How to Feed Chickens in Coops for Eggs

Free-range chickens supplement their diet with the bugs and seeds they find outside. However, chickens in a coop with only a small run are unlikely to find many supplementary snacks. This means you should feed your chickens a balanced and varied diet, rather than just grain, for the healthiest birds and the tastiest eggs. A combination of a commercial chicken food and fresh vegetables, together with occasional kitchen scraps and various invertebrates from your yard, is ideal. They also need grits to aid digestion and for strong egg shells

Things You'll Need

  • Chicken feeder
  • Chicken pellets or mash
  • Poultry grit
  • Ceramic dish
  • Seeds
  • Fresh produce
  • Garden pests
  • Kitchen scraps
  • Portable chicken pen
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Instructions

    • 1

      Fill the chicken feeder with pellets or mash daily. Remove the feeder when the chickens go to roost and replace it in the morning to avoid feeding all the local rodents as well as your chickens. Alternatively, lock the feeder in the coop with the chickens at night. Chickens can have unlimited pellets -- they won't overeat.

    • 2

      Fill the dish with poultry grits, which are essential for chicken digestion and for strong eggshells, and place in the coop. Chickens take as much of the grits as they require.

    • 3

      Provide green, leafy vegetables such as lettuce or spinach. Dark lettuces are preferable; iceberg lettuce has virtually no nutrients, although the birds may enjoy pecking at it. Replace the leaves when they wilt.

    • 4

      Net or collect a variety of non-toxic garden pests, such as flies, slugs, grasshoppers, snails and termites and place them in the coop as often as once a day. Don't feed chickens brightly colored beetles or furry caterpillars, which are toxic, or stinging insects such as bees. Crush snail shells and squash flying insects beforehand. A plentiful supply of bugs mimics the diet of free-range chickens, and is a handy way to dispose of garden pests.

    • 5

      Transfer the chickens to a portable chicken run for a few hours a day, if their permanent run is a small one. Change the position of the portable run daily. This provides the chickens an opportunity to find and eat various bugs themselves.

    • 6

      Feed small amounts of healthy kitchen scraps, such as boiled vegetables or pasta, once or twice a week as a treat and to add variety to their diet. Supplement with the odd handful of seeds, such as sunflower seeds. Avoid giving your chickens salty, high fat, meaty or processed foods.