Official BYC Poll: Do you change your chicken feed in the fall to prepare for winter?

[BYC Project Manager]

As the days get shorter and the weather cools, our chickens’ needs begin to shift. Many chicken keepers adjust their flock’s diet in the fall to help them stay healthy and strong through the winter months. But how about you?

Do you change your chicken feed as fall approaches, or do you stick with your usual routine? Let’s find out! Share your feeding strategy by voting in the poll and see how others prepare their flocks for the colder season!

Further Reading:

• Caring For Chickens in the Fall
• Molting: All You Need To Know
• Important High-Protein Foods for Chickens During Molting
• Coop Health: Designing & Maintaining A Healthy Coop

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[sourland]

I find that they increase their feed intake as needed.

 

[Azhtann]

I add supplements as well as increase the amount I feed them.

 

[CastielH]

I offer scratch on particularly cold days but otherwise don't change my birds feed at all.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't change the feed being used but the ratio of feeds the flock consumes changes as days shorten. In the morning they get bowls of fermented grower and dry layer pellets are inside the coop. The chickens eat the grower first, and the pellets later on, so with shorter daylight hours and reduced consumption during molt, they naturally intake more grower than layer during their off season. To further encourage this I tend to put out more grower in the fall through early spring.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

My small flock is made of home hatched. Long gone are the hatchery birds that made them. They all graze and bugger and Im trying to get them ready for winter putting bag feed out for them. They are not interested in it? pellets crumbles, scratch (nada) they like the barn cats dry cat food, dry dog food, the goat granola? When there is nothing left to graze on Im hoping they will be hungry enough to eat the chicken food????? Others that graze, do your birds transition back to feed?

 

[Ridgerunner]

In Louisiana it doesn't get that cold. The days get shorter and they do molt and stop laying but it doesn't affect their foraging that much.

When I was in Northwest Arkansas the coldest I saw was about (-) 8 Fahrenheit (-22 C). We had some days where the water stayed frozen all day so I had to deal with that. We had a few days with snow on the ground so they would stay in the coop a few days before they'd start roaming and foraging in the snow. I never saw a reason to change how I fed them. They stop laying and molt so the nutrients that were going to make eggs are now available to make feathers. As Sourland said, they can manage their feed intake as needed. They've been doing that for thousands of years, often with no help for humans.

 

[Loving my girls]

During their moult I give them high protein treats such as tinned tuna (rinsed because of the brine) and crushed walnuts.
Generally over the winter they also have left over porridge (we make a little more for them) and sometimes peas which they love.

 

[Altairsky]

Mine free ranges all day and are not allowed to eat from feeders when they free ranges.
At evening and morning, they eat a homemade balanced mix of cereals, legumes, and oily seeds.
They don't eat much of their feed so I assume they find enough stuff when free ranging. I will add meat and fish protein twice a week when there are not enough bugs in the cold season or during molts.
I don't use industrial feed because in my country even the most expensive brands have no more than 14% protein (only 8% for the cheap bags of layer pellets).

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I keep the feed the same year around. Once it starts getting cold, I occasionally give them raw meat.