OK, Im new, so you gotta cut me some slack here on this one. Before I came to your board, my chickens ONLY ate scratch and kitchen scraps and whatever they rustled up free range. I found out, that they needed layer pellets on here just last week. They are year old birds. Problem is, they refuse to eat the pellets. What can I do? I got them for egg production, but they dont want to produce. Somebody help me with these picky birds..

You might try crumble instead of pellets. I think what I would try is mixing some layer crumble with just a little bit of scratch and put it in a feeder or pan and see if you can get them going that way. I'd withhold scratch other than a small amount mixed with the new feed. And I'd withhold the table scraps too for right now. I'm thinking you might have more success with crumble and then later you could mix that with the pellets and switch them over to make use of the bag you just bought. Believe me though, if your chickens get hungry enough, they WILL eat the new food but "tricking" them with a little scratch mixed in will help get them going. Eventually, you should wean them off that scratch and just reserve it for a once a day treat. That will definitely help boost your egg production. Generally, scratch is thought to make "fat, lazy layers".

Just keep at it and think of this in terms of if you had been feeding a child nothing but candy bars and now you're trying to convince him to eat green beans! LOL! It might take a little time, patience and cleverness on your part.

Susie

I believe Susie is right that you have to withhold the grains and everything thing else until they get accustomed to the lay ration.

THe only thing I would do differently is...I wouldn't mix the lay ration with any grain (scratch) at all. We used to do that and we found that the hens would throw out the lay ration (by brushing it aside with their beaks) as they pick through the feeder to get the grain. If you do mix some grain in with the lay ration, watch to see if the chickens are wasting the lay ration (they'll knock it out with their beaks as they pick out the grains).

we have a similar problem as yours. After a hard winter (South Dakota) our hens sometimes don't want to free range to eat grass and bugs that they should eat. We have to lure them out with "bribe corn" that we sprinkle in the grass. They learn to eat grass again that way, which they actually like ... they just get accustomed to the 'store-bought' feed and we have to break that habit.

Info, you are probably right. They are amazing sometimes in what they can do. I know mine have thrown oyster shell out of their feeder when I tried to mix it with layer crumble.

Susie

Tough love. Its what works. Chickens or other critters wont starve themselves unless sick. I just trained a pen of chickens to eat whole oats which I like to use for conditioning. After 4 days of nothing else in front of them, they now love oats with their tufkey grower pels. Like switching a calf from teat to pail. Just a matter of time.

Robbpa, what are you conditioning your birds for? Just curious.