Rainy wet food

[KensingtonHens]

My poor hens!! Their food is wet from all our rain here in San Diego. I tried putting the food under their coop "house" but it still gets too wet. Become mush!! What can i do? Put in the house where they sleep? Or do they not mind wet, mushy food? I feel so bad for them.

Yesterday while they were free ranging they came up to the patio door, looked in the house and waited there!! It is till pouring and is supposed to all day and tomorrow.

 

[HEChicken]

I actually make mine a mash out of their food every day in winter anyway (take some hot water and add enough pellets to absorb the water and turn into a nice, warm mash for them). They LOVE the mash and will eat first from it and then turn to the feeder for dry pellets. So my first thought would be that they won't mind the mash the rain is making for you (it actually RAINS in San Diego???) The only problem is that once wet it will mold quickly. So I would try to find a way to keep most of it dry and let them eat the mash that has already been made. Without seeing your set up its hard to say but yes, I'd say putting it in their coop would be a good idea.

 

[ND]

I keep their feed in their coop. They'll eat a wet mash (happily, too), but the problem is mold/mildew. I use large bucket feeders that hold 2+ weeks worth of food... I can't have that much get wet, so it's hung in their coop where it stays nice and dry.

 

[KensingtonHens]

Thank you for the ideas! I keep the large bags of feed in separate dry barrels beside the house and feed them everyday (AM) from that. So it's just what they have that's getting wet. HEChicken you mention pellets; the food I'm using is finer than that, mealy. The bag says UAP lay crumbles, with 17% protein. One of our hens is about 11 months the other about 4-5 months. Is this appropriate feed for them? Will I be changing to pellets later? Neither has started laying but the older one (EE) is becoming quite bright red around her comb and waddles. The little one (RS) is still without her comb. Well, it's starting to come in.

PS. Yes, it rains in California

 

[nuchickontheblock]

I don't know how many chickens you have. We have three and keep some dry pellets in their coop so that they have free access to food whenever they want it. I add some warm water to a small amount of pellets every morning to make a mush - 1/2 to 1 cup - and they love it. I have noticed though that if it gets rained on and too runny they often won't eat it.

 

[gumbii]

i'm having the same problem... the only one having the time of his live is my muscovy drake... but all of my chickens are soaked and miserable... except my silkies... they love the rain for some reason... she's all wet and full of mud... but she doesn't want to stay in the coop with the other birds... weird...

the bad part is that me and my friends didn't design the coops for heavy rain... it only rains like 2 weeks a year here in los angeles... LOL... i had to get a bunch of tarps from the tarp store... fail/aids...



btw... i feed game bird feed... not pellets or mash... just grains and stuff... good luck...

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

One thing I do when the blowing rain gets bad (as it does here) is take a sawhorse, drape a canvas tarp over it, and secure the sides with ground stakes to leave a little area underneath where the girls can stand out of the rain and eat. Then I hang a feeder from the sawhorse with a bungee cord or metal wire.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
I did the same thing except I put tin on mine!!! They seem to love it!

Chickens LIKE wet feed, however it molds surprisingly fast. If you have a big tray to spread it out on so that it can quickly dry, sometimes you can salvage it before it molds if it's sunny enough to dry it back out. Doesn't work well if the air is still humid though.

On wet feed I give them about a day to eat it up, and then throw it out because mold can kill them!

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
The laying pellets and crumbles are the exact same formula - the crumbles have just been more finely ground. I switched to pellets last winter when I found the local grackle birds were stealing more food than the chickens were eating. The pellets were too big for the grackles but the chooks had no problems switching to them. I now prefer them because there is less mess and therefore less waste. At the ages your girls are, there would be no problem switching to pellets.

 

[felidaet]

I live in the Pacific Northwet where is rains pretty much from mid Sep until July 5th. When I built my two coops I installed the feeders directly in the coops. The food stays dry. Since I lock up the coops at night this also locks up the feed so that night time visitors in the area are not tempted to dig into the run to get the food. When I feed treats to the birds I make sure it is early enough that it will be gone long before dark. With 34 birds treats usually only last a few minutes anyway.

Because of all the rain I also have a roof on my run. This keeps most of the run dry and provides shade in the summer. Only about 1 - 2 feet around the inside edge of the run get wet. I am considering building a 1 - 2 foot overhang to keep it drier. This is one of my possible spring projects this year. I wish I had thought of this when I originally built the roof. I might use the corrugated plastic deck roofing to minimize weight and so that it does not get too dark in the run.