The cold weather has set in early & our chickens are missing free ranging for bugs, seeds and vegetation. Having two visiting red tail hawks and a bald eagle visiting on a daily basis makes free ranging extremely impossible. Luckily we built a extra large chicken run filled with loads of perches and other items to keep them active.
For the past few weeks we have been researching ways to prepare our flock for the hard winter months ahead and ensuring our birds receives the correct nutritional feed and supplements needed to stay productive and healthy.
We gave learned that it is very important to supplement a chickens diet especially in cold weather when their food intake needs to be higher and foraging is not an option.
Recently our hens have been consuming the Purina Layena Range Free pellets which contain the Black Larvae Fly. They love it!! In addition, select fruits, vegetables, grains, leafy greens, corn, Chex non sugar cereal , meal worms , calcium , brewers yeast ,garlic, flaxseeds
and sprinkle of food grade Diatomaceous Earth powder is being fed to the flock .
My teenage daughter, who is experimenting with home cooking, last night made an over abundance of brown rice . Told her ”No worries! The chickens will enjoy a breakfast feast that will warm their bellies!.
So this morning she warmed the rice adding cooked peas , corn, green beans, mealworms, flaxseed, Brewer yeast and garlic powder! Our 15 ladies devoured this breakfast treat in less than an hour!
Tomorrow I am heading to the grocery store. I always look on the day old vegetable carts for tomato , bananas, butternut & zucchini rice and lettuces that must be eaten over the next day or so . These vegetables & fruits will be used to supplement their diet too. Cabbages and apples are hung along the run to keep the chickens from being bored and promote their foraging.
In the next blog I will write about the benefits herbs add to our chickens diet and the coop.
