I have been monitoring the amount of layers' pellets my chickens eat for
various reasons, one of them being that I am now administering Flubenvet in
their feed. Jill (who as far as I'm concerned is Chicken Goddess) says they
should be eating about 125g of feed per bird per day, but my four are only
just about eating that between them.

None of them are laying at present (sigh!). One has gone off lay
temporarily, one is just about to come into lay, and the other two are still
just teenagers. Of course I keep them for the eggs, but also for fun, so my
real question is - does the amount of pellets they eat matter only for egg
production, or is it also a matter of their health?

For the last few days I have been leaving them in their run for the morning
to encourage them to go for the pellets, and at present (during the worming
week) I not only do that, but have withdrawn their small wheat treat in the
afternoons. Their run is covered so the food is under cover although not in
the hen house. For the rest of the day (and normally) they free range around
our acre of wild garden.

I am really quite puzzled by this because when I have looked after a friend's
(much larger) flock, when I let them out in the morning they all made a mad
dash for the trough of pellets until every scrap had gone.

Sally Thompson wrote:

I am no goddess, chicken or otherwise, I am learning daily!
Any figures are always going to be a rough guide. Birds are individuals, and
the breeds are very different.
Your birds are not laying so have...

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:37:02 +0100, Jill wrote
(in article <6j7do1F1omdvU1@mid.individual.net>):

Sally Thompson wrote:

yes and no,
Chickens will happily munch their way through pounds of wheat and maize and
then die when their livers go pop.
Goats seem to be drawn to rhododendron with such intensity yet just the
smallest amount will kill them.
Horses will gorge on rich grass, despite it giving many life threatening
laminitis.
Dogs will adore the most fetid carcass, only to be violently ill for days
later.

But, in general, as long as the humans are sensible about what is put in
front of them, chooks are pretty sensible.

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:13:04 +0100, Jill wrote
(in article <6j7frkF1pbdmU1@mid.individual.net>):