Feeding Chickens

In this article we consider the best grass seed mix for chickens and poultry pasture seed mixes. Allowing hens to free-range on an ordinary grass lawn or standard pasture will let them express their natural desire to wander, scratch and peck but...

In this article I explain how and why you should feed your back garden chickens with more greens. Often green foods; cabbage leaves, bolted lettuce, etc. are fed as a sort of treat and a diversion to keep the birds occupied in a run and not...

If you're feeding chickens on an alternative to commercially produced feedstuffs, then you will need to know what their nutritional requirements are and what foods to give them to provide for those needs. The main ingredients in the hen's diet are...

It often comes as a surprise to new keepers of hens that their birds need to have their feed supplemented by things that appear quite inedible to us such as crushed oyster shell and grit. Calcium Sources Like us, chickens require calcium to form...

This article discusses feeding chickens from young chicks through to fully grown laying hens for backgarden poultry keepers. We've selectively bred our chickens to be far more productive than their wild ancestors. No wild bird could eat...

By John Harrison How to feed your hens on food scraps, waste. What you can and can't feed them. Traditionally chickens were allowed to roam freely around the farmyard or garden where they would forage for their food; plants, seeds and insects...

Feeding fodder crops, usually wheat or barley, to poultry and to ruminants is enjoying a surge in popularity at the moment. It's often touted as a new idea but feeding grain fodder has been common farming practice for many years. It's referred to in Henderson's...

As well as forage herbs included in poultry pasture mixes for nutrition, it is worthwhile providing other herbs for hens. Free-range poultry with access to a range of herbs will tend to select herbs that satisfy deficiencies. It's been known for many...

Recently we've seen a new class of eggs appearing on the market, Eggs from Pasture Fed Hens. We look at pasture feeding in comparison to other methods of egg production and the quality and nutritional quality of the eggs. Caged Versus Free-Ranged...

Soya beans are now found in nearly all commercial poultry feeds and other animal foods. They are a useful foodstuff but there are compelling reasons why we should avoid Soya in Animal & Poultry Feed Why is Soya Used in Animal Foods? There...

Feeding Comfrey to Chickens
One of the problems of feeding hens is that whilst we’ve managed to well nigh double their egg-laying capacity by selective breeding over the last hundred years we’ve not increased their crop capacity.
The hen’s…