What to feed your chickens

Chickens like humans have a simple digestive tract and therefore eat similar types of food such as cereals and meat. There are six major nutrients essential to keeping your chickens healthy.

• Protein: Needed for growth, egg production and producing new feathers. Protein can be found in meatmeal, fishmeal and oily seeds such as sunflower seeds.
• Carbohydrates: Source of energy and redily found in foods like wheat, barley, oats and cereals.
• Fats: The right amount of fats need to be included in a chickens diet. Fats are usually consumed from meat products.
• Vitamins: Chickens only need small amounts of vitamins. Two of the most important vitamins for chickens are vitamin A and vitamin D.
• Minerals: Calcium and phosphorus are important minerals for chickens, they are needed for egg shell production.
• Water: It is important to ensure your chickens are receiving plenty of clean drinking water.

Commerical Feeds

Starter Feeds

Newly hatched chicks should be fed a starter diet up until the age of about 6 weeks of age. Starter feeds are specially formulated to provide all the nutrients are growing chicken needs and usually contain high levels of protein (15%-20%).

Grower Feeds

Once chickens reach 6 weeks of age they can be fed a grower feed. Grower feeds are high in protein and formulated to sustain good growth to maturity.

Layer or Breeder Feeds

Depending on wether you are raising your chickens for egg production or breeding there are two type of feed for this phase in their lives.

Layer feeds are forumulated for chickens being raised for egg production. Layer feeds contain extra calcium so eggs produced will have hard well formed shells. Breeder feeds are similar to layer feeds but contain more protein and other nutrients to promote healty hatchlings.

Grains/Scratch

Whilst other commercial feeds will provide all the nutrients your chickens need chickens enjoy scratching around the ground for grains and seeds. Scratch usually consists of whole grains such as corn, barley, oats and wheat. Only give your chickens scratch in controlled portions a general rule is about 10-15% of their daily diet, if too much scratch is given it can remain on the ground and rot.

Kitchen Scraps

Chickens can be fed scraps from your kitchen to add variety to their diet. Kitchen scraps suitable for feeding chickens include vegetable peelings, bread crusts, oatmeal, apple cores, noodles, fruits and vegetables. You should avoid raw onion and advocado as these can be toxic to chickens.