How to Feed Backyard Chickens a Balanced Diet

A chicken needs calcium in her diet to produce a strong eggshell.

Keeping chickens in the backyard is a popular hobby for many families in the U.S. who raise them to provide fresh and wholesome eggs. Chickens are fairly easy and inexpensive to raise, but they require proper nutrition. Feed your chickens a balanced diet to ensure they remain healthy, active and egg-producing birds.

Instructions

1. Always use commercial feed products. There are many available that offer balanced nutrition and include adequate protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals for chickens.

2. Baby chicks require a product called chick starter. Chick starter has higher levels of protein and is sold as a mash (fine crumbles). Chick starter can be fed until the birds are 4 to 4 1/2 months of age, when they almost ready to begin laying eggs.

3. Laying hens require a feed with a slightly lower level of protein than chick starter but a higher level of calcium. The calcium is required for normal egg production. Hens not receiving adequate calcium in their diet may lay eggs with soft or easily cracked shells. Laying hen rations are usually available as pellets or as crumbles (broken pellets).

4. Many feed stores carry a feed called scratch, which is a mixture of two or more cracked grains, such as corn and wheat. Use scratch as a feed supplement, not as a complete diet for chickens. Depending on the grains used in the mixture, scratch may contain from 9 percent to 12 percent protein. As laying hens require about 16 percent protein in their diet, use scratch only as a "side dish" to accompany laying hen pellets or crumbles.

5. Leftover fresh vegetables from the garden (such as summer squash) or extras from the kitchen (such as melon rind) may also be fed to chickens. But be sure to continue to provide a balanced ration in the form of laying hen pellets or crumbles. And be sure to only provide fresh, not molded or spoiled, vegetables.

Tips & Warnings

• The nutrient that a chicken consumes the most of is water. In hot weather, an adult chicken needs to drink between .08 and .16 gallons a day. Be sure your chickens have ready access to a clean water supply.

References

• Utah State University: Principles of Feeding Small Flocks of Chickens at Home