Sooo much pooping

[grb944]

Hello All

I now have my Red Cube set up and have had 6 chocks for a week now

I have brought 3 extensions and an extra set of grub and glug

So they should be Ok in there !

 

So I have 2 Grubs for 6 chickens

I have been filling them up with smallholders layer mash

and then topping up every morning

 

Is this a bad idea ?

 

Should I just be putting out , say, 1kg of mash a day ??

 

to every kilo I put in I add a spoon full of mint & garlic and lime powder

 

also WATER

I have a super glug and an normal open peanut glug and a rabbit bottle

One of my books says they drink half a litre each a day

but don't drinkmuch at all

they love the rabbit bottle, they use the glug..but only seen the super glug used once

 

any help appreciated

Greg

1x Gingernut, 2x sussex. 2 Speckled Lady 1x Pepperpot

[Plum]

Sounds like you are doing just fine. Only thing with topping up pellets is you may end up with stale ones at bottom so it's sometimes good to let them empty it.

[Lewis]

I think I read they should eat about 150g a day

 

They'll eat and drink more when they start laying

[grageomat]

Greg

I agree with Plum. Let it run out so that you dont have stale pellets - the hens will soon let you know that its empty, mines do anyway !

Mine dont use the super glug correctly they jump on the top and drink out of it, they tried using the nipples but they just werent getting enough quick enough!

 

Grant

[Alis girls]

Has anyone noticed the picture of the knife and beaker on the food holder - mine eat with their beaks - not sure if they could manage a knife and fork. very odd indeed. I suspect some of you have posh clever chucks which eat with cutlery

[Mooresey]

Ours jump on the super glug as well. It gets so dirty quickly. I think it could do with a cover of some sort so they cant climb in it.

 

As for the food I agree that the food needs changing not just topping up. It will go stale and in the heat (I have read) it looses it nutrient value.

[grb944]

OK Guys

After they go to bed tonight, I will throw away the food that is left.

Tommorrow I will just put out 1kg of mash, 500g in each grub.. I;m imagining they are going to look pretty empty, but we'll give it ago.

I don't like the idea of them jumping on superglug..but they will do what they want !

 

Im going to buy another rabbit water bottle, as the all want to drink from that,,( but thats as slow as the supergulg!)

[jomaxsmith]

I tend to top up the food for a week then throw away the dregs and wash out the grub. It can get a bit wasteful otherwise.

 

Jo

[JDS95]

Hi my name is jack i am 15 i am learning how to keep hens and i want to know if the amount of laying pellits effects the laying also if the stale pellits will effect there laying and how can i tell what breed myn are i have 4 brown and 4 white but my white ones dont lay as much as my brown i got 4 a day of my brow is this normal not to be getting alot of the white dose the breed effect the laying also

[Egluntyne]

Don't feed stale pellets to your chickens, Jack, as the vitamins in them will have deteriorated, and it is possible that the pellets may harm the hens if they are past their use by date.

 

If you feed your chickens mainly on pellets, freely available all day, and reduce the amount of extras that you give them, it should improve their laying.

 

You don't say how old they are?

 

Different breeds do have different rates of laying, and pure breeds will lay fewer eggs than hybrids, will stop laying over winter, but will lay for more years, on average.

 

Can you post a picture of them so that we can hazard a guess as to what breeds they are?