i pretty much thought all chickens ate scratch. but someone told me they need to eat more. like what?

Layer pellets are esential for hens so they get enoigh calcium. THey also need grit.

A complete 16% layer ration is important for your hens in order to make sure they get enough protein. Although some feeds say no additional calcium is needed, it is. Feed oyster shells free choice, having them available at all times. Scratch should be fed very sparingly, as a treat after their normal appetites are satisfied. The best time is right before roosting time, when they have eaten their fill for the night, but before they get up on the roost. For our 25 hens, we toss out 1/2- 3/4 cup of whole barley. If you feed scratch and grains at other times, they will fill up on these instead of their feed. Barley only has about 12% protein, and the other grains have less than that. Hope this helps.

thanks! it does a lot! i was just getting some new chickens and didn't want to kill them or anything. i just always supposed that chicken scratch was what they ate, because thats what i've always been told. i'll try the layer rations. thanks for the help!
meg

Dr. Smith I have never fed oyster shells or any other calcium supplement. I feed layer pellets free choice, cracked corn, bread, and they have water and my water is high in calcium. I feed over 2 cups of corn to 17 chickens in one day, and 9 pieces of white bread. Even feeding that in about 1.5 years I have only had one egg without a shell (all it had was a membrane) and less than 5 eggs have had week shells. If I don't feed any calcium supplement how come I don't have problems if oyster shells are so important.

YoYo, You may expect thin shells as your hens get older, as it will have depleted calcium in their bodies. And they may reduce the number of eggs they lay, at an earlier age. However, there may be other sources of calcium that you do not know they are getting--did you once say that you feed their eggshells crushed, back to them? If you don't have problems, be very happy that you do not, but please understand that many people do, and that there are solutions. An example might be: Anyone using store eggs, will find that at this time of year, the shells of those great big eggs seem more fragile. This is because those hens only have to lay eggs for a year and the feeding of oystershell beyond what may be ground up, and part of their layer ration, is an unnecessary expense. They do not have to keep the hen's systems prepared to lay eggs for another year or two! And by the end of winter, their systems--after laying an egg almost every day,are getting depleted of calcium! CJR

YoYo: You have also said you are not interested in production, just keeping the birds as pets. If you don't care if they lay or not, then not feeding shells just means the laying cycle will be shorter when their systems run out of the necessary calcium. When our hens are short on calcium, they begin to eat eggs. If yours are about out of calcium, maybe they eat eggs you never see. A soft-shell egg is a delicacy for many hens.

This winter, especially the last six weeks, our hens have been craving shells more than I have ever seen before. Their production really picked up in January, and they have been hitting the shells really hard ever since. I have to watch the shell feeder very closely so they do not go without for very long.