motherhen Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 So the eggciting day is nearly here. Your eglu and hens will be arriving in a van, or your eglu will be delivered and you have a list of hen suppliers so you can get your own hens. Do you need to get anything else? Omlet supply you with everything you need to get started. FEED You will need to find a supplier of layers mash/pellets. If you get your eglu delivered with hens then you get 25kg of feed to start you off. If you are getting your hens yourself you will need to buy layers mash/pellets before or when getting your hens. You can get 25kg bags of feed through the omlet shop - however, postage is £8 on top of the £10 for the pellets. You can also feed them with small quantities of mixed corn as a treat. This should be available from any feed merchants that do layers mash/pellets. It is obviously personal choice about what sort of layers feed you use for your hens. You can buy organic, and/or GM free, vegetarian, omega 3 enhanced, and a number of other alternatives. Marriages Feed Suppliers List The Organic Feed Company Suppliers List Allan and Page Suppliers List POULTRY GRIT AND CRUSHED OYSTER SHELL Layers mash/pellets contain everything that hens need to be healthy when laying at maximum output. However, free ranging hens and pet hens will be getting other things in their diet - grass, green bits, worms, slugs, seeds, mixed corn, treats etc. This is fine as long as the treats are kept to a sensible amount and a variety of different things are given. You wouldn't feed your kids on a diet of mostly boiled white rice no matter how many lovely noises they made when you offered it to them Wink With the large number of eggs that our hens lay, this means that they will almost certainly need extra calcium, unless layers mash/pellets forms 100% of their diet. They will get some from some of their treats and dark green leaves like cabbage have some. To prevent a hen running short and laying thin or soft shelled eggs you can supply them with calcium in the form of crushed oyster shell or baked and crushed egg shells. (pop egg shells in the microwave for 1 min or in the bottom of the oven while baking, then crush with a rolling pin - this disguises them enough so your hens won't associate it with the eggs they lay) Hens also need to take in pieces of grit to help their gizzard work properly. Hens that free range should be able to find all the grit they need naturally, but many people also put out purchased poultry grit as well. The grit that is sold as 'poultry grit' is just the right size for hens - budgie grit would be too small for example. Mixed grit contains a mixture of insoluble grits pieces for the gizzard, and soluble shells and other material to supply calcium. Everyones hens are kept in slightly different conditions and fed different things, but if you want to put out in a dish, or scatter in the run, any of, or any combination of, poultry grit, mixed grit, crushed oyster shell, then your hens will help themselves to what they need. These products will be available from your feed supplier, but some pet food suppliers may have them as well. HEALTHCARE The eglu is a well designed hen house and most of you will never experience any health problems with your hens. There are links below to information on worms, lice & mites, and suppliers of health products. It is your choice whether you use any health products in the absence of symptoms and certainly there is nothing you need to buy when you first get your hens. Later you may wish to use citricidal which is a natural anti viral and anti bacterial that can be added to the water and used to clean the eglu. You may also decide to worm your hens after reading the article below, but you won't need to do this straight after getting your hens. Worms in poultry - this is a comprehensive article on the subject of worms and worming Lice and Mites Suppliers of Health Products www.ascott.biz www.sprcentre.co.uk www.domesticfowltrust.co.uk Henfield Poultry WHAT TO USE IN THE RUN Wood chippings Bark chippings Straw Sand Bare earth Grass Hemcore Aubiose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
