NUTRITION: COMMON MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
ALREADY IN THIS BOOK, we have discussed good coop design. Happy, healthy birds live in warm, secure coops. But, what about the second most expensive and most important part of keeping chickens, the food? Feeding a hen nothing but scraps, scratch, and leftovers will not help her to live a long and healthy life or reach her potential in egg production. With high-quality feed and a consistent diet, chickens can live to be ten years old. Some even make it to fifteen.
The human race knows more about the dietary requirements of the modern chicken than we do about any other livestock animal. Not that it’s been easy to learn. Feed formulations are complex and the specific needs of chickens change during different life stages. Feed mills even hire poultry nutritionists to formulate their food rations to get it just right.
Thousands of researchers, through myriad experiments, have clearly identified the dietary needs of commercial chickens. Your chickens at home may not be the same breeds as those used in commercial production and therefore likely do not need to produce eggs at optimum performance levels. Regardless, you still should understand the basic requirements of a chicken’s diet. Chickens are amazing creatures; with the right building blocks, they can produce for you an egg a day during their first year or so. But that requires the correct ration formulation to allow the chicken to convert feed appropriately for the needs of its body.
The primary components of a chicken’s diet are as follows:
Water
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat
Minerals and vitamins
[ Crele variety of chicken ]
WATER
Water is perhaps the most overlooked yet most essential nutrient in a balanced diet for chickens. On average, every day, these birds consume twice as much water as they do feed. Clean water, free of algae and bacteria, is essential to the overall health of their gastrointestinal tract and the associated immune system.
Chickens use water to lubricate their body systems and for temperature control. The liquid makes up components of their muscle, blood, and bone, plus 66 percent of the eggs we eat. A laying hen, by percentage of body weight, is 62.4 percent water—higher than the percent of water found in most four-legged livestock animals. Without adequate fresh, clean water, the hen has no choice but to stop laying eggs.
Not just any water will do. Keep in mind that the average chickens cannot access water that’s frozen over. (They won’t peck through thick ice to get to water below.) They also avoid water that’s too hot. A good rule of thumb: Water too hot for you to drink is too hot for the chickens, too. During winter, keep your water above freezing and during summer, keep your water cool.
Without a constant supply of clean water, a chicken will stop laying eggs.
PROTEIN
The building blocks of protein are amino acids. About half the protein in the average poultry diet comes from soybean meal or other related grains. (Your feedbag label should list soybean meal as one of the two primary ingredients.) The other half comes from high-protein supplements such as plant- or animal-sourced byproduct meal. What’s most important when it comes to protein in the poultry ration is the balance of amino acids.
A diverse diet will help ensure overall health. Supplementing the diet with proteins from multiple sources simulates a chicken’s diet in the wild. Remember, chickens are by no means vegetarians.
Plant proteins include the following:
Oilseed meal
Soybean meal
Coconut meal
Cottonseed meal
Linseed meal
Peanut meal
Rapeseed/canola meal
Safflower meal
Sesame meal
Sunflower seed meal
Animal proteins include the following:
Meat-packing byproducts (meat and bone meal, blood meal)
Feather meal and poultry byproduct meal
Dairy (dried whey, dried milk protein, dried skimmed milk, dried buttermilk, and dried milk albumin)
Marine byproducts (fish meal, fish liver, and glandular meal, shrimp meal, crab meal, dried fish solubles, and whale meal)
A poultry nutritionist at the mill that provides your feed analyzes each component for its amino acid content and adds in appropriate amounts to create a perfect balance for your chickens’ diet. As a chicken owner, this is important for you to understand. Nutritionists are hired to ensure that balance, so it’s the rare occasion that requires you to know much more about the analytics of professional diet formulation.
Soybeans are a major source of protein in your chickens’ diet.
A balanced diet will ensure that your chickens will receive all nutrients in the correct proportions.
CARBOHYDRATES
The word carbohydrate is synonymous with energy when it comes to poultry-diet formulation. Chickens eat to meet their energy needs. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, make up the building blocks of carbohydrates. Glucose, fructose, mannose, and galactose are monosaccharides, and one of the only types of energy chickens have the enzymes to break down. They can’t break down cellulose or lactose. But don’t many people let their chickens eat grass or yogurt? Yes, indeed, they do. Chickens do not have a ruminant stomach like cows do, but they may gain some of the benefits of eating grass. And, they like it. Yogurt, is a cultured, dairy-based product and a good source of animal protein and probiotics. Chickens cannot digest lactose and you should avoid feeding them uncultured dairy products, such as milk, which come with a major side effect: diarrhea.
In the United States, corn is the typical energy source for chickens. But other grains may also be fed to your backyard flock. In Canada, for example, chickens tend get their energy from wheat. Be mindful of the grain source you choose. Wheat can sometimes be prickly and irritate the chicken’s digestive tract, which can lead to gut-lining damage and a host of other problems.
Wheat can be one of the major ingredients of a balanced diet, especially popular in Canada.
Provide a well-balanced diet that includes fresh vitamins and minerals.
FAT
In feeds, fats function similarly to carbohydrates, providing a source of heat and energy. When used as fuel to produce heat, fat gives off more than two times more heat than carbohydrates, so the diet requires far less fat to accomplish the same outcome.
Poultry will not eat certain low-in-fat feeds because they lack the appropriate taste and texture. Also, fat acts as a vehicle to evenly distribute certain micronutrients. Fats contain fatty acids, two of which are essential: linoleic acid and arachidonic acid. Without these, birds may grow poorly, have fatty livers, lay smaller eggs, and have poor hatchability.
If you choose to mix your own feed, keep in mind that fats can go rancid and need to be stored carefully. This should factor in to the calculation of feed mixtures. However, again, we recommend you purchase already-mixed feed.
MINERALS
A diet deficient in the appropriate minerals and vitamins can, for chickens, lead to drops in egg production, leg problems, or even weight loss followed by death.
Minerals are key to chickens’ skeletal formation, hormone building, enzyme activation, and osmotic balance (balance of water to solids in the cells of the body). The following three minerals must make it into their diet.
Salt
Chickens have 24 taste buds, (compared to 350 in parrots, 9,000 in humans, and 15,000 in pigs), and salt is one of the few flavors they can indeed taste. It’s also important for bone development, eggshell quality, and growth. But be careful of incorporating too much into their diet; high salt levels will give the birds diarrhea. They’ll attempt to regain osmotic balance by drinking lots of water. Salt should make up between 0.2 and 0.5 percent of the diet.
Calcium
Every good hen keeper knows that adequate calcium in a diet equates to strong shells and solid bone formation. A hen needs, at minimum, 3 percent calcium in her diet and usually that comes from the balanced laying-hen feed. Provide a hen that requires additional calcium a supplement of oyster shell, which you can purchase by the bag or in bulk. Place this in a feeder in the coop. Chickens that need it will feed from it.
Phosphorous
Phosphorous is essential to birds because it helps break down and use carbohydrates and fats they get from the feed. Phosphorous, in a balanced ration, often comes in the form of dicalcium phosphate or even steamed bone meal.
VITAMINS
Vitamins fall into two categories: water-soluble and fat-soluble.
Water-Soluble Vitamins
Water-soluble vitamins include biotin, choline, folacin (or folic acid), niacin, and the B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6, and B12). Normal activity and body action remove water-soluble vitamins from a chicken’s body, so these need regular replacement through diet or supplements placed in water.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Chickens store fat-soluble vitamins in their body fat, so they need replenishing less frequently than water-soluble vitamins. The most important fat-soluble vitamins help the chickens build the most valuable fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K or A-D-E-K (“build a deck” is a common mnemonic device). These vitamins are essential building blocks to normal life. Appropriate amounts of all of these vitamins come in pre-mixes, sold in the form of balanced diets.
VITAMIN A
Vitamin A deficiencies affect chicks more than adults because adults have larger fat stores. Also, be careful of vitamin A toxicity. However, this occurs only when chickens receive 500 times more than they need.
VITAMIN D
Vitamin D is often listed on the chicken feed tag as cholecalciferol. Only in the presence of sunlight does cholecalciferol convert to something useable by a chicken’s body. Hence, vitamin D is often dubbed the “sunshine vitamin.” Without adequate vitamin D, the chicken can suffer from rubbery bones or beaks, otherwise known as rickets.
VITAMIN E
Vitamin E is essential to build strong muscle and nerve tissue, proper operation of the circulatory system, and good hatchability (important if you breed for chicks).
VITAMIN K
Vitamin K is named as such because it’s essential to coagulation (koagulation in Danish, the language of Denmark, the country in which the vitamin was discovered). Chickens require vitamin K even more than usual when they suffer from internal parasites such as roundworms or Coccidiosis. If starting chicks without medicated feed (coccidiostats) or if a flock suffers from Coccidiosis, the risk of intestinal hemorrhage or increased clotting time increases due to damage caused by the burrowing action of the parasites.
OTHER FEED CONSIDERATIONS
As flock owner, if you mix your own feed, your biggest feed-related concern may crop up when a pre-mix goes bad or expires. When buying a pre-mix or supplement, look at the expiration date and choose the freshest mix available. By now, you may think that creating a poultry ration is complicated. It may sound like rocket science, but it’s actually just poultry science.
There are also feed expenses to consider. In the United States, corn in chickens’ diet provides energy while soybean meal provides protein. As corn has been diverted to ethanol production and its prices have skyrocketed, chicken feed prices have increased correspondingly. Many small flock owners are lured in by the low cost of chicks and ease of ownership, but can feel overwhelmed by the price of feed they must purchase every month or two. Factor in the feed cost when considering adding a flock to your family.
As we mentioned, it’s crucial to feed your chickens a specific, balanced diet. We have seen many first-time flock owners buy the most inexpensive feed—usually made of scratch grains or scratch that come from a mix of cracked corn and other seeds—for their chicks. This is not a balanced diet and should be considered candy or a treat for your flock. Another form of candy for your chickens is table scraps. Remember, give all treats in moderation. If your birds learn to expect them daily, they will stop eating their balanced diet in favor of waiting for what you hold in your hand. It’s reminiscent of a five-year-old who wants ice cream after dinner, but who refuses to eat his broccoli.
The price of corn these days is not “chicken feed,” causing prices to increase dramatically.
DIETS FOR ALL AGES
Chicks have different nutritional requirements than adult chickens. The younger ones require more protein to build muscle, bones, and many other body tissues. Their diets, usually called chick starters, come in several different forms, sold as either a mash (a powdery mixture of chicken feed) or crumble (the same mixture in pellet form and broken down into pieces small enough for a chick to eat). These diets should include about 20 to 22 percent protein—a level maintained for six weeks.
You’ll also have the choice to buy medicated or nonmedicated chick starter. Read through chapter 10 before deciding to make sure you understand the health risks associated with giving your chicks nonmedicated feed. For example, Coccidiosis is an internal parasite chickens get that can often be prevented with medicated feed. Chicks raised on the ground, whether with their mother or in a brooder with access to the soil, have the opportunity to be exposed early to native cocci and will develop immunity naturally. In general, medicated feed is a good choice for chicks raised in the house in a brooder, because they won't be exposed to native cocci and won't naturally develop immunity. Remember, making an informed decision makes you the best possible flock owner.
Between six and sixteen weeks, a growing hen needs a grower diet that includes lower levels of calcium than that for laying hens and protein levels lower than in a chick starter. (This is also the diet a rooster will eat for most of his life.) The grower diet should provide 16 to 18 percent protein for these birds and about 1 percent calcium.
A high-protein starter diet, either medicated or nonmedicated, makes for a good beginning for your young brood.
For a mixed flock (roosters, laying hens, different ages of birds, etc.), you can feed them all grower feed and offer the hens oyster shells for calcium. (This is after the chicks no longer need chick starter, of course.) It is very difficult to ensure each member of the flock is eating his or her own food!
After sixteen weeks, a laying hen should eat a diet with 16 to 18 percent protein, but it must also contain the appropriate levels of calcium for eggshell formation, with a minimum level of 3 percent calcium. Feeding the wrong diet may cause unintentional harm to your birds so make sure you give your flock the appropriate feed for the animals’ age group.
SCRATCH FACTOR
Sometimes it’s fine to use scratch. However, many chickens prefer its taste to that of normal feed, so use it appropriately or you may risk your hens’ overall health and welfare.
One use of scratch is to give your birds an energy boost. In the winter months, when temperatures at night drop, throw a handful or two to your birds—about one-third to one-half of a handful for each adult hen—right before they roost. They’ll use the extra energy overnight to maintain warmth. You’ll know you’ve given them too much if they don’t clean it all up within fifteen to twenty minutes. Touch your hens and feel for excess fat every other week. If they’re gaining too much weight, cut back on the amount of scratch you give.
Birds on a low protein, high-energy diet, which can result from too much scratch, will eventually exhibit signs of obesity, feather-pecking, and feather-eating (which, in turn, may lead to cannibalism as the birds go after each other for their feathers). A bird’s skin should feel loose and flexible, not tight as a drum. Overweight birds may not perch on high roosts given that their balance is compromised. Instead, they’ll sit on the floor.
They also may begin to peck and eat feathers off of themselves or each other, to get the additional protein their bodies are craving. You’ll know this is happening if you never see extra feathers floating around the pen. Of course, loss of feathers during an annual molt is normal and expected, but pay attention if it’s the wrong time of year for molt—chickens typically molt during summer, but every bird is different—or if you notice more feathers than usual. Birds eat feathers for the keratin protein they contain, the same as found in human hair and fingernails.
Birds on a low protein, high-energy diet, which can result from too much scratch, can become aggressive toward one another and show signs of obesity, as well as feather-eating.
Breaking their bad habits early helps in the long run (although you may endure unhappy looks for a week or two). Here’s what you do: Once you identify the problem—table scraps, junk food, scratch, and so on—remove it from the diet. Keep your chickens on a diet balanced to meet their specific needs (for example, layer pellets for hens in lay). These diets, although produced commercially, have been perfectly balanced to meet the chickens’ dietary requirements. Expect your chickens to act like petulant children, not eating their normal food, holding out for the regular treat. This will test your endurance and patience, but your hens will eventually eat the balanced diet and slowly, but surely, they will stop holding out. Follow this dieting formula for six months.
After a half-year, reassess your hens’ overall health by weighing them and feeling their overall body fat levels. Nobody knows your girls like you do! Once their weight loss plateaus, consider reintroducing scratch in small amounts, perhaps once a month. The same goes for table scraps. Give all treats in moderation. Remember, if obesity and feather-eating occur in your flock, even in the slightest, it’s your job to correct the situation.
This is not what was meant by, "a chicken in every pot ..."! Make sure all of your chickens are eating their fair share. Check their crops at the end of the day to make certain they are full.
COMMON NUTRITION QUESTIONS
Even after you know what to feed your chicks, you may run into difficulties. Here are answers to some questions that may come up:
Are my birds eating their new feed? If you wonder whether your flock members are eating enough, here’s a quick and easy method to find out: Birds that are well fed fill their crops (the outpocketing for the esophagus in the neck region just above the breast) during the last meal of the day, just before roosting. Once your flock roosts for the night, go in with a flashlight and lightly touch each hen’s crop. You’ll be able to feel feed in there. Do not push too hard as this can be uncomfortable for the bird.
The guy at the feed store is trying to sell me vitamin C. Should I buy it? Chickens, like many animals, can produce their own vitamin C. In fact, humans, some primates, guinea pigs, and spiders are the only animals on our planet incapable of making their own. So if the feed store salesman tries to sell you a supplement high in this vitamin, move on. Chickens don’t need it; they make their own!
My hens seem to be losing breast feathers? The exposed skin is thick and hot. Are they okay? Many chicken owners believe this condition has to do with nutrition, but it actually deals with incubation. In the spring and summer, hens begin thinking about sitting on eggs. The changes to their bodies indicate development of a brood patch, or an area on the breast where the eggs come in direct contact with the hen’s skin for incubation. This is normal and soon the hens will want to do nothing other than sit on the nest and incubate eggs. A hen that goes broody—the overwhelming, hormone-driven desire and willingness to sit on eggs—does not actually lay eggs, so you may wish to break her of this habit to get her laying again.
Some hens sit on eggs far past the twenty one–day incubation period. Watch these birds closely to ensure they eat a balanced diet and drink enough water. If broodiness continues far past twenty-one days, then break the hen of the habit. On a warm day, fill a sink with ice-cold water and dunk the hen up to her neck for up to a minute. Agitate the feathers to get the skin wet. Let her run free in the yard to dry off. Keep her away from the nest boxes for the next several days. You may need to repeat the process a couple times. Your hen will not be happy with you, but at least you will get her body back into a normal hen routine.
I want my chickens to live a natural life, so I want them to eat a natural diet. Does that mean I should give them organic feed? That is a decision that you need to make on your own. There is not yet an official definition for natural when it comes to poultry management, much less feed. The only way to guarantee truly organic feed is to purchase products with the “certified organic” label. To legally be called as such in the United States, for example, those feeds have had to undergo rigorous evaluation and processing to determine whether they meet specific qualifications. Certified-organic feeds cost more because growing grains this way is more expensive.
If you allow your birds access to pasture, be aware that also means access to plants and bugs, which is their natural diet but may not be "certified organic." (Chickens do not make the enzyme necessary to fully break down and utilize cellulose. Because of this, chickens will not fully benefit from pasture in the same way a cow does.)