What feed to feed the chickens? How to take preventive care of their health? And how to help them survive the winter in good condition?
What to take off?
The easiest is feeding scrap mixtures, which should cover almost all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals. They are available either in the form of granules or fine scrap, usually the larger package is worth it. However, hens also like to eat pure wheat – although it is very suitable for poultry, it would not necessarily cover the protein and mineral needs by itself, but you can feed both it and ready-made mixtures.
Only in an exceptionally large enclosure could the hens find enough invertebrates to cover the protein losses caused by egg laying. Their desire for a nutritious bite is evidenced by the fierce battles over the earthworm and the passion with which they will pounce on scraps of meat if you give them to them. It is better to throw them around the yard, cut into pieces, so that everyone can grab a piece – you don’t have to worry about one lying around unnoticed.
For example, kefir can serve as a protein supplement, which you can use to soften the meal – if you make it from milk directly from the breeder, it will cost many times less than store-bought kefir. Hens are also happy to use milk that has already soured slightly (however, it must be originally fresh milk, not shelf-stable).
Especially in winter, you can enrich the menu with mashed boiled potatoes. Cooked courgettes and pumpkins can also add variety to the chickens’ feed, as well as fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen and sprouted seeds. A handful of sunflower seeds is a delicacy for them and will contribute to healthy, beautifully shiny feathers. In the winter, it will also replenish the necessary energy.
By offering treats such as sunflower seeds or unsalted nuts, you will gain the trust of your charges, and with a little patience, some will learn to keep their beaks out of your hand. In winter, when the hens do not have greens available, dried crushed nettles, which you simply mix into the feed, are a great vitamin supplement.
For laying hens, it is advisable to enrich the feed mixtures with a vitamin and mineral preparation for laying hens, mainly because of calcium. You should also serve shells – just crush them a little and put them in a bowl, the hens will take as needed. Special feed mixes are sold for chickens of different ages that meet their needs due to their relatively fast growth.
And how often to feed the hens? If they have food available from morning to night, you will be sure that they do not miss anything. There is no danger that they will overeat with a regular diet, of course only serve fatty delicacies such as sunflower seeds to a limited extent.
What to drink?
In addition to feed, hens must have access to clean water at all times. In ordinary containers, it needs to be changed at least once a day, in a drinker that is placed in the shade or in a chicken coop, it is enough to change it every few days.
This is a significant advantage, because you can add special preparations to the water that support the health and digestion of hens and, thanks to the low pH, serve to some extent as disease prevention (for example, Acidomid), or plant extracts that have a preventive effect against bumblebees (for example, Acariflash) . When changing the water, the drinker must be thoroughly cleaned.
How to survive the winter in good health?
Hens don’t mind frost or snow as long as they are well fed and have a comfortable, dry chicken coop with clean bedding of straw or hay where they can retreat and have fun digging when things aren’t going well in the run. It is not necessary to heat the chicken coop under normal winter conditions, on the contrary, it could harm the hens when they go outside.
However, a big advantage is that the chicken coop is insulated and well insulated (which is also useful in summer), but it still has to be sufficiently ventilated. A window near the ceiling that does not create a draft is ideal. If severe frosts hit, you can cover it for the night. However, even a temperature of a few degrees below zero does not bother the poultry, as long as they have enough hearty feed and water available.
To prevent it from freezing, which can rarely happen even in an insulated chicken coop, you can place a heating pad under the waterers under it. Drinking must always be available to the hen, but for owners of large combs, and even more so for roosters, the soaked decoration can freeze. A simple prevention is a drop of edible oil, which creates a thin layer on the surface of the water, and when drinking, a protective film is formed even on delicate parts of the body.
If you insulate the chicken coop with polystyrene, make sure that the hens do not get to it. Almost everyone loves pecking at polystyrene and the insulation would quickly take over.
Let’s hope they don’t get arctic cold. If the temperatures drop to, say, 20 below zero, it is better not to let the hens out of the coop, if it is spacious enough. You can easily measure the temperature inside, and if it freezes too hard here too, the help of a direct heater set to the lowest setting (freezing temperature) can help. However, it depends on the breed, health status and hardiness of the hens – healthy poultry can survive even severe frost in good health.
Don’t forget that even in winter, poultry needs a place to ash, which is the best prevention of external parasites. The hole with the ashes should be in a place where it will not be wetted by rain or snow – i.e. under a shelter or in a corner of a very spacious chicken coop.
If the paddock is covered with a layer of snow, but there are no severe frosts, it is worth throwing a piece down to the ground. You will make the hens happy. They don’t like the snow cover at all, and although they are good at digging, they can’t shovel it away.
About the author
JANA BUCHAROVÁ studied biology at PřF UK. For twenty years, he has been trying to use the laws of nature in his garden, which he also shares with a flock of very clever hens and a respectable rooster.
