Chicken nutrition and feed questions! Advice wanted.

[Brooks_]

Yes.

Odd that they would slow down that much. I do not believe it was the feed though. Perhaps by being a layer formula.....but many use it with good results. Nor do I think the herbs and such will give the benefit you desire.

 

[Perris]

I was just confused because some people say herbs are good for them and have lots of health benefits and other people say they arent good for them and they dont do anything and not to give it to them.

discriminating between good and bad advice is an ongoing challenge for us all. Requiring supporting evidence and references for an assertion is one reliable method of sorting them first into 'pursue' and 'ignore' categories, though following up with cited sources may take more time and effort than one would like to spend on the topic. I realize this runs counter to the tldr mentality, but it's the only method I know to unravel confusion, and all proper papers come with an abstract so one knows quickly what to expect. And, bonus, some rabbit holes are full of interesting surprises, and I've learned a lot thus serendipitously. The journal Poultry Science is open access (freely available to all) and you can search on whatever takes your fancy. Here's a link to a search on 'herbs' there, for example
https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?pub=Poultry Science&cid=776861&qs=herbs

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Weird how those who frown on offering real herbs either think they aren't strong enough to make any difference, or are potentially lethal. Perhaps Stormcrow and Nuthatched should compare notes.

They are available to my own birds - I just don't rely on them having any reliable pharmaceutical benefit.

/edit to add/clarify - I grow these for my own culinary uses, I didn't plant specifically for the chickens benefit, and would not invest in the extra expense if I didn't use these things for cooking. The cost/benefit isn't there for me. But as its out there already, and the cost of keeping the chickens out is prohibitive; there being no effective downside to letting them nibble on what pokes out of the netting, I have absolutely no objection. Some has now spread beyond the garden, where its purpose is purely aesthetic and/or erosion control. They mostly ignore it, most of the time.

They essentially NEVER touch my alliums. Not the garlic, not the chives, not the scallion. Every once in a while, they will snatch a bug off one and ingest some plant material at the same time, but that seems to be purely incidental. They even ignore the seed heads when I let them go on the scallion.

 

[easteregges]

discriminating between good and bad advice is an ongoing challenge for us all. Requiring supporting evidence and references for an assertion is one reliable method of sorting them first into 'pursue' and 'ignore' categories, though following up with cited sources may take more time and effort than one would like to spend on the topic. I realize this runs counter to the tldr mentality, but it's the only method I know to unravel confusion, and all proper papers come with an abstract so one knows quickly what to expect. And, bonus, some rabbit holes are full of interesting surprises, and I've learned a lot thus serendipitously. The journal Poultry Science is open access (freely available to all) and you can search on whatever takes your fancy. Here's a link to a search on 'herbs' there, for example
https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?pub=Poultry Science&cid=776861&qs=herbs

Thank you so much.

 

[yallowchicken81819]

Us personally, we give ours feed 2-3 times a day, and, on most days, let them go out and free range or we give them Lemon Balm/Grass/Clover