Is it all chicken feed?
Written by Sue Clarke. Provided by New Zealand Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today, magazine.
In the commercial poultry industry feed makes up over 60% of the cost of producing eggs or poultry meat, and the poultry food manufacturing industry is of major importance.
The poultry diet is probably the best studied and formulated of all domestic animals and birds. Poultry are single-stomached omnivores (like pigs and humans) and need a balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates in their daily diet, derived from a variety of sources.
In the wild their roaming forebears would have obtained this kind of food from the jungle floor: berries and seeds in season, fresh shoots and leaves, and a wide range of insects, beetles and worms. Chickens never were, and are not, vegetarians!
In a typical backyard or free range domestic environment, a chicken's range is limited to predominantly grasses with a few weeds, perhaps some worms and insects, and you may feed out garden scraps like outer cabbage leaves, fallen fruit, table scraps incorporating bread and leftovers, all supplemented with grains and pellets.
In a commercial poultry farm, be it free range, barn or cage-housed, a chicken's diet consists almost entirely of manufactured feed in mash, crumb or pellet form.
If performance and growth are the desired outcomes from your poultry then feeding the best quality diet is the best way to achieve healthy, productive hens.
Commercially-farmed poultry are genetically selected for production, but they are also probably the best fed birds too, so we should look at what the advantages are of providing a hen with a nutritionally-balanced diet.
What does it contain?
Commercially-made poultry feed is made to a highly specific formulation of proteins, carbohydrates and fat, with added minerals and vitamins, all specific to the age of the bird and its targeted performance.
The major ingredients are grains (usually a combination of maize, wheat and barley) that make up about 60-70% of the content. In addition there is a protein source (soya beans, peas, meat and bone meal, blood meal, or even milk or fish meal in some countries) making up another 20-25%.
A fat such as tallow or cooking oil is added, and the final 10% is made up of essential minerals, vitamins, and micro-ingredients like extra amino acids, colouring for egg yolks, anti-oxidants to prevent the fat from going rancid, medication in the form of a coccidiostat in some (but not all) diets, and limestone flour to provide calcium in layer feeds.
Each diet has a specific recipe, even though to the inexperienced eye it all looks the same. There will be a list of ingredients printed on the label from which the ration is made up, though not specifically using all at the same time. This is because formulations change with the seasons, the harvest, and the importation of ingredients according to the time of year. However, each diet must have a minimum level of protein, energy and fibre to meet the particular bird's requirements.
Texture - mash, pellets or crumbs?
The same diet or formulation can be obtained in various textures:
Mash
The cheapest form of any diet is mash. This is merely all the grains ground to a fine powdery form with the addition of other micro-ingredients like vitamins.
It is cheaper, has not been heated in any way and will take longer for the hens to eat. However birds can pick the larger pieces of grain out and leave the dusty bits behind to blow away or be tipped out and wasted.
Pellets
Pellets are formed by forcing the dry mash, with the addition of steam, through a dye drum full of holes. The mash is compressed into hard cylinders; at the same time the heat destroys any bacteria like salmonella that might be present in the grains from harvesting and/or storage, but not so long that the heat destroys the vitamin content.
The advantage of pellets is that it is a complete ration in one peck - the birds cannot choose to pick out the grains or leave the dust behind - the feed has been treated to kill bacteria, and it is easy and quick for birds to eat.
Crumbs/crumbles
Crumbs or crumbles are merely pellets which have been rolled to break them up, and are more suitable for feeding to chicks.
What is the right diet?
By diet we mean the changes of feed required by a bird as it grows. It is not acceptable to just feed layer mash or pellets to all birds all their lives.
Feed for laying hens
A layer ration should contain between 16-18% protein, and 5% calcium for egg shell production. Heavier birds with bigger appetites are better on the lower protein; light breeds, hybrids, and especially free range layers should have the higher level of protein.
Feed for chicks
The calcium levels in Layer feed are far too high for young chicks and can chronically damage the kidneys at an early age as they try to excrete the surplus.
Instead, day-old chicks should be fed what is known as a Starter crumb, often called Chick Starter. It should be at least 20- 22% protein. A feed especially for fattening meat chicks called Meat Bird Crumbles or Broiler Starter is even higher in protein, up to 26%.
At around six weeks of age growing pullets can be changed to a Grower diet, which has less protein and more fibre. It might be called Pullet Developer or Grower depending on the manufacturer.
When young birds are nearing point of lay (between 16-20 weeks of age) they can be moved to a Layer diet. Birds destined for the oven can be fed the Meat Bird Crumbles or a Broiler Finisher feed until they are ready.
Quantities
Most poultry do best if they are allowed unlimited access to a commercial feed and can help themselves ad lib. Their appetites are governed by their requirement for protein and energy; the more concentrated in protein and energy the food is, the less they tend to eat.
It is false economy to buy the cheapest feed, or to just feed plain grains and hope poultry can forage the rest. Most of the time they will fill up on grass or scraps if that is all there is, if they don't get fed enough of a quality feed.
While some birds will not have the genetics to enable them to lay lots of eggs or grow as fast as the specially-bred commercial strains, if you do not feed them well enough, they will never fulfil whatever potential they have. Likewise, the high-performing hybrids may not lay as well as they could if you don't give them the best fuel to do so.
How much does a hen eat?
A medium-sized hen weighing around 2kg should eat around 115g of commercial feed per day. She might need more in winter, and a little less in summer.
If you want to feed grain as well then this should be no more than 5-10g per bird, preferably as a scratch feed to encourage birds to bed in the late afternoon.
Supply a separate dish of oyster shell grit that they can help themselves to when needed - about 5g per bird per week is all that is needed. Chickens like to consume calcium on its own, and often later in the day so it is in their gut overnight as they make the next egg shell.
How to feed efficiently
Ideally you would let birds have free access to a commercial ration. To do this you need a bulk feeder like a Grandpa's Feeder, which birds can open as required. Hanging tube feeders do the same job, or the feeders with a nozzle which birds can activate to let the food drop. All have advantages and disadvantages, but the main idea is to keep wild birds and rodents from accessing and contaminating the feed.
Alternatively you can feed birds daily. Weigh out the allotted amount and feed in one feed in the morning. Preferably feed it in a trough, allowing at least 10cm of trough space per bird (remember two sides to a trough!) so all birds can get an equal share. If you divide the day's feed into a morning and a night feed you will find the bossy, dominant birds will eat their 100g+ of feed in the morning and again at night, leaving nothing for the birds lower in the pecking order.
That's why birds have crops; they are opportunist feeders and store their feed so they can go away and digest it later.
Should you warm up dinner?
It might make you feel better to mix up a 'warm mash' with scraps and meal and gravy etc, but it is not necessary! Warm feed is not natural for a chicken - they are built to peck at cold, hard bits of feed. It can be a medium for bacteria and moulds to grow in if left to go stale in the trough. It can also stick to and gum up the beaks of young chicks.
Sue's 7 feed tips
- Use a quality commercially-made feed from one of the major nationwide manufacturers like NRM. These companies have the back-up of quality control, regular testing and advice.
- Feed a commercial diet appropriate to the age and type of your birds.
- Feed whole grains such as wheat or maize/corn preferably crushed as a scratch feed at the end of the day, and no more than 10g/bird per day.
- If you want to feed kitchen scraps or vegetable waste, feed it in the afternoon so you know birds have already eaten their balanced mash/pellet/crumble.
- Provide insoluble (gravel) grit if feeding whole grains to birds housed indoors, to enable their gizzard to grind up the grain.
- Provide soluble oystershell grit separately, which is especially important if your birds are not fully fed on a commercial diet.
- Be aware that some poultry feed sold as "organic" can be deficient in essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine (which is added synthetically to standard feed) especially after a deficient grain harvest. A shortage of either/both can cause problems such as poor feathering, faulty eggs and egg production slumps.
This article was provided by NZ Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today magazine.
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