Mixed corn and greens are great complementary feeds and encourage natural behaviours, but on their own will not provide all the correct nutrients and can lead to eggs with pale yolks, soft shells, or even reduced egg production.
Any changes that we make to our hen’s diets need to be tailored to their size and life-stage to ensure that they are gaining the best nutritional support.
For example, if you feed your Bantams with a standard size pellet, this can cause palatability issues due to their small beaks and oesophagus. Larger pellets can be difficult to digest and can cause them to choke. Bantams also have smaller appetites, so making sure that each mouthful gives them the right nutritional balance is even more important.
We are all conscious that our chicks need a different diet, but it’s important to be aware of how crucial what you give them in the early stages can impact their future growth and laying capacity.
For laying pullets, they should have a chick crumb until they are six weeks old, with a specially-formulated diet comprising of all the essential vitamins and trace minerals.
A hatching chick needs to develop its vital systems – intestine, heart, lungs and the skeleton and muscles, and then a covering of feathers too. Without a healthy intestine, heart and lungs, the bird could be compromised for life, so the starting period is key.
The rearing period is equally as important as the starting period, so from approximately six-to-seven weeks of age, a well-balanced poultry grower should be fed. Optimal levels of amino acids
and minerals are required for strong, healthy growth, good skeletal structure and also feather development.
The chicken has evolved a unique skeletal structure which allows it to make short-term withdrawals of calcium from specific bone storage depots for immediate eggshell formation, which are replenished shortly after laying, as part of the daily cycle. These bones develop most rapidly in the mid-to-late teen weeks of growth and are of vital importance to having a robust and resilient chicken for the years ahead. Investment in your rearing nutrition rewards many times over in wellbeing and productivity.
With laying hens, a layer pellet or mash should be fed from up to four weeks before the onset of laying until depletion. Make sure the balance is right between protein and fibre – which is important to provide good bacteria in the gut.
Having an understanding of your hen’s nutrition will enable you to support happy, healthy birds, while giving your family the added luxury of enjoying delicious eggs that are rich in colour throughout the year.
Farmgate Feeds has an unrivalled range of products suitable for all stages of your flock’s life. This is supported by the team’s wealth of knowledge and expertise on all aspects of poultry nutrition and welfare.