Why do chickens prefer thier feed wet instead of dry? I noticed that they go crazy for it if it is wet, instead of being dry out of the hopper. Any ideas?

-- Richard E Desroches (angliric@hotmail.com), July 04, 1999

Answers

I have never seen this behavior in my flock. My birds usually go nuts for the dry feed out of the feeder. However, they are Cornish-Cross, and they eat like pigs anyway. Could it be that something in your feed is fermenting after it gets wet and the chickens are attracted to it? That's the only possibility I can think of. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Dan.

-- Dan Shaske (dshaske@excel.net), July 08, 1999.

My chickens have always preferred their feed dry too. Not just the cornish crosses, but all the hens too.(5 or 6 different kinds right now)

-- Jenny Pipes (auntjenny6@aol.com), September 22, 1999.

My chickens, ducks and geese do not have a preference, if it doesn't outrun them they eat it. Except no one likes cooked waste from apple sauce. They free-rang days and I give them corn or oats when I pen them at night, scraps whenever. Are you over-feeding? Are they attracted to anything new?

-- Kendy Sawyer (sweetfire@grove.net), September 23, 1999.

We have a flock of about 30 chickens, mixture of several different laying breeds and they get real excited when the water overflows the dish. They always have a quality dry feed and water available. Don't know why, but they love the mud. Our meat chickens didn't go for it, probably because they had a hard time moving, except to the feed trough! My husband says that some of the old publications stated that a way to increase feed intake was to feed it wet.

-- Cindy (jmncndy@micron.net), November 08, 1999.

HI, WE HAVE A SMALL POULTRY IN UPSTATE NEW YORK. OUR CHICKENS ONLY EAT DRY FOOD. THEY WON'T GO NEAR WET FOOD. I WONDER WHAT IS ATTRACTING THEM TO THE FOOD? WELL GOOD LUCK

-- PRISCILLA WILLIAMS (GP83196@AOL.COM), May 18, 2000.

My hens ask: What does dry mean? I tell them to wait until August, and they may yet know! Everything is always wet out here in the upper left hand coastline!!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 18, 2000.

My sister's (10)hens in Arizona, just love it when she sprays down the coop. When their feed which they have scattered about gets wet, they become crazy for it. Maybe it's just something new to pick at?

-- Louise Torpey (mtorpey@juno.com), December 24, 2001.