A flock of Silver Laced Wyandotte share treats.
For hundreds of years, European chickens were a minor form of livestock that survived by scavenging food in towns and small farms. A few distinct breeds had been developed by the early 1800s, such as the squat and meaty Cornish. By the late 1800s, European chicken breeds were being mated with larger and more prolific egg-laying Asian counterparts. With their larger stature and greater laying abilities, these new breeds could produce a previously unimagined abundance of meat and eggs.
To achieve the full potential of the genetic improvements, new methods of feeding were developed that could provide the concentrated levels of nutrition the new breeds demanded. By the mid-twentieth century, the feeding of poultry had, quite literally, become a science. The new science looked to the rapidly industrializing factories for inspiration, and brutally efficient systems of high-density confinement factory farming were developed. When these methods reached their limits, antibiotics were fed to chickens at nontherapeutic levels—even in the absence of disease—to increase the birds’ size.
The poultry industry and regulatory agencies such as the FDA in the United States have at long last recognized that this approach can lead to serious dangers such as antibiotic resistance, and researchers are now identifying a range of natural alternatives that can be used to improve poultry health while maintaining yields.
As pet chicken keeping became a popular hobby, first in the United Kingdom and later in the United States, feeding methods were initially borrowed from the farm. Paralleling the recent introduction of highly specialized cat and dog food formulas, however, chicken foods for small flocks have as of late become more diverse, offering a range of options to suit the owner’s budget and preferences. Can senior and weight-control formulas be far behind?
From the moment we bring home a box of tiny, cheeping chicks, we are responsible for their care and feeding. From chicks to the awkward teenage years, your peeps and pullets will need a specialized blend that will meet their needs for growth. The main differences between these starter, or grower, formulas and their adult counterparts are principally the amounts of protein and calcium they provide.
Just as the nutritional needs of a chick differ from those of an adult hen, breeds that are heavy layers have their own special nutritional requirements that differ from those of specialized meat breeds. Beyond age and genetic differences, numerous individual factors such as sex, climate, local weather, and overall health conditions individually and collectively influence the nutritional needs of your chickens. Your value system as a chicken keeper also plays a role in determining how best to feed your particular birds. Because it would be impossible to account for every such variable, we have narrowed our feed focus to hens of laying and ornamental breeds and assumed a temperate climate and average suburban milieu with a small lawn and garden.
So-called dual-purpose breeds (chickens that produce both meat and eggs) are the workhorses of the backyard, selected over many generations to be sturdy foragers, unafraid to get their beaks dirty and earn their keepers a yield from a few handfuls of feed and a patch of weedy ground. Most of these breeds can still be expected to lay 125 to 250 tasty eggs a year in their prime, but their laying capabilities gradually decline in production over a lifetime that may stretch to nearly ten years. The roosters of such breeds are big and meaty, if that’s your thing.
A label shows the typical breakdown of ingredients in chick feed, which in this case contains 20 percent protein—more than the 16 percent typical for an adult layer feed. On most feed bags, the amount of nutrients and type of feed are usually found on the tag stitched along the top or bottom seam.
By contrast, more recently developed “super layers” are engineered for a sixteen-month life at a commercial farm. These hens are devoted solely to laying while locked in a cage and efficiently produce about 350 eggs a year. If they are so different, why should we feed them the same way we feed our backyard hens?
Open an agricultural textbook and it will tell you that a well-provisioned laying hen needs precise amounts of water and finely tuned inputs of energy in the form of carbohydrates and fats, balanced by protein sufficient for growth and egg production. In addition to these, the ration must include minimal levels of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and other vitamins and minerals to prevent deficiencies and provide for the birds’ basic needs during their short lifetimes.
We believe that this deconstructionist approach to poultry nutrition is best suited to chicken farmers, who are governed by cost and efficiency. The backyard chicken keeper’s concerns lay primarily in the flock’s well-being and the quality of the eggs they produce. Backyard chicken keepers can do much better than provide nutrition that meets the minimum requirements needed to keep a bird alive; we believe strongly in the importance of offering access to living foods such as weeds, grasses, bugs, and soil microbes. Nevertheless, research for commercial chicken farms has been done, and redone, and provides useful information that can help guide us home keepers as well by serving as a baseline against which we can judge the completeness of the diets we provide our hens.
Chickens are omnivores, equipped to eat and digest a wide variety of plants and animals to meet their nutritional needs. Given a hospitable climate and lack of predators, chickens are able to adapt to a variety of locally available food resources. By constantly digging around, nibbling, and exploring, the feral Kauai chickens scratch together a diet complete enough to sustain them in top condition, supplemented only by the occasional French fry snatched from a tourist’s plate. But they lay only about 15 eggs per year.
Our domestic chickens retain a surprising amount of this versatility, and one of the great joys of being a chicken keeper is watching our hens find food in the yard. Unrecognizable as the plump, lazy ladies squawking at us to refill the feeder only moments earlier, our foraging hens see something interesting and turn into stealthy raptors on the hunt. Their long, slow strides enable them to listen and look at once, sensing subtle vibrations with their feet that betray the presence of the quarry hidden below. When something promising is located, they begin methodically peeling back layers of duff and leaves with their powerful feet and sharp claws, pecking and bending, pushing soil with their beaks, and claiming bit after bit of something usually invisible to our clumsy human eyes.
The other sort of feeding style our hens use begins with a tentative tip-grazing of plants. If they find it tender and delicious, they tuck in with zeal. It’s astonishing to witness a couple of hens devour a full-grown kale plant in about ten minutes, reducing it to a roughed-up patch of mangled roots and a few of the tougher stems. Three or four hens in a foraging pen can completely clear a moderately weedy 8-by-4-foot garden bed in a day or two, leaving it weeded, fluffed, and fertilized for the next crop.
As satisfying as it is to watch and assist the hens with their foraging (by moving the pens, planting greens for them, and performing other such favors), and despite our fantasies to the contrary, we must provide the bulk of their food in a more complete, consistent, and concentrated source of nutrition if we want them to lay abundant eggs and otherwise live up to their breeds’ potential. Today, about 70 percent of all chicken feed comes in pellet form. Pelletized feed is made by compacting ground and blended ingredients to form small, solid, elongated pellets. The purpose of pelleting is to take fine, dusty, and difficult-to-handle feed material and, by using low heat, moisture, and pressure, form it into larger bits that are evenly mixed to deliver the complete blend of the feed’s formula in every bite.
The other form of feed is mash—loose, unpelletized feed. One popular brand offers absolutely gorgeous stuff, almost like the ten-grain cereal you eat at breakfast. You can clearly see coarsely cracked grains with a scattering of chartreuse dry pea bits peeking out here and there, adding some color to the wholesome effect. It looks just as a natural chicken feed ought to look, but there’s one problem: most people use it incorrectly when feeding their hens, and this means their hens are missing out on an important fraction of the nutrition it contains. The loose structure of the feed enables the hens to pick out the bits they like the most—mainly the grains—while leaving behind a substantial portion of the dusty parts. But the dusty stuff contains the majority of the vitamins and minerals, and a portion of the protein and fats that make the feed complete. We regularly hear reports from customers who are loyal to mashes that their hens’ eggs are thin-shelled or they’re having other difficulties; after we instruct them on proper feeding techniques or switch them to pellets, the problems disappear. The feeding issue is shared by all feeds with a lot of variation in particle size—including most homemade feeds—but it’s not a problem with fine mashes that are sometimes fed to young chicks, which are homogenous enough that the birds will ingest it all.
To avoid inconsistencies when feeding loose feed with a variety of particle sizes, we recommend mixing up an old-fashioned wet mash—not very wet, mind you, but just moist enough to form a stiff paste that binds the ingredients together. The amount of moisture will vary by feed type and composition, but a five parts feed to one part moisture (by volume, not weight) will probably do. This is also a great first step toward fermenting your feed if you desire. Farmers in the past may have added a little squirt of milk from Bessie to get this done, and you can use milk, too—but keep in mind that Bess would have given raw milk that offered far better results than the pasteurized type. So it’s probably safer to go with water, with a little apple cider vinegar or humic acid mixed in to keep the pH on the low side. When in doubt, read the label on the feed, follow directions, and judge for yourself.
Using a wet mash, however, has two major downsides: preparation and mess. It will take a little extra time to mix the warm water with the feed, a little more time to let it soak in, and up to two days for fermentation to occur if that’s your aim. Then you’ll need extra time to clean up after the hens’ previous day’s meal, because any leftovers must be removed from the feeder and the feeder rinsed (or sanitized, if you are really tidy). Keep in mind that only a trough feeder is suitable for wet-mash feeding, because the mushy stuff won’t flow in gravity-fed feeders.
Nutritional needs and restrictions gradually change as your chicks age, making the task of selecting the appropriate feed, treats, and supplements daunting. This handy chart summarizes the type and amount of feed your chickens require at each stage of growth and the corresponding recommended treats, minerals, and supplements that can safely be given daily.
From chick to adult, laying hens can be expected to thrive on nothing more than an age-appropriate feed formula and an occasional nibble of green forage. Perhaps because we find this monotonous, we pamper our flocks with a variety of supplemental treats, especially cracked grains. The variety these provide can reduce boredom and may improve digestion, but, because they displace consumption of complete feeds, moderation is essential. Mineral additions such as grit and oyster shell are less prone to abuse and may simply be scattered in small amounts over feed or on the ground.
| Life stage (age) | Base feed required | Treats and greens optional | Minerals optional | Botanicals and microbes optional |
| Hatch to 8 weeks | Chick grower 20% protein (unlimited) | Mealworms (no earthworms, may contain parasites dangerous to chicks), hardboiled egg bits, polenta/chick corn, small bits of meat | Fine grit, bentonite clay, biochar | Aloe, artemisia, probiotics, bokashi bran or EM/BM, kelp |
| 8–12 weeks (transition to outside) | Chick grower or developer 18–20% protein (unlimited) | Mealworms, scratch grains, leafy greens, tender grass | Fine (or larger) grit, bentonite clay, biochar | Aloe, artemisia, probiotics, bokashi bran or EM/BM, kelp |
| 12 weeks to adult layers | Layer mix 16–17% protein, 5–6 oz. daily | Mealworms, scratch grains, leafy greens, tender grass, limited kitchen scraps including veggies, meat, cheese, bread | Regular grit, bentonite clay, biochar, calcium | Aloe, artemisia, probiotics, bokashi bran or EM/BM, kelp |
Carbohydrates are the major source of energy for poultry and the largest component of their feed by weight and volume. Carbohydrates consist of starches, sugars, and fiber. Although starches and sugars are easily digested by enzymes in a chicken’s digestive tract and are essential for fueling a hen, the less digestible fibrous parts in proper proportion are also important for maintaining digestive health. Corn is the major source of carbohydrates found in most milled feeds because it’s an inexpensive and high-energy grain, but some mixes contain other cereal grains, including wheat, barley, rice, millet, quinoa, and amaranth as well. Grains also contain protein, but usually in amounts insufficient to provide for a hen’s total protein needs. Therefore, they must be combined with more concentrated protein sources to yield a complete ration. Feeding your hens excess carbohydrates (usually in the form of treats) will lead to serious health problems, including obesity and fatty liver disease. Too little in the diet can lead to low body weight.
Effective Microorganisms (EM) is a proprietary blend of beneficial microorganisms first cultured in Japan by researcher Dr. Teruo Higa in 1982. Teraganix is licensed to use Higa’s recipe and the EM name in the United States. According to the Teraganix website, the microbe cohorts in EM “work together with local and native beneficial microbes, creating a synergy among microorganisms and larger forms of life including insects and worms, pets and livestock, and people.”
To avoid confusion (and lawsuits), we have recently begun referring to EM and similar products as beneficial microbes, a less specific but less legally protected name, and the slightly tongue-in-cheek acronym, BM.
The specific blend of microbes present in EM and other commercial BM formulations are shrouded in secrecy, but they are known to contain specific strains of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and phototrophic bacteria. Several recipes exist for homebrewed BM starters, but the processes are tricky enough that we suspect the results would be inconsistent for most of us.
Digestive enzymes are molecules produced within the digestive systems of humans, chickens, and other animals. They efficiently break apart chemical bonds in food to make it digestible. Once the enzymes transform food into smaller molecular blocks, the molecules can be absorbed and used throughout the body. In chickens (as well as humans), for example, the amylase enzyme breaks the long molecular chains of starches into sugars, and pepsin breaks down protein molecules.
In addition to the enzymes created inside the body, many are helpfully present within food itself. Chickens (as well as humans) cannot digest some foods because their bodies lack the enzyme required to do so; for example, the enzyme cellulase, which is not produced by chickens (or humans), is required to break down plant fibers containing cellulose. Enzymes are sometimes added to feed to help chickens digest grass and other cellulose-rich green plants. Adding selected enzymes to poultry feed improves its digestibility. The casual chicken keeper need not concern herself with the details—it’s enough to know that enzymes unlock the full nutritional potential of feeds and it’s crucial that they be included in the blend and consumed with the other ingredients.
Corn This grain (properly called maize) deserves its reputation as an overabundant industrial crop that’s often refined into dangerously addictive human food additives such as high fructose corn syrup. Nevertheless, it’s not without merit as a source of carbohydrates for chickens. Unlike ruminants (cud chewers) such as cattle, which were never meant to digest large amounts of low-fiber seeds such as maize, chickens do just fine on the stuff. In fact, maize is one of the most energy-dense foods for poultry, with a digestible energy (DE) value of more than twice that of oats. Maize weighs in at a hefty 1.54 megacalories of DE per pound: that’s equal to 1540 calories of the kind people are concerned with (which are actually kilocalories). To put that in perspective, 1 pound of dried maize alone would nearly meet the basic daily energy requirements of our five-year-old daughter!
Although we don’t use maize in our retail organic hen food blends at this time, we do appreciate it for being a relatively inexpensive source of energy. Our milling partners probably wish we would use it for another reason: its low fiber-to-energy ratio means that it’s concentrated, leaving plenty of volume in feed formulas for other, bulkier ingredients. Its greatest virtue for the home chicken keeper is probably as a crop to grow at home to save a little money or to meet food security and sustainability aims. In addition to planting one of the many easy-to-grow traditional feed maize varieties, you can also supplement your hens’ diet with garden-grown sweet corn that’s gone starchy or dried in the husk. We like to save a few dozen leftover ears, dry them thoroughly, stash them in a rodent-proof bin, and offer them whole as a sweet treat in the depths of winter. Homegrown popcorn and other colored corns are also perfect for feeding to your hens.
Because hens love corn’s sweet taste, they will always eat corn before their pellets or regular mash, which can result in decreased protein and mineral intake. So be cautious about feeding chickens too much. It’s better to include cracked corn as an adjunct to your winter ration. Your hens’ protein needs decrease when laying slows in the colder months, but their energy demand increases to maintain body temperature. In mild winter areas, try giving them foraged green plants rather than stored corn for supplemental food.
Our daughters, now ages five and seven, begin begging us for corn with dinner in early July each summer. Until our own crop of ultra-tender and sweet corn begins to ripen in August, they endure the store-bought kind, which they deem acceptable if sufficiently slathered in butter.
When they’re old enough to appreciate this sort of fascinating information, we’ll share the surprising fact that sweet corn eaten fresh is, in fact, a rare use of corn in the United States. Instead, most owf our corn crop is distilled into biofuels such as ethanol (about 40 percent), and almost all the rest is used as animal feed (about 36 percent, or a bit more if distillers’ grain left over from biofuel production is included). Most of the rest is exported, and only a tiny fraction of our nation’s corn crop is used directly for human food—and primarily consumed as high-fructose corn syrup.
If our daughters are able to contain their excitement long enough to hear more, we’ll teach them about different kinds of corn as well. We can thank a naturally occurring mutation in genes regulating the conversion of sugar to starch inside the maturing kernels for its sweet taste. Corn without this mutation is known generally as field corn. This corn is used to make ethanol, corn meal, and animal feed. Home gardeners typically grow sweet corn, but field corn can also be cultivated easily in most parts of the country. Easily dried and stored, field corn makes an ideal home crop for stretching your flock’s food supply.
Specifically bred for today’s modern markets, common agricultural corn varieties bear little resemblance to the largely forgotten, older types better suited for the home gardener interested in feeding chickens. Although hardly heirlooms, modern corn types available to the public are hybridized versions of a respectably old type of maize, called dent corn, which was developed in the mid-1800s. The original corn varieties used to create the new ones didn’t completely disappear, however, and it’s still possible to grow a few of them, as well as many more traditional and newer variants, at home. With a little scratching around, you should be able to dig up such colorfully named dent corn varieties as ‘Bloody Butcher’, ‘Blue Clarage’, ‘Cherokee White Eagle’, and a rainbow of others.
Flint corn is another distinct type with a long history and a good candidate for the home garden. Better suited than dent corn for gardens in cooler climates, flint also comes in a charming assortment of colorful options and makes a quality feed or scratch. Though you may choose from enticing variety names such as ‘Floriani Red’, ‘Saskatchewan Rainbow’, or ‘Wade’s Giant’, flint corn seems to be more difficult to find than dent corn—perhaps indicating that it’s losing popularity and is worthy of our preservation attention.
Popcorn is wonderfully suited for home cultivation and is ideal as a long-storing food for both you and your flock. Numerous old and new varieties are readily available to home gardeners, including the hardy black ears of ‘Dakota Black’ and the pastel colors of the opalescent variety ‘Glass Gem’. Try growing ‘Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavor’ to see if it really tastes prebuttered!
Sweet corn is not bred to be dried before eating and contains lots of sugars and water. Dent, flint, and popcorn varieties are much starchier. Although it’s perfectly fine for feeding to chickens, sweet corn shrinks dramatically when dried, and this makes it impractical to grow expressly for feeding chickens.
Whichever type you grow, you’ll be harvesting not only a valuable food for you and your flock, but you’ll be doing your part to maintain genetic diversity, much as you probably already have by choosing heritage and dual-purpose chicken breeds. We’ve recently begun growing open-pollenated, non-hybrid field corn in our garden and plan to try a new variety each year to determine which is best suited for our location. Perhaps we will even cross two or more promising strains and try our hand at creating something unique.
Wheat Many of our customers’ interests are piqued when they see wheat included in our feed mixes. They are concerned about the environmental impacts of corn and soy, but we typically formulate our proprietary hen foods without either. Instead, we use wheat as the primary energy source. Wheat offers a few advantages over corn as a source of carbohydrates in poultry feed, including a higher protein content and a wider range of amino acids, which are essential in every metabolic process inside a hen’s body. These benefits are mitigated somewhat by wheat’s lower energy content and indigestible starches—unless appropriate digestive enzymes are included in the ration as well. By blending wheat with naturally produced, organic enzymes such as xylanase, protease, and amylase, its energy value is unlocked and relates favorably to that of corn. Another advantage is that the natural gluten in wheat eliminates the need for artificial binders because it helps to bind feed pellets, so bags of pelletized feed are much less dusty.
Wheat is often added to feed rations in the form of wheat byproducts, such as middlings. When we first started to formulate feeds, we had an aversion to the idea of adding byproducts such as middlings because they sounded like low-quality ingredients, filler, or, worse yet, something that was unnatural for hens to eat. We’ve since learned that, although that may be true in a few rare instances, most grain byproduct ingredients are actually very desirable in feed. They are the part of a whole food that’s removed during processing, or refinement. Wheat middlings, for instance, are simply the remains of whole-wheat kernels that have been milled into white flour. They consist of the germ and the bran, the parts that are actually richest in proteins, vitamins, lipids, and minerals.
Wheat is also a good forage product in the form of fresh green wheatgrass, but unless you are willing to thresh it and include digestive enzymes with your supplements, growing wheat for grain is not very practical for most time-crunched urban homesteaders like us. It may be an attainable goal to use homegrown wheat in a scratch blend that is threshed and cracked on a small scale, however.
People who eat gluten-free diets have asked us whether feeding wheat to their hens will give them a reaction when they eat the eggs. The short answer is no. A hen’s digestive system breaks down the gluten into amino acids that retain zero of the potentially harmful or irritating properties of whole gluten proteins.
The long explanation is that after your hen swallows food containing gluten, a series of chemical and mechanical processes begin to reduce it to a form that can be readily absorbed by her body and used for nourishment and growth. As the food undergoes this process, proteins such as gluten are broken down into amino acids. Unlike large and complicated protein molecules, amino acids are found in almost all types of foods in one form or another, and they are tiny enough to be absorbed through the wall of the small intestine.
We’ve been asked this question so many times that we’ve researched it thoroughly. We’ve been unable to locate any possible mechanism whereby the gluten protein could remain whole and potent and then be incorporated into an egg. Even if somehow a gluten particle escaped digestion, it would join other undigested bits and simply end up in a hen’s poop.
Amaranth This highly nutritious grain produces large yields in small spaces, making it ideal for an organic feed and forage garden. An exotic-looking annual plant that can be grown in most climates, amaranth produces large drooping clusters of tightly packed seeds that ripen to attractive shades of yellow, purple, and red. The seeds are rich in protein (18–20 percent), contain beneficial amino acids, and offer higher energy levels than most cereals. Amaranth also includes unsaturated fatty acids that are important for poultry growth, egg production, liver health, and immune function. Amaranth’s tiny seeds and tough husks make it difficult to thresh for human consumption, but chickens with access to grit can digest seed and hulls. Its antinutritional factors, similar to those in some other raw grains, require that amaranth seed be heated or fermented to help hens digest it. Amaranth leaves are also rich in protein (up to 25 percent of dry weight) but must be dried before feeding to improve digestibility.
As a source of nourishment for a small flock, homegrown potatoes are easy to cultivate and highly valued for winter chicken feeding—but they must be cooked before you give them to your hens. They are a good source of energy for poultry and provide moderate protein levels, though this varies by variety and cultivation method.
Potatoes and their byproducts contain a naturally occurring antinutrient, which blocks proper digestion of proteins by inhibiting the action of the digestive enzyme protease. Because of the protease inhibitor, raw potatoes are unsuitable for feeding to hens. Cooked potatoes, however, are quite safe, and it’s critically important that you cook them completely before feeding them to your flock. Mash the cooked potatoes and the feed together, and place the mix in a trough other than the one used for their regular dry food to prevent moisture transfer that would lead to spoilage. Our hens prefer this mash to regular pellets, but if they didn’t, we might find it necessary to remove the regular feed so they would focus on the potato mix.
We tend to be cautious and limit cooked potatoes to 20 percent or less of our hens’ diet, though we’ve seen evidence supporting the safety of higher percentages. Potatoes contain less protein than milled hen food pellets, so swapping them for 20 percent or less of a day’s meal will mean a slight decrease in protein consumption. To balance it out, we toss the girls a few worms or another high-protein supplement. Otherwise, a day or two of missing the recommended nutritional marks will not noticeably affect hens’ health or productivity.
We dedicate a substantial portion of our vegetable garden to several types of potatoes, and we are constantly amazed at yields: for each pound of potatoes we plant in early spring, we harvest ten or more pounds by the end of the season. To get those outstanding returns, we use hilling techniques, add low-nitrogen organic amendments, always plant certified and disease-free seed potatoes, and resist the temptation to use the sprouted spuds we find at the back of our cupboard. After a season of growing in most rich garden soils, replanted potatoes are saddled with a load of pathogens that rob them of some vigor and reduce yields. Seed potatoes are grown in thin, dry soils.
When stored hanging in burlap bags in a root cellar or cool, dark garage, spuds will last long into the winter. Potatoes with green coloration should be avoided because they contain solanine, which is toxic, though it’s less bothersome to chickens than humans.
Barley Residents of Canada and Northern Europe have shown that barley can be fed to chickens, though chickens cannot digest its carbohydrates as easily as those of corn. Barley provides moderate amounts of energy and lots of fiber, but it must be supplemented with enzymes to negate compounds such as phytate, which can slow absorption of other nutrients. In brewing and distilling alcoholic beverages through the malting process, barley is partially spouted and then quickly dried to convert starches within the grain into sugars. The complex sprouting and drying process improves the grain’s digestibility by releasing enzymes that make barley a more viable ingredient in feed. Barley is often available for free in the form of spent brewers’ grains from breweries and distillers, but don’t seek it out for your flock; although this is suitable feedstock for multi-stomached, cud chewing, cellulose-digesting ruminant animals such as cattle, chickens can make little use of it. This leftover material will contain mostly fiber and fat, with no sugar.
Millet Millet is a cereal grass grown in difficult conditions, such as those found in many food-insecure parts of the world. With high levels of protein (20 percent) and as much energy as corn, millet could practically be the main ingredient in chicken feed, requiring only minor supplementation. Before you get too excited about switching to an all-millet diet, though, we should mention that it’s prone to fungal attacks that can produce toxins dangerous to poultry and humans. If you use it, source human-grade millet from trustworthy suppliers that regularly test it for safety.
Oats We don’t typically use oats in our poultry feeds because our milling partners have always told us that its high fiber content makes it difficult to balance with other ingredients. Although this is undoubtedly true, recent research has confirmed what pastured poultry and clean-food guru Joel Salatin has been saying for a long time: fiber is very valuable in a chicken’s diet. When it’s young and tender, oat grass makes a terrific grazing grass for hens. At home, we occasionally mix leftover oatmeal with our regular feed and a few kitchen tidbits for a treat.
Rice A high-energy grain, rice is becoming increasingly popular as poultry feed in areas of the world where it’s abundant. Rice bran is a great byproduct of the industry, with an excellent nutritional profile rich in valuable fats, vitamins, and minerals. Because it contains fats, rice bran spoils fairly quickly in warm climates, so it should be stored in a cool, dark place and vacuum-sealed when kept for more than a few weeks. We use rice or oat bran to make bokashi for composting our food waste and as a supplement for our hens.
Sorghum This grain may be most familiar as those little round things in wild bird seed. It’s a heat- and drought-resistant grain that’s loaded with nearly as much poultry-digestible energy as corn. Sorghum thrives in many parts of the world where other crops fail, but high levels of tannins (bitter compounds like those in black tea) relegate it to being a minor component of animal feeds. Recently, low-tannin varieties have been developed that should enable its use in greater amounts, making it an intriguing substitute for corn.
Fats are the richest source of dietary energy, containing 225 percent more calories than carbohydrates by weight. Fat must be present in a chicken’s diet to help its body absorb fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K; it also slows passage of food through the digestive tract, improving nutrient absorption. And, not surprisingly, it improves the taste of their food. Soy oil and ground flax seed are common fat sources in chicken feed. Fats can go bad or become rancid, especially in warm temperatures. A controversial preservative, ethoxyquin, has been deemed safe for animal feed, but we prefer to include fats preserved with vitamin E in our mixes.
Fats can be saturated, which are solid at room temperature, and unsaturated, which remain liquid. Both can be part of a healthy poultry diet if used appropriately, though oils containing unsaturated fats are better used in a hen’s body than saturated fats. Examples of saturated fat include vegetable shortening, lard, and tallow, and although we don’t typically recommend adding saturated fat to regular feeds, they are useful for making a warming winter hen suet. You can use high-quality, sustainably produced animal fats, but we recommend coconut oil as a more sustainable (if somewhat pricier) alternative. Unsaturated fats are much more commonly used in feeds, including home-mixed blends, to control dust and as a concentrated form of energy to balance, or pump up, the caloric content. The most common types of unsaturated fat used in chicken feed are corn, soy, and canola oils. Although each has its benefits and drawbacks, we generally find them all to be affordable and acceptable. Alternatives such as avocado and rice bran oils are nutritionally stellar but astronomically expensive.
Because the base ingredients vary widely in their fat content, it’s difficult to provide exact recommendations about the amount of fats to add when putting together a layer ration. As a rule of thumb, rations based primarily on whole grains and (cooked or extruded) legumes have enough oil present to make a healthful ration without including additional fat. However, when using less-expensive byproduct seed meals that have been previously pressed for oil, you must add fat to compensate for this. For instance, soybeans contain about 20 percent oil prior to pressing and only 1 to 2 percent afterward. In theory, if you include soybean meal in a ration, we suggest you add about 18 percent of the weight of the meal in the form of oil. In practice, this is a bit much and would result in an oily product, but it does provide a useful starting point to begin customizing for your needs and preferences.
It’s a common practice to offer treats to your hens in the form of scratch, so called because chickens will scratch the ground looking for every last tasty morsel. Scratch can comprise a single ingredient or blends of items that hens particularly relish, and it is useful for training hens to come to your call. Treats with high energy content are also a warming supplement on cold nights.
Our customers are very fond of their chickens, and, like other folks who love their pets, many of them express their love in a language their hens really respond to: yummy treats. We’ll admit that it’s good for business, and the hens certainly don’t mind, but sometimes we are compelled to inquire gently about a customer’s feeding practices. It usually goes like this:
“Good morning, I’d like a 50-pound bag of cracked corn treats please—the organic kind.”
“Sure, we can grab that for you. Must have lots of chickens, huh? Did you need some regular feed, too?”
“No, we have only two now. We lost Gracie last month. Just found her dead suddenly. It’s so sad. We’ve still got plenty of the regular food—we’re just out of the corn.”
“Always sad to lose a favorite hen. . . . Sooo, how you feed them the corn?”
“Every morning, when I go out to visit the ladies, I give them a handful. I just hang out with them, drink some coffee, and we chat away! They finish the corn really fast, so I usually toss them a little bit more. They love that corn so much. They scream if I don’t give it to them—it’s so cute!”
“Yeah, hens are like that. They like to talk about stuff . . . loud! So, anyway, about the regular feed, do they ever talk about that? Do they eat much?”
“Nope, they say they don’t like it very much. It just sits there in the feeder. I think they eat some of it. We refill the feeder every few weeks. Maybe I need to try a different brand or something. It seems they don’t like the kind I get them anymore, or they’re bored of the stuff.”
“Right. They do get bored sometimes. So how are they doing with the egg laying? It’s getting warmer, so they must be really cranking them out now, huh?”
“The eggs? Oh, they’re delicious! When we get them, that is, because sometimes they hide them. . . . Oh, that reminds me, I think Susie might be eating her eggs, and she’s starting to peck at Buttercup’s feathers—plucks them right off! I tell her she’s a naughty girl, but she won’t listen.”
No longer able to contain ourselves and in real danger of bursting from the pressure of withheld advice, this is the moment we simply must launch into our famous “tough love for chickens” speech—where we firmly proclaim that hens must eat a balanced diet with the correct balance of carbohydrates and protein to supply energy, maintain and repair their bodies, and produce lots of eggs. Sugary corn and starchy treats like bread are high in energy but low in protein. They may seem alright because they’re wholesome grains and chickens really like to eat them, but the reality is that feeding hens too many treats can kill them, or at least keep them from reaching their potential. Inexorably, feeding too many treats leads to protein deficiency—an underlying cause of serious problems such as egg eating, feather picking, cannibalism, aggressive behavior, and declines in egg laying. The excess carbs may disrupt the balance of microbes in the gut for the worse, opening the door for pathogens and the diseases they cause.
If, by this time, the customer has not suddenly excused herself to make a phone call or respond to an emergency at work (this is always happening to us for some reason), we’ll go on to explain that the trouble starts because chickens will eat to their food’s energy level, meaning that they will consume all of their food intake as carbs, if that’s available, and neglect to eat offerings containing protein. “It’s like giving kids candy before breakfast,” we say wisely, “or how they always have plenty of room for dessert, even after they say they’re full of our famous liver, onion, and cheddar fondue. You’ve got to get firm with your hens! What they need is some tough love. Stop giving them treats for a few days and make them eat their pellets—that’ll set them right.” About this time, we finally notice that the customer’s face is frozen in a look of concern. “Don’t worry, ma’am, they’ll get hungry and eat the pellets . . . sooner or later,” we add, reassuringly.
Flax seeds Valuable as both a protein and an oil, flax is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. When fed to laying hens, feeds containing sufficient levels of flax oil are known to produce changes in the fat profile of the egg that may lower cholesterol in humans and provide other health benefits to the birds. Unfortunately, our preliminary research indicates that to achieve a significant bump in omega-3 levels, it may be necessary to use up to 10 percent flax in a feed blend, which would add substantial expense. A more economical choice to boost omega-3 levels, and one that we’ve been incorporating into some of our feed formulas, is fish meal. Unfortunately, mills are moving away from its use because of generalized concerns about using animal proteins in feed—and perhaps because of its odor.
Hemp seeds Like flax seed, hemp seed is rich in quality fats. Hemp can boast good levels of energy and is a superior source of plant protein, with an excellent amino acid balance. The seed is so nutritious that it could be a one-ingredient feed, comparing favorably with modern, blended chicken feeds.
Sunflower seeds If you have access to a small oil press, you can make your own oils from seeds. The easiest oil to make comes from sunflower seeds, and this plant may be growing in your garden already. We recommend using a small-seeded variety, the black oil sunflower, which is often included in wild bird seed mixes.
Hens need protein in their diet for growth and repair of bodily tissues and feathers. It’s also an important factor in egg formation. Proteins are composed of amino acids and vary in their completeness, or usability. Supplementing protein intake periodically can boost egg production and speed the replacement of feathers during molting. Eggs may be fed as supplement to your chicks’ and hens’ diet if they are cooked and unrecognizable (no, it’s not cannibalism—eggs are the food supply for chicks before they are hatched, after all). Typical sources of proteins in feed include soybean meal (a byproduct of soy oil production) and animal byproducts from beef, swine, and (shockingly) chickens. Also common are various byproducts of seeds pressed for oil, such as canola. Sunflower meal, fish meal, hemp meal, flax meal (linseed), insects, and grubs and maggots can also be fed to hens to provide protein. Hens deficient in protein exhibit slow growth, decreased egg production and size, earlier and prolonged molting, feather picking, aggressive behaviors, and egg eating. An excess of protein shows up as enlarged eggs that cause potentially fatal binding, increased water needs, and elevated ammonia levels in litter.
Sunflower seeds An ideal ingredient for the home feed maker, sunflower seeds also make a good scratch treat. The black oil varieties are highly productive and produce seeds that are stable in storage, and their small size makes them easy for the hens to eat. Other varieties are fine, too. Keep in mind that you may need to net your sunflower plants as the seeds become ripe to protect them from being eaten by other birds, and with very tall varieties, this can be difficult. Our scarecrows protect our sunflowers pretty well, but we like to leave all of the smaller heads on the stalks for wild birds anyway.
We currently use whole sunflower seeds to provide as a scratch treat, but if you want to get serious about creating your own feed mixes, consider buying or going in with a group of other like-minded chicken keepers in your area on a hand mill that’s capable of shelling them.
Sunflower meal is one of our preferred alternative sources of protein sources (along with peas) for several reasons.
It contributes to agricultural diversity as a protein alternative to industrially farmed soy beans.
Sunflowers are native to North America, which means they are well adapted to our climate and soils, reducing the needs for water, fertilizer, and pesticides.
Sunflowers are virtually free of antinutrients, which are present in soy.
They provide a well-balanced amino acid composition for quality protein.
The nutritionist at the mill that makes our feed tells us that one drawback to relying on sunflower meal as a primary protein is its high fiber content. Compared to soybean meal, hens must eat a bit more sunflower meal to meet their protein requirements, making the feed formula less nutrient-dense overall. This is not a problem for feeding home flocks, however, because the extra fiber may be nutritionally useful for confined chickens with low plant fiber diets.
One of the most vexing and frustrating characters a chicken keeper can grapple with is the egg-eating hen. It begins with an innocent nibble of raw egg from within a cracked shell in the nest, but once she’s tasted the yummy things inside, she’ll become an egg fiend. Follow a few prevention and treatment tips to help keep this problem at bay.
• Collect eggs dutifully each day to remove temptation. Do this as close to the time of laying as possible, typically late morning.
• Leave dummy (fake) eggs in the nest to serve as decoys, possibly deflecting pecks and making all eggs seem less appealing once the hard, impenetrable substitute fails to yield anything interesting.
• Maintain shell quality and density by feeding your hens proper levels of calcium, vitamins, and protein to help prevent unintentional breakage that could lead to taste tests.
• Use roll-out nest boxes with sloped bottoms to deposit newly laid eggs safely away from the hens in a protected compartment for later gathering.
• Provide a sufficient number of nest boxes for the flock size.
In our experience, chicken keepers are almost invariably gardeners as well. Whether you are the casual sort, keeping a few layers and managing a harvest of homegrown tomatoes in a small garden, or folks like us, whose gardens are actually farms writ small, complete with hens as scaled-to-fit livestock (and pets), you can use your plot to obtain a better yield of eggs while spending less on feed. Though forage is not a replacement for regular feed, it can provide at least 10 percent of a flock’s nutritional needs, depending on seasonal availability and your skill at providing it. Too much foraged food and your hens will likely consume a diet lower in overall nutrients, by effectively diluting the nutrient density of regular feed.
Foraging for both plants and insects is the natural behavior of chickens. Whether gathered by the hens or by you, forage is essential to provide to your hens year-round. Forage can include weeds, grass, fodder plants, sprouted seeds, compost, excess garden vegetables, kitchen scraps, produce market rejects and discards, silage, insects, mice, and worms. Seaweed, algae, and fungi can also be fed to chickens to supplement their regular feed. The chlorophyll in green leafy plants creates a healthful fat profile and provides hens with plenty of carotenoids that give yolks the deepest orange hues. Along with all those tasty bugs, leafy greens give eggs their maximum farm-fresh flavor. Green plants such as algae or grass pasture will also boost omega-3 fatty acid levels.
Forage is, unfortunately, a missing element in many domesticated chickens’ diets. Many undesirable behaviors such as aggression and destructive digging are simply displaced foraging instincts and are uncommon among flocks that are integrated within a garden landscape. Without the ability to forage, hens can become obese, can have lower immune function and imbalances of gut microbes, and can develop behavioral problems because they’re bored.
If your chickens are confined in an immobile coop, it’s especially important to supplement their diets with fresh greens.
For chicken keepers who live in highly urbanized settings, who are dealing with time limitations, or who have mobility constraints, it may be impossible to give hens regular outings to forage. In such situations, if you can manage it, it’s worth the effort to do some of the foraging yourself on behalf of your hens. Dig weeds or gather other appropriate fodder (edible plants) in your garden and toss them into the run. Ask a local produce market for wilted greens, or ask a neighbor if he’d be willing to toss freshly dug dandelions into the run. Dandelions are especially good for hens if the roots include a bit of uncontaminated, microbe-rich soil. Just make sure any greens you intend to give your chickens have not been exposed to any kind of herbicide.
By far the most preferable approach, however, is to let your hens forage for themselves in the landscape inside portable day pens or mobile coops. They’ll get a greater nutritional boost by selecting their own meals, and they’ll gain important benefits from the exercise and being able to engage in enriching natural behaviors.
Our yard consists of three zones that provide for our flock: the vegetable garden, the meadow (a grassy area between trees in our small orchard), and the shady forest edge. We move our mobile coop around the yard into each of these zones by season and need. When we move the coop often, the grazing is light and many nibbled plants survive and regrow. Other times, we choose to leave it in one spot for a while, so that hens can focus their devastating scratching and pecking to clear unwanted vegetation.
Many folks are nervous about the possibility of their hens being poisoned by plants while foraging. We respond by agreeing that it is reasonable not to park your mobile coop or pen over plants that are known to be harmful, such as members of the nightshade family, which includes tomatoes. But our foraging hens seem to have no problems avoiding toxic leaves.
Most chickens, particularly the dual-purpose heritage breeds we are most familiar with, have retained from their wild ancestors the ability to detect the bitter flavors of toxic compounds in their forage and avoid potentially poisonous plants and fungi. This has been our experience and that of our customers, although we should caution that this view is contradicted by a handful of apparently knowledgeable members of popular chicken-keeping forums. We accept these firsthand accounts as valid, perhaps indicating regional differences in plant and fungal communities or because of an unseen problem that mimicked a toxic effect. Nevertheless, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the plant, fungal, and animal community of your area and make an effort not to offer your confined hens anything known to be toxic. Your vet or local agricultural extension service should be able to provide a list of plants in your area known to be toxic to chickens.
In addition to the macronutrients that hens need in relatively large amounts, they also require a range of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) in smaller amounts.
Calcium One of the most important supplements to give your laying hens, calcium is the micronutrient used in the greatest quantity, because it’s the primary material in eggshells. Some studies of white-egg-laying hens in their first year of production indicate that they require 2.3–2.8 percent calcium in their diets. However, a recent study that examined calcium needs of brown-egg-laying hens in their second year of production (which should correspond better to home flocks), indicate that 3.8 percent is an optimal level for shell quality. Because most compounded feeds contain the lower value, we recommend calcium supplementation for all hens of laying age.
Limestone The most common source of calcium in layer rations, limestone particles come in several sizes, depending on source and grind. Coarse limestone is marketed as combining the functions of grit and limestone. We suspect that a larger particle size limits absorption in the gut substantially, however, making it unsuitable as the sole calcium source. We do recommend it as a supplement and appreciate its versatility.
Oyster shell A rich source of calcium, oyster shell is also valued for its trace mineral content. We like oyster shell as a calcium supplement but not as the sole source of calcium for hens, because of research indicating that it is more absorbable when combined with other types of calcium, such as limestone, than when used alone.
Seaweed You can feed small amounts of fresh or dried seaweed to your hens for a variety of benefits, including calcium and mineral supplementation. Each species of seaweed has its own nutrient levels. We suggest that you follow the feeding advice of the manufacturer of a seaweed product intended for poultry and/or investigate the species present in your area before feeding it to your hens.
Recycled hen eggshells Though eggshells are a popular and free calcium supplement, we recommend against using them in this way because of the risk of encouraging egg-eating behavior. For those who insist on feeding eggshells to hens, we recommend that the shells be baked and coarsely ground in an effort to mask their appearance and taste.
One of the fun things about chickens is that because they can digest a diverse range of foods, farmers, scientists, and amateurs alike can do a little experimenting with possibilities. These days, people are flocking to a few unusual feeding approaches that hold promise for naturally healthier hens.
Silage By now we hope that you’re convinced that foraging on fresh plants is of paramount importance to your hens’ well-being. But what about in winter, when much of North America offers little fresh greenery to forage? Those of us with small flocks can borrow a page from farmers who feed their livestock greens in the form of silage in the winter months. Silage is a method of preserving plant material using fermentation rather than dehydration, resulting in winter forage that’s more easily digested and loaded with healthful microbes. Making silage is essentially a pickling process that relies on lactic acid produced during anaerobic fermentation to lower pH to hold pathogens and molds at bay.
We have started making silage from our annual abundance of corn stalks and leaves after harvest, though you can use any otherwise edible plant material. Instead of relying on the microbes already present to begin the fermentation, as is traditional, our method stacks the deck by adding bokashi bran, a rich source of desirable lactic acid–producing bacteria.
Feed your hens silage as a supplement to their regular diet—a handful every other day for a flock of three will get the job done. Silage can be fed year-round, but hens may lose their taste for it when fresh plants abound.
About 30 pounds coarsely chopped corn stalks and leaves (enough to fill a wheelbarrow)
2 to 3 pounds bokashi bran (or 2 to 3 gallons activated EM/BM)
In the wheelbarrow, blend the bokashi bran (or EM/BM) with the corn stalks. Moisten this with a little water if needed to distribute the bokashi or hydrate the stalks if they are too dry.
Pack the chopped and inoculated stalks into a large, lidded bucket (or several), or a 55-gallon drum with a lid; or simply put them in sturdy garbage bags within a lidded garbage can. Whichever container you choose, your goal is to exclude as much air as possible before sealing it. If you use a container, stuff it full to the brim and mash it down to force out all the air; in a bag, squeeze out all the air, tie it off, and place it in the storage container.
Store the closed containers at temperatures of 60°F to 80°F for three to six weeks (three weeks in warmer conditions, six on the cooler end) to enable the fermentation to work its magic. Then move them to cool area for storage, but avoid freezing, which may make the silage difficult to use.
Sprouted grain fodder We know of some home chicken keepers who sprout whole grains in a similar manner to farmers who feed it to cattle, goats, and other livestock. This handy bit of kitchen counter alchemy transforms raw grains into a form that’s easier to digest, neutralizing some antinutritional factors present while providing a rich source of tender greens in any season.
1 quart (1 liter) water
1 pound whole, uncracked grain
1 teaspoon (5 ml) citric acid
Fill a bucket or large bowl with all ingredients. Set the container aside in a warm area (60°F to 80°F) and let the mixture soak overnight. Then spread the soaked grain into trays at about ⅓ inch thick (thicker could cause them to mold). Porous trays can make draining easier, because you need to rinse the grains two or three times per day with more of the water and citric acid solution, and you don’t want the grains to sit in standing water or they will mold. After about a week, the grains will have formed a thick mat that can be easily removed from the tray and tossed to your eager girls.
Last but not least is a substance that is required for virtually all life on Earth. Although it’s well understood by most backyard flock keepers that their chickens require adequate water as well as food, water is usually not appreciated for being the single largest component of their intake and accounting for roughly 85 percent of the weight of a young bird and 70 percent of adult bird. Water is essential for digestion, heat regulation, waste elimination, and various other metabolic functions.
Although most home-raised hens have access to quality city water supplies, variations in salts, pH, mineral content, and temperature may occur. Any or a combination of these can affect flock health and create an invisible factor in disease. If you have doubts about the quality of your water, we recommend having it tested to ensure that no harmful substances are present. If test findings raise too many questions, it’s wise to err on the side of caution and consider other options, such as rain barrels, to collect pure water. Once you’ve tapped a good source, you need to consider how you will be delivering the water to your girls.
Collect the rain off your coop’s roof, strain debris, channel the water into a rain barrel, and use it for hen hydration.
Ideally, we would all provide an uninterrupted supply of cool, clean water in an appropriate vessel that is rinsed at each filling and cleaned with a little soap and water and a brush about once a month. Don’t worry too much if you’re like us and occasionally forget to fill or clean your fount. In normal conditions, your hens can survive a day or two without water, although their laying will suffer, and the risk of dehydration can be very dangerous if temperatures and humidity are high or hens are facing other stresses. The importance of cleaning depends on what kind of waterer you are using. The traditional double-wall metal founts we once used required daily (or twice daily) cleanings to remove debris. The nipple founts we now use require only an occasional rinse.
We’re hesitant to say exactly how much water a chicken needs because it varies widely by age, temperature, health, and other factors, but an old rule of thumb is that chickens require two or three parts water to each part of food they consume. If you provide a constant supply of water, the question of quantity may be moot. A flock of five hens can be expected to drink about a gallon a day in warm weather, which is more than our daughters seem to manage despite a combined weight that’s twice that of our flock!
Water Founts No matter their form, founts are the drinking vessels chickens use. A standard, doubled-walled galvanized fount, similar in design to traditional feeders, is most commonly used in home flocks. These founts work well and are fairly durable, with a large range of capacities. Being metal, they can be placed directly on a heater base in freezing temperatures to keep the water flowing.
We much prefer a nipple-style fount, however. With this system, ingenious nipple devices are inserted into a water-holding vessel and release small portions of water only when pecked at by a hen. Hens are naturally attracted to the shiny metal tip and learn to use nipples within a few hours. Commercial growers use nipples on elaborate plumbing systems to distribute the water, but home chicken keepers with small flocks can purchase founts with nipples attached to the bottom of hanging 5-gallon buckets. Nipple bucket founts are becoming popular with hobbyists, although their adoption has been far from universal, despite their many advantages.
Rather than purchasing a nipple fount, you can purchase nipples and make your own. Attach a few nipples to the bottom of a bucket or create a PVC pipe setup like ours, attached to a rain barrel by a short length of hose. The only real drawback of this system is that it’s impossible to put additives in the water without having them become diluted by incoming rainwater. In the future, we’ll try adding a reservoir between the PVC nipples and the barrel, but for now, the PVC fount makes a terrific backup on hot days, and the barrel makes a convenient tap from which to fill buckets.
Our flock shares clean water from a nipple bucket fount. A homemade nipple waterer we created with PVC is on the right.
Aloe The juice of Aloe barbadensis has been shown in research to be valuable in protecting hens from a range of maladies of the digestive system. We especially value its ability to protect against coccidiosis, a serious disease in chicks, which helps you avoid the use of pharmaceuticals.
Apple cider vinegar In small amounts, apple cider vinegar could acidify the water just enough to suppress proliferation of disease-causing microbes such as salmonella and eimeria (the protozoa responsible for coccidiosis). At higher concentrations, acidic water will erode the galvanized zinc coating on metal founts, releasing it into the water and exposing the metal below, which will rust. Avoid using apple cider vinegar in very hot weather when you’re using alkalizing additives such as baking soda, because the vinegar will counteract the alkalizing effects.
Effective Microorganisms (EM) or other beneficial microbes (BMs) Studies show that providing EM or similar beneficial microbe formulations improves the availability of nutrients, helps equilibrate the intestinal microflora, reduces incidences of diarrhea, improves egg formation (because of better assimilation of calcium), and improves egg flavor and yolk color.
Garlic Known as an excellent overall supplement and immune booster, garlic can be added to water in very small amounts at first, to help hens get used to the taste. We’ve gradually built up to about one crushed clove dropped in our 5-gallon fount, which we replace at each filling. There are various commercial options out there, but we prefer to use the fresh stuff, mainly because we grow garlic ourselves and we always have a few unsightly cloves around to give to the hens.
Humic acid This organic substance results from the decomposition of organic matter—particularly plants. When included in water and feed, humic acid has been shown to inhibit bacterial and fungal growth and provide antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties; it also improves hens’ immune systems, helps reduce stress, and prevents and cures intestinal disorders.
Thyme essential oil This is one of the most well-studied and proven effective preventative treatments for a variety of conditions that affect poultry. It’s wise to start your chicks or hens on a tiny amount (dip a toothpick into the oil and swirl it in the water) to get them used to the strong flavor—they can resent it at higher levels. Gradually build to one or two drops per gallon with each water change.
Commercial treadle feeders can be pretty expensive, but you can find some reasonably priced options online or build your own if you’re handy.
One drawback of nipples is that they will eventually freeze up in cold weather. We solved this problem by bringing in the hanging nipple buckets each night that we expect a hard freeze, placing them inside regular buckets to prevent messy drips. In the morning, we return the founts to their spots in the run, where they provide water long enough to keep hens hydrated for the day before freezing again.
Nipples will occasionally break if handled roughly by hens, and, depending on your setup, broken nipples can be difficult to remove and replace. After removing a broken nipple, you can plug up the hole from inside the bucket using swimmer’s earplug wax. Not a swimmer? Try chewing gum, softened beeswax, or a similar nontoxic material.
To prevent leaks and raise the water out of the reach of thirsty rodents, nipple waterers must hang more or less vertically, usually over the hens’ heads. Hanging our nipple bucket from the top of the run using bungee cords works well for us with one drawback: our hens’ drinking gradually reduces the weight of the water in the bucket, causing the bungee to retract, in turn raising the bucket until it’s hanging nearly out of their reach. We solved the problem by adding a few large chunks of wood below the bucket to provide a sort of step stool for them. This also helps small, newly introduced pullets to reach the fount.
The standard feeder for many home flocks is the hanging, 12-pound galvanized feeder. Its large capacity is a virtue when you leave home for vacation, and filling it once a week is an attractive prospect, but like many other good things, it’s too good to be true. The feeder’s size is ultimately its undoing, offering far more feed than most small flocks can consume before it becomes stale or spoils. And it serves up an all-you-can-eat rodent buffet.
Our favorites, treadle feeders are commonly used in the United Kingdom, but they are not as widely used in the United States. These ingenious feeders are essentially covered hoppers full of food that let down easily into a covered trough. The lid on the trough can be lifted only by the weight of one or more hens depressing a platform moved by levers, thus keeping the food protected and dry until a hen moves into position to eat. This keeps rodents and moisture on the outside, where they belong.
If a treadle feeder seems too expensive, you can use a simple poultry-sized feeding trough, adding measured scoops of feed for the day. This will keep the feed fresh and dry, while avoiding excesses, but it does require daily replenishing.
Our current store is housed in a former brass foundry in the central part of the city of Portland, on the east side, in an area cleverly called the Central Eastside. This district is situated directly across the Willamette River from downtown, and it’s long been the place to go if you need parts cast, foam rubber cut to shape, a transmission rebuilt, or industrial grinding (whatever that is). But all that is about to change. As we write, four low-rise, mixed-use condos or apartment buildings are being built around us. Directly across the street, two blocks of old warehouses are being carved into a “working hub for the regional food economy” by a local nonprofit. And, this being Portland, our neighbors include no fewer than three microbreweries, two distilleries, two marijuana dispensaries, one bikini coffee cart, and one ping-pong–themed bar. And then there’s us, a chicken and garden store, perhaps the most surreally Portland stereotype of them all.
At any given time, ten to fifteen pallets stacked with feed bags are parked on our dusty and uneven concrete floor. Some hold bags of plain cracked grains, but most hold large brown or white bags full of pelletized feed—an unusually wide selection of complete diets for laying hens. Over by the chick pens are smaller bags, plump and floppy like piles of white sausages, filled with finely ground starter feed packed with enough extra protein to grow a chick into a hen in a relatively few weeks.
We stock these many feeds and are so passionate about the subject for one reason: The quality of nutrition you provide your hens affects every aspect of their lives, from their overall health and longevity to egg production and temperament. It naturally follows that you should provide the highest quality food for your flock that you can afford, and, beyond this, you should modify this diet to respond to seasonal demands, available resources, and your hens’ individual needs. When you consider that 65 percent of a hen’s immune system resides in her gut, the link between health and diet comes into even sharper focus.
Furthermore, feed varies widely in the manner in which it’s grown, processed, and transported. Most of our customers would agree that urban chicken keeping, while not a political act, carries a general ethos of respect for the land and self-sufficiency that demands that we make sustainable selections when possible. At our store, we offer everything from farm chow layer rations for those on a tight budget, to organic, regionally grown, vegan, artisanal blends crafted by young men with large beards in solar-powered workshops. Okay, the last part is a joke—the men aren’t actually young. There are many feeding decisions you can make, and your choices are important on many levels. For some of our patrons, environmental and sustainability issues dominate their feed decisions. Others seek out feed and supplements that will enhance their hens’ eggs with healthy fats. Those of us who’ve seen a few too many chick seasons are usually content to find feed in a bag small enough to carry in from the car without straining an aging back.
If you’re wondering how much feed to buy, consider that a flock of three laying hens will consume about 50 pounds of feed in six weeks. We feed our current flock of six hens from 40-pound bags of feed, which works out to a fresh bag every eighteen days or so. If we didn’t own a feed store, we’d probably buy two bags at a time every month, give or take a couple of days.
Chicken feed has a shelf life of about six months when it’s stored in cool, dry conditions such as in a basement (or a feed store). To protect your precious feed from meeting an inglorious fate, its proper storage is of the utmost importance. We recommend that you store feed for the long term indoors in a chew-resistant container that’s as airtight as possible and in a cool, dark place. When feed is stored for shorter periods of time, conditions need not be so exact.
We also recommend that you not place feed bags directly on the floor, because moisture may move up into the bag, hastening spoilage and mold formation. Even bigger risks of informal storage are pests: nutrient-rich chicken food is extremely attractive to critters such as insects, rats, mice, and raccoons.
At home, we store about a month’s worth of feed outside near the coop in a metal garbage can with a tight-fitting lid. We’ve not yet been bothered by pests or mold problems within the container as long as we use all the feed within a month. If you opt to store feed in this way, and raccoons or other marauders are known in your area, you can secure the lid tightly with rope or bungees.
A galvanized garbage can with a tight-fitting lid provides water-resistant, rodent-proof feed storage.
Feed arrives fresh from the mill containing 7–10 percent moisture. Feed will absorb moisture from the air at an increasing rate above 65 percent humidity, and mold spores will sprout and grow within the feed after its internal moisture rises above about 15 percent. Once mold is in your feeder, even fresh feed can become stale or moldy in a matter of days, particularly in humid conditions.
Molds produce mycotoxins that, when eaten in small doses over long periods of time, can cause a chronic reduction in your hens’ overall health—and in higher concentrations, it can cause illness or death. Although mycotoxins are found in nature, chickens encounter them primarily in feed. We suspect that these toxins are the underlying cause of many seemingly mysterious poultry problems, ranging from reduced laying, to illnesses that are difficult to diagnose, to mortality.
All feeds contain small amounts of these toxins. Although there’s little that you can do at home to prevent contamination that may have occurred in a batch of grain at the mill, you can take some comfort in knowing that mills do test samples regularly and will probably catch a bad batch before it gets to you.
Beyond its direct effect on hen health, feed is often at the root of many seemingly unrelated problems. We’ve listed the top five commonly encountered feed- and water-related chicken-keeping problems and our recommended solutions.
Problem: Overfeeding sugars and carbs We’ve witnesses an epidemic of chicken keepers loving their hens into metabolic problems by giving them too many treats that are high in carbohydrates and/or sugar. Because hens can eat only a limited volume of food and will always choose to eat carbs first, the net effect is a mild to severe dilution of the food value of their primary, nutritionally balanced feed. It’s truly difficult to acknowledge the seriousness of this situation, because the effects are not sudden, but incremental, and they manifest in unexpected ways. Overfed obese hens can experience egg binding, heart attacks, and increased sensitivity to stresses such as extremes of heat and cold. These hens may suffer from an altered microbial community that underlies various diseases of the digestive tract. And these protein-deficient hens produce smaller and fewer eggs and sometimes engage in cannibalism, feather picking, aggressive behavior, and/or egg eating.
Recommended solutions Gradually and steadily reduce the amount of high-carb treats and scraps you give your hens. Start by cutting back by a third the first week, and the next week cut another third. Unless you are grossly overfeeding carbs to your hens, this should be enough to get you back in the appropriate range. During hot weather, eliminate all extra carbs, with the possible exception of small amounts of frozen fruit to keep your hens’ metabolisms from over-revving. Reverse this in winter: Hens need more sugars for warmth, but don’t overdo it. Never feed more than a handful of carb-rich snacks per day for every three chickens in your flock.
Although hens can develop carbohydrate addictions that can be hazardous to their health, you should provide a moderate amount of grains in a variety of particle sizes, which aid digestion while improving gizzard tone. We have switched to feeding our hens sunflower seeds as treats in summer because of the protein they offer, along with larger particles and fiber. In winter, we feed them a couple of handfuls of cracked corn on cold days; otherwise, we don’t toss in much other than dandelions and other tender perennial weeds, which they really appreciate.
Many of our customers have switched to using dehydrated mealworms for treats, which most hens actually prefer to corn. They are very rich in protein (about 50 percent) and fat (about 25 percent). As with most treats, avoid overfeeding mealworms to your hens to avoid problems resulting from excess protein.
Problem: Lack of portion control The standard feeder for home flocks is a cylindrical, galvanized metal contraption that’s hung within reach of your hens. Most hold a whopping 12 pounds of food (some are bigger yet), which doesn’t sound like much to folks accustomed to buying 40- or 50-pound bags of feed. Consider, though, that each hen consumes only 4 to 6 ounces of feed daily, and even less if she consumes scraps and forage. A 12-pound feeder holds enough feed for about ten days for a flock of three—if rats and mice don’t find it first (they will), or it doesn’t go stale (it does), or it doesn’t become too moldy to eat (in damp conditions). These feeders also tend to have problems letting down their contents and must be shaken daily to release the stuck food. No fun—and not good for your hens.
Recommended solutions The simplest solution is to provide only enough feed to the hens for the day, and store the feed you will not give them that day in a secure storage bin or trash can. It’s fine to fill up the feeder with a few days’ worth before you head out for a trip, but on all other days, source food from the bin in daily amounts. To use this strategy, you’ll first need to figure out how much your flock is consuming and place only that much in the feeder each morning. Get into the habit of feeding when you visit the hens to greet them, inspect them, collect eggs, and clean the area if you are one of those daily cleaners who are rumored to exist. The process is straightforward: Include 1 cup (8 ounces) of feed per bird into the feeder in the morning and return at night to measure how much is left. Subtract this much from the amount you started with, and voilà! You now know how much they are able to eat in one day. If you want to be very accurate, repeat this for a few days and average your results. Keep in mind any other sources of nutrition (such as foraged greens). If you are measuring during the summer, repeat this measurement exercise during the winter, when they usually eat more.
Problem: Rats and mice Any food that is outside, including vegetables growing a garden, trash in a trash can, or compost, will attract small, hungry animals with a keen sense of smell. Chicken food is especially attractive to rats and is, in fact, similar in composition to pet rat food. Mice are usually less of a problem because chickens see them as prey if they can catch them, whereas a rat is too large for a hen to handle (roosters will take them on, however).
Recommended solutions Your first instinct may be to try to build a rat-proof fortress. This may involve the use of hardware cloth, which is just about the most expensive kind of wire fencing you can buy. It’s been our experience, however, that if food is present and constantly available, rats will eventually find a way to get in. Instead of spending money trying to build your way out of rodent problems, we suggest that you purchase higher quality feed and a treadle feeder.
Problem: Feed is too expensive We’ve calculated that feeding a typical backyard flock (three hens) costs between fifty cents and a dollar daily, depending on your location, feed selection, and supplementation routine. Assuming that you didn’t spend a large sum building your coop and buying supplies, this is a fairly modest investment for the fresh eggs you receive in return. If other important benefits of chicken ownership, such as their value as pets—priceless!—are factored in, the bargain gets better. Still, this represents an expenditure of about U.S. $400 a year if you choose a premium, organic layer food plus a few supplements and treats. If you get hooked on chickens like we did, we can assure you that three hens will not be enough (they’re more addicting than potato chips!) and you will be paying proportionately more to feed all those hungry beaks.
Recommended solutions A proper feed ration is an essential base of balanced nutrition for layers, and we believe they need to eat some pelleted food to be optimally productive and healthy. You can stretch your feed dollar by allowing your hens to forage for some of their food in your yard or garden. This alone can shave 10 percent or more off their feed consumption when plants are actively growing and bugs are abundant—but if you live anywhere but the tropics, seasonal variation will diminish their availability significantly.
Another strategy is to make your own versions of feed, scratch grains, and supplements. We offer plenty of ideas in this book, but realize that DIY feeds can be difficult to get right, requiring exacting proportions of ingredients. To save money by making your own feed, you’ll need to be buying (and storing) 50-pound sacks of feed ingredients or growing and storing your own. If you have a small flock or lack the time to devote to such a project, you’re likely better off skipping this process and seeking savings elsewhere.
Plantain, Plantago major, seems to prefer to grow where other plants cannot: in wheel ruts, cracks in concrete, and in the poorest soil possible. It is delectable to chickens.
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is a gardener’s least favorite weed but a fantastic chicken treat. More motivation to dig them out!
Problem: Lack of green forage We keep returning to this message, but it’s worth repeating that hens have been bred to thrive on a mixed diet of both formulated feed and food obtained from foraging. Forage provides essential chlorophyll, enzymes, animal protein, and a raft of beneficial microbes that complement formulated feeds.
Recommended solutions If your hens cannot free-range forage for themselves and you cannot make use of a mobile coop, commit to patrolling your garden regularly with a hoe in hand to gather weeds to feed to your hens. Start with common and familiar weeds such as chicory, dandelion, and plantain, which are all safe for your hens to eat—if they are not contaminated in some way, such as by pesticide use. You may also find or grow many more plants that your hens can safely consume.
