Thompson and Redwood is with Reece Jerrett.

2 days ago

🐔 Healthy Home Hens - Part I: Understanding digestion and feed requirements.
🏠Home hens are on the rise, so we wanted to share some information about poultry nutrition with you in our new health series, so you can keep your hens healthy and happy.

🐥The digestive system in the domestic fowl is very simple but efficient. This is an evolutionary feature, because the simpler, lighter and more efficient a bird’s digestive system was, the more easily they could fly, and hence survive!

This structural simplicity means though that fowls need a high-quality and easily digestible diet to function. This is even more important if they need to perform – like laying eggs 🥚

🌾Chickens have a very high metabolic rate (the number of calories burned to keep the body functioning), meaning that they need an almost continuous supply of food. This is where the ‘crop’ comes in. It acts as a reservoir for storage of food prior to digestion.

To make sure a hen has a high-quality diet, it must include these 6 classes of nutrients to satisfy all their nutritional requirements:
✅ Carbohydrates – the major source of energy
✅ Proteins – required for the synthesis of body tissue, enzymes and hormones, and vital for feather and egg production
✅ Fats – provide energy and the essential fatty acids required for some bodily functions
✅ Vitamins – organic chemical that are required for normal bodily function, growth and health
✅ Minerals – inorganic chemicals that are required for normal bodily function, growth and health
✅ Water – essential for life!

🌊 Water has a huge influence over how hens behave! It is the most important thing for keeping healthy hens. Water consumption for a bird is 2-3 times the amount of food they consume, and even more in hot conditions. If a bird doesn’t have access to enough water, they will be put off eating. When they aren’t consuming enough food, their reserves get depleted, and they can’t get the nutrition they need.

🍴 Eating behaviour can vary greatly across birds, even those in the same flock. Some eat small amounts regularly, and other eat a large amount less frequently.

⌚ On average, the eating intervals for birds tends to be every 15 minutes during daylight hours. They do tend to eat much larger portions at first light, and late in the evening. This makes these times ideal for feeding your hens.

🐔 So, what are the take-home messages?🐔
🔹 Make sure your hens have a very high-quality diet that is easily digestible
🔹 They need an almost continuous supply of food, and use their ‘crop’ as storage
🔹 Always allow a large volume of water for your hens
🔹 Hen’s eating behaviour varies, but they tend to eat larger portions at first light and late in the evening
Stay tuned for Part II of Healthy Home Hens!
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