Feeding is one of the important parts of raising chicken. It makes up the major cost of production, and good nutrition is reflected in the bird’s performance and its products.
The most convenient way of feeding chickens is with a balanced pelleted ration, whether the birds are confined indoors or allowed to range outdoors.
According to an analysis by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture on African organic poultry production, small/crushed stones (grit) are crucial but often neglected in poultry diets.
Grit helps in the digestion of feed, as chickens don’t have teeth to chew their food. As such, chickens need to occasionally swallow small stones from their first week of life to allow for proper digestion of large particles of food.
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Quartz, granite, or basalt are good sources of grit as they are resistant to the acidic surroundings in the stomach. They also last the longest in the stomach and are, therefore, the most suitable.
Grit is, however, not required for chicken fed on commercial feed as some are easy to digest, but those fed on whole grain should be provided or allowed to get some grit.
Chickens in traditional free-range systems usually find appropriate stones themselves, as they roam around freely and are usually guided by their mother hen.
In a semi-intensive system, it is important to offer stomach stones to the chickens, e.g. presented in a shallow dish in the chicken house. This dish can be placed next to the dish containing the minerals.