My neighbor told me to stop feeding my hens scratch grains in the afternoon and I should have listened

My neighbor Frank, who's had chickens for twenty years, told me point blank last spring, 'Scratch after noon makes for lazy layers and a messy coop.' I thought he was just being fussy. I loved tossing a handful to my six girls around 3 PM because they'd come running and it was fun to watch. Well, after about three months of this, I noticed my egg count dropped from five or six a day down to three, and the coop floor was just covered in wasted grain they'd scratched around and ignored. They stopped foraging for bugs in their run because they were full on empty carbs. I switched back to only giving scratch as a morning treat, like Frank said, and within two weeks, egg production bounced right back and the coop is way cleaner. I feel like such a dummy for not just taking his advice from the start. Has anyone else messed up their flock's routine by feeding scratch at the wrong time?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathanbennett10d ago

Oh man, scratch grains are such a trap! They're basically chicken junk food, so giving them late just fills them up before they eat their real dinner, the layer feed. That's the stuff with all the calcium and protein they need to make shells. I learned the hard way too, my girls would pick out the corn and millet and leave the good pellets behind. Morning only is the way to go, gets them moving and then they still eat their proper food.

evanfox10d ago

Wait, @nathanbennett, they actually leave the pellets behind? Mine just bulldoze through everything.