have a constant source all day or even for weeks at a time. These can be expensive, so if you want to, there is an easy way of making one that will be very cheap. First of all you will need to get some large buckets. Usually meat markets or grocery stores will throw these away so ask if you can have one or two. To make a feeder or waterer you will simply attached the bucket to a pan of some kind or a plastic planter. Then around the base you will drill small holes, enough for some water or feed to come through to fill the base. As the pan is emptied, so more water and feed will fill it up again.