In this chapter you will learn:
This chapter is all about what and how much to feed your chickens, and why clean water is important. Let us start with what to feed your chickens. Your chickens need a balanced diet and there are a couple of ways to get it. The first is your local feed store who sells not only the national brands, (Purina Chicken Chow is one, (And you only thought they made dog and puppy chow)), as well as local or custom brands mixed by the store. Most mixes have some sort of grain, (Corn, flour or oats), some sort of animal protein, (Usually chicken or turkey scraps), some vitamins, and extra minerals and antibiotics.
However you can make your own with corn meal, cheap canned dog food, and if desired children’s vitamins. The mixture rate would be 10 pounds corn meal to 24 ounces, (2 cans) of the dog food to two tablets of the kid vitamins. In a blender, food processor or by hand mix the ingredients together in batches and keep refrigerated, (You do not want the dog food to go rancid), and you can expect each one of your chickens to 10 to 13 pounds of whatever feed you use per week.
Chickens are made up like us of mostly water and they need to have clean water and at the proper temperature. This means several times a day their water bowl needs to be drained, cleaned out and up and refilled. If it is hot, you need to add ice to it and if super cold you will need to break the ice up so that the chickens can get a drink.