A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (27 page)

Apple cider vinegar should be added to the drinking water (20 ml vinegar to a litre of water). You can either use it when you feel the birds need a tonic or give it regularly – one week in every month. It should only be used in plastic drinkers.

Giving Treats and Extras

Many people like to give their chickens some titbits, especially if they are kept as pets. Mixed corn is much appreciated but there are other treats you can give without upsetting either DEFRA or the chickens’ digestions.

New chicken keepers are sometimes shocked when they find their chickens busily dismembering a mouse or frog. Chickens eat meat as well as vegetable matter and when free-ranging will pick up a variety of grubs. They are attracted to blood and love meat but must not be fed it. However, you can give them worms and insects dug up from the garden.

Chickens find mealworms irresistible so it will come as no surprise to dieters to learn they are fattening and expensive. Ideal for taming purposes, they should encourage even the shyest hen to eat from your hand.

There are also blocks composed of seeds and dried insects, which can be hung up as a diversion for confined chickens. Some contain molasses and become sticky in hot weather – these aren’t suitable for breeds with feathered heads and faces.

Dried sunflower heads are also popular and can sometimes be bought at feed stores.

Mixed Corn

If you have any windfall fruits, the chickens will enjoy helping to clear them up.

Don’t give your chickens avocado, citrus fruit, dry pulses, uncooked potatoes or green beans, chocolate or anything salty.

Be careful not to overdo the treats – apart from piling on the pounds, an overload of goodies may cause digestive upsets.

Checking the Drinking Water

Always make sure your chickens have plenty of fresh water.

As mentioned, a laying hen can drink 500 ml of water a day – even more in warm weather. All animals need water but chickens have another ace under their wings to remind you. If left without a drink, they can stop laying for several days.

Check drinkers frequently on hot days and make sure they don’t freeze during winter.

Feeding Chickens

Left to their own devices, chickens spend much of the day looking for food – their diet is regulated by the need to work for everything they consume. If confined with little to do but eat a ready supply of food, they can become fat, which affects their health and laying performance. Boredom can lead to feather pecking and other unpleasant habits.

Keeping your chickens in shape doesn’t necessarily mean reducing their feed ration, as this can also have repercussions, but it makes sense to restrict fattening treats and grains when chickens are kept in a run. Green vegetables are a healthier alternative and hanging them so the chickens have to stretch or even jump a little will provide a workout too.

Left to their own devices, chickens spend much of the day looking for food

As a very rough guide, an average chicken will eat about 120 to 150 g of feed a day, but this varies considerably depending on the size of the chickens, their breed and how they are kept. Active free-rangers will forage for much of their food, while confined chickens are dependent on what they are given. Weather also affects feed consumption – chickens will eat more in the winter, less if it is hot.

If you feed too little, those at the bottom of the pecking order will go without so it’s better to be generous at the beginning and provide more than enough for everyone. Ideally there should be just a small amount left over at the end of the day – you’ll soon see how much is required to keep your chickens well fed and happy.

Fill the feeder in the morning and leave the chickens to help themselves. If you choose to scatter some grain in the afternoon, this will supplement their diet, but isn’t essential. Take away any uneaten feed at night (chickens don’t eat or drink once they have gone to bed).

Like most animals chickens don’t appreciate changes to their diet and new feeds should be introduced gradually. When you buy chickens ask what they are currently eating and try to continue with this while they are settling in. If you want to make changes, replace a little of the current feed with the new one, increasing the proportions of new to old over the course of a week.

Rescue hens will require dry mash or ex-battery crumbs when first re-homed, although they can be gradually introduced to pellets later.

Young hens (pullets) shouldn’t be fed layers’ feeds until they are mature enough to produce eggs. The breeder should advise on age and feeding, but if in doubt continue with a growers’ mix until they are ready to start laying. Giving layers’ feeds too early can cause pullets to start producing eggs before their bodies are ready.

Avoiding Poisonous Plants