[perkhar]

just bought in bruised barley. I am feeding it to the sheep but was mixing it in with the layers pellets. I read over the internet that hens can digest barley is this true. Does anyone else feed the hen barley.

I'm keen to add a mixer to the layers pellets to help reduce the cost of feed.

[Marches Farmer]

I would only give it to hens in a scattering of seed to keep their crop full overnight in cold weather.  Layers pellets are expensive but they're formulated to keep the birds in good health.

[twizzel]

I feed my hens barley over winter, they love it. From about now onwards though they are on straight layers pellets, and I found if they have barley because I've not managed to get to the feed store for a couple of days then their laying is affected.

[perkhar]

Yeh I'm convinced they lay better on layers pellets but the feed is massively more expensive than grains. So I'm debating whether it's worth sparing some eggs in order to drop the feed cost slightly, I don't want to take them off layers altogether but trying diffrent approaches

[landroverroy]

 More economical to feed your layers a proper balanced diet for max egg production than to fed them less and get fewer eggs. You still have to feed birds that aren't laying. So you'd be better saving money by reducing your birds in number and feeding for optimum production than reducing their feed and getting fewer eggs/bird.

[twizzel]

Yeh I'm convinced they lay better on layers pellets but the feed is massively more expensive than grains. So I'm debating whether it's worth sparing some eggs in order to drop the feed cost slightly, I don't want to take them off layers altogether but trying diffrent approaches

I get barley for nothing but will still buy layers, it will make your hens fat and take them a while to get back laying again.