You don’t need to go crazy with this, but there are a few treats you can feed that will help your chickens lay more eggs – something that can be especially helpful as the winter months approach. Some good options include: ✅ Mealworms and earthworms ✅ Cooked eggs and eggshells
- Mealworms.
- Eggs and Eggshells.
- Greens.
- Watermelon and Fruit.
- Japanese Beetles.
- Sunflower Seeds.
- Scratch Grains.
- Cracked Corn.
What should I Feed my backyard chickens?
When planting corn:
- plant seeds 1 1/2 inches deep
- plant seeds approximately 4 inches apart, then thin to 10 inches once they are 2 inches tall
- for extended harvest, plant rows several days apart
What is the best organic feed for chickens?
What is the best brand of chicken feed?
- Prairie's Choice Non-GMO Backyard Chicken Feed.
- Coyote Creek Certified Organic Feed.
- Kalmbach Feeds All Natural Layer Crumble.
- Scratch and Peck Feeds.
- Brown's Layer Booster Chicken Feed.
- Small Pet Select Chicken Layer Feed (Our Top Pick)
- Manna Pro Organic Grower Crumbles.
Which chicken breed is best for eggs?
Top 12 best chicken breeds for eggs
- Golden Comet Hybrid chicken: By nature, hybrids lay many eggs. Although there are different hybrid chickens, the Golden Comet is the most popular.
- Rhode Island Red Chicken: Next on our list of best chicken breeds for eggs is the loudest chicken in the world: the Rhode Island Red.
- Leghorn chicken: The number of eggs per year: About 300–320. ...
How to feed chickens without buying feed?
How to do it:
- Put 2 – 3 days worth of feed in an adequately sized, food grade container.
- Add water until you have at least two inches above the feed. ...
- If you want, throw in a starter or add some pickle juice or similar to speed up the process.
- Cover your container loosely with a towel or lid.
1. Hydration
Besides having a generous supplementary feed, chickens need the perfect mix of carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, and fats. However, to break it all down while keeping the chickens in tip-top shape, you will need to supply them with a lot of water.
2. Fresh Food
Just sprinkling some fresh foods on their main meal should be enough. Chicken pet owners can also incorporate fresh vegetables such as tomatoes or cabbage into the chickens’ diet.
3. Herbs And Fibers
You can add garlic, alfalfa, dried oregano, and oatmeal to your chickens’ diet. Moreover, for nesting chickens, ingredients such as calendula, cornflower, lavender, roses, and chamomile can do wonders for the best smelling and tasting eggs.
4. Protein
Wheatgrass can be the foundation of a long, high-protein dietary list for your chickens. Wheatgrass consists of high protein contents and is vital for making chickens stronger, healthier, and, of course – eggs that taste like heaven drops.
5. Free Range
Do you believe in setting nature free? You should. If you’re a proud owner of a giant or mid-ranged backyard, let your chicken forage through it to find some joy and hidden treasures. This sets a stress-free environment for them, and sometimes that can play a more significant role than generic dietary regulations.
6. Calcium
Focusing on better-tasting eggs alone is never enough. A healthy egg overall must have the most rigid exterior shell too. Calcium is an all-time essential ingredient that promotes the production of sturdy, tasty, and appealing eggs.
Things To Know
How you feed your chickens is obviously one of the more important tasks you can have when taking care of them since, you know, nobody can survive without food. This is not as easy as it looks though since getting it wrong can lead to reduced egg production, feather picking, and even deformed eggs which are of no use to anyone.
How To Feed Them?
If you have a small flock, the simplest way to provide for them is to buy a complete feed from a feed store. This way, you can make sure that all their nutritional needs are covered and they get a balanced diet.
How To Choose The Feed
If you want to go ahead with buying a feed, we recommend to always scour the market first and see exactly what products are available as well as the reviews on them. One bad feeding may not hurt your birds but you may not realize the feed is not what it should be after just one meal and you’ll never get back the time and money you spent buying it.
The Manner Of Feeding
Now that you know a little about what things your chickens should eat, what about the proper space required for their feeding? Some people like to throw the pellets straight onto the floor and let the birds peck at it, further encouraging this already natural behavior from them.
How Much To Feed Them?
Generally speaking, free-range chickens are different from their cousins that are being raised for industrial egg production. They won’t really overeat so whatever you feed them that is extra will simply remain untouched. You should remember though that any food left out overnight can attract mice that could potentially be dangerous for your birds.
Feeding Your Layers For Egg Production
The simplest and most effective way of feeding your flock of hens for egg production is to buy a complete feed intended for this purpose. Complete chicken feeds are processed to provide all essential nutrients needed by your egg-layers for better production.
Top 5 Chicken Feeds for Laying Eggs
Here comes Hiland-Naturals Non-GMO Chicken Grower feed for your hens. This brand offers different types of chicken feed, especially for layers. Also, you can provide it to your growers and starters if you want to.
1. Clean Your Chicken Coop
It’s important to keep your chicken coop clean. It should be cleaned out at least on a weekly basis, with a deep cleaning every month. When chicken manure builds up, it will begin to smell very strongly of ammonia.
2. Make Sure Nest Boxes are Clean
Hens are particular about where they lay and if their nest boxes don’t seem “right” to them, they can stop laying all together. Make sure nest boxes are clean and smell good.
3. Provide Proper Hen Feed
Once hens reach around the age of 20 weeks, they begin to lay eggs. Some hens begin laying sooner, others later. When they begin to lay, it is time to switch their feed to a layers pellet, crumble or mash and provide increased calcium in their diet.
4. Feed Chickens High Protein Special Treats
Provide high protein special treats such as mealworms, grubs, black oiled sunflower seeds (B.O.S.S.) and scrambled eggs. Yes, scrambled eggs. They are especially good for a chicken that is under the weather.
5. Provide Oyster Shell or Crushed Egg Shells
Chickens require calcium in their diet and when hens begin to lay require 2.5%- 3.5%. Growing pullets should only receive around 1.2%. This is why it is important to feed your chickens the proper feed for their age.
6. Decrease Stress
Stress can most definitely affect egg production as well as egg quality. Just like humans, hens do not like to be exposed to stress and it shows in their egg production.
7. Provide Hens Clean, Fresh Water Daily
It is essential to have water available for your flock at all times. Especially during the hot weather, chickens need access to cold water or they can become heat stressed and stop laying.
1. Choose the right chicken breeds
The very first step to ensuring you get lots of eggs from your chickens is to choose the right breeds to begin with.
3. Add supplemental light in the coop
The hens laying cycle is directly affected by daylight. Most chickens will lay eggs consistently when there are 14 or more hours of light in a day. When fall begins and the daylight hours wane, chicken egg production takes a nosedive.
4. Deal with broody hens
Broodiness is another reason hens stop laying eggs, and if you have hens that frequently go broody, you’ll be missing out on a lot of eggs.
5. Check hens regularly for illness, parasites, and injury
One of the biggest reasons you’ll see a decrease in egg production is because your chickens aren’t healthy enough to lay eggs.
6. Up the quality of their feed
Dried mealworms make an excellent supplement to improve your hen’s health.
7. Reduce stress
Stress plays a big role in egg production. A stressed hen simply won’t lay eggs. Reducing the amount of stress in your hens lives will have a big impact on egg amount and quality.