3.6m Omlet Chicken Run for sale, Brand New in Boxes, Milton Keynes (MK19)

[McGraw2601]

My 4 POL Isa's arrived last week and I am not sure if I am feeding them too much. I am sure I read somewhere that they will stop eating when they are full but it seems the only thing stopping my ladies seems to be lack of daylight. Can anyone advise if this is the case or if I should be controlling the amount that they get per day?

 

Thanks

[stu]

Chickens are more likely to overeat if they have rationed food... they will glut if they think food is limited. If food is readily available, they will stop eating when they're full.

 

I would just give them free access to food, and maybe also some variety foods... greens, carrots etc, and wait and see. You may actually find that they just graze all day long and don't necessarily eat more.

[mimi5]

Also if they are laying they will just become eating machines!!!! All of my layers come out and scoff like they've never seen food before!!! Heaven help me if I'm a little late letting them out....they scream untill I do!! Even though they have free access to grubs of pellets!! Well they are pekin madams after all

[McGraw2601]

Thanks to both of you for responding so quickly, that is good news about not rationing , I didn't like the idea of that. Got some treats ready but wanted to wait till I could let them roam in the garden, I threw some grapes in to the run the other day and there was feathers and beaks everywhere. ;0)

[stu]

Just bear in mind that they will settle relatively quickly, in all respects... including having 'you' trained in no time at all. Gooid luck... they already sound great fun.

[Grandmashazzie]

I wonder can it be stress as well.When I got my little darlings I was going through lots of bags of food(it was a bit hard to convince OH that they paid for themselves with eggs )even though they are laying well they are not going through the same amount of food now.

[auntielizzie]

I had a problem with my four up until recently as I was feeding them mash in omlet grubs. They were getting through an incredible amount of food and then I realised that the majority of it was being wasted on the floor, where they were s"Ooops, word censored!"ing it out to pick out all their favourite bits. I have since changed them over to a gravity hanging feeder and they seem to be getting through a fraction of the amount of food (saving me a lot of money). Just wondered if yours were doing the same? Apart from that, I just top up the feeder every day and they can eat as much or as little as they like (and it's not so easy for them to s"Ooops, word censored!"e it all out with their beaks as there are sections in the feeder!).

[McGraw2601]

Ha, think it could be a combination of all of the above, I am out feeding and watering them before myself in the mornings so the training part is definitely true.

 

I was wondering about stress, it will have been quite a traumatic week for them, moved to new home, 2 days of very bad snow and 1 day of torrential rain. The breeder said she built them hardy but I was wondering just how hardy.

 

There does seem to be a bit of food going to the floor so I will keep that in mind. I am hoping to get some wing clipping done and get them out about today so that might change the amount of grub they eat.

 

Thanks again to all for your responses.