scratch and peck, non GMO organic Anyone use this ?

[karlamaria]

I ordered a big bag of it as my birds are all stages of life and they will not eat the grower pellets what so ever. and all the birds want to eat baby food crumble . there old enough to eat this food now ( 9 weeks old ) http://www.scratchandpeck.com/
this is no no pellet , but real chicken food with out soy or corn and fillers. my question is anyone else feeding there birds this ? they told me to put all the birds on grower, not chick food and not layer food but grower. and put out grit ( I do ) and oyster shell ( I do) it looks wonderful . I wish I could buy it local but no such luck. I have to special order it and the shipping on 25 pounds is 19.99

its 17 % protein. is this good for both pullets ( 18 weeks ) chicks 9 weeks and 18 month olds?

 

[PunkinPeep]

I have not used this particular feed, but from looking at their website and your description, i think it would be fine for your chicks. I have had to use the same feed for many ages of chickens before, and i think this one would work well. If they are free-ranging, then especially so.

It sounds like a great product, but that's going to be one amazing food bill!

 

[karlamaria]

I have not used this particular feed, but from looking at their website and your description, i think it would be fine for your chicks. I have had to use the same feed for many ages of chickens before, and i think this one would work well. If they are free-ranging, then especially so.

It sounds like a great product, but that's going to be one amazing food bill!

yeah, I figure my eggs cost me about 200 dollars a day LOL, with the coop , and a redo on the coop, the pen, then a bigger and more pricier pen, we are into the coop and runs in the thousands ( 4,000 ) we only have nine birds ! but we enjoy our girls, and believe they deserve the best. the feed looks wonderful, and with this, and giving yogurt and veggies and other goodies there healthy will be awesome ! ( there awesome and healthy now ! I just want to go non GMO and organic. like the old days

 

[PunkinPeep]

I totally understand your sentiments. I'm going a different direction to feed my chickens naturally, but i understand your sentiments.

I noticed that they have a location in Idaho, and that their mill location isn't too TOO far from you. Would it be a possibility (if you decide you like their feed) to take advantage of their bulk rates and drive a truck to one of their locations and buy the forty pound bag and not pay that horrendous shipping?

Just a thought. It's what i would try to do.

 

[karlamaria]

I totally understand your sentiments.  I'm going a different direction to feed my chickens naturally, but i understand your sentiments.  

I noticed that they have a location in Idaho, and that their mill location isn't too TOO far from you.  Would it be a possibility (if you decide you like their feed) to take advantage of their bulk rates and drive a truck to one of their locations and buy the forty pound bag and not pay that horrendous shipping?

Just a thought.  It's what i would try to do.

in Idaho" I'm off to look, heck yeah I would go buy 100 pounds or more at a time! Where a outs in Idaho?

 

[FirewifeJess]

OK this is just my opinion and one should always make their own choices, so take it with a grain of salt please and don't freak out about your own flock choices just because something didn't work for someone else OK?

I did not like it for my flock. I started with a dozen day old chicks and had them on medicated Purina Start & Grow feed. They all grew well and thrived. Right at 8 weeks (which is what Scratch & Peck recommends) I switched them to S&P grower. They had already been provided grit and were fully free-ranging our half acre. For 5 weeks after that (until just last week!) I agonized over whether or not my girls were eating enough, drinking enough, and growing enough. My conclusion was that they were not, and it was possibly because the whole grains weren't being easily digested by the little pullets at 8-12 weeks old. Also possible that because I took them off medicated starter and they were already outside eating GOBS of earthworms daily, maybe they have had a small load of Cocci in their guts which was hampering their growth. Also, many of my birds who I had sold (order split) to a friend who had stayed on Medicated starter through now and were the exact same age and breed as mine (same hatchery, likely siblings), her birds were MUCH bigger with bright red combs and wattles (no they weren't roosters) and mine remained growing slowly with very pale yellow combs and wattles. I also noticed that most of our birds didn't like to eat the "crumbs" of the feed (which is where the nutritional content lies with all the vitamins and boosts they put in) but only the whole grains, and I'm not the kind of chicken mama who will scoop out all the extra crumbs daily and make it into something else that the birds will eat. I love my birds but I also need easy and fast chicken care since I'm a home schooling mama of 3 small children with a too-big house to care for and LOTS of laundry to keep up with!

So, long story short, we recently switched back to medicated starter/grower (Purina) for the whole flock of now 11-14 week olds and they are once again thriving and seem to have had a growth spurt in just the last few days since the switch.

PLEASE take what I said with a grain of salt. We all have different chickens, different climates, different soils, different coop/run setups, different free-range plants for our chickens to access, etc. The minute differences in all of our flocks are endless. But I would ask that you keep an eye on your chickens for the first few weeks and consider if they are still staying healthy and growing strong. I'm like you and LOVE organic, non-GMO, soy free, corn free, etc. I cloth diaper, don't buy or use any paper products EVER, only chemical free household products and cleansers/ personal care items, yada yada. We're all natural here and try our best to do everything organically, but in this case it wasn't working for us and I'm OK with our recent decision. I am, however, hoping I can switch everyone to an organic layer feed down the road, but we'll evaluate that when the time comes.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Their Idaho location is in McCall at May Hardware.

 

[karlamaria]

OK this is just my opinion and one should always make their own choices, so take it with a grain of salt please and don't freak out about your own flock choices just because something didn't work for someone else OK?

I did not like it for my flock. I started with a dozen day old chicks and had them on medicated Purina Start & Grow feed. They all grew well and thrived. Right at 8 weeks (which is what Scratch & Peck recommends) I switched them to S&P grower. They had already been provided grit and were fully free-ranging our half acre. For 5 weeks after that (until just last week!) I agonized over whether or not my girls were eating enough, drinking enough, and growing enough. My conclusion was that they were not, and it was possibly because the whole grains weren't being easily digested by the little pullets at 8-12 weeks old. Also possible that because I took them off medicated starter and they were already outside eating GOBS of earthworms daily, maybe they have had a small load of Cocci in their guts which was hampering their growth. Also, many of my birds who I had sold (order split) to a friend who had stayed on Medicated starter through now and were the exact same age and breed as mine (same hatchery, likely siblings), her birds were MUCH bigger with bright red combs and wattles (no they weren't roosters) and mine remained growing slowly with very pale yellow combs and wattles. I also noticed that most of our birds didn't like to eat the "crumbs" of the feed (which is where the nutritional content lies with all the vitamins and boosts they put in) but only the whole grains, and I'm not the kind of chicken mama who will scoop out all the extra crumbs daily and make it into something else that the birds will eat. I love my birds but I also need easy and fast chicken care since I'm a home schooling mama of 3 small children with a too-big house to care for and LOTS of laundry to keep up with!

So, long story short, we recently switched back to medicated starter/grower (Purina) for the whole flock of now 11-14 week olds and they are once again thriving and seem to have had a growth spurt in just the last few days since the switch.

PLEASE take what I said with a grain of salt. We all have different chickens, different climates, different soils, different coop/run setups, different free-range plants for our chickens to access, etc. The minute differences in all of our flocks are endless. But I would ask that you keep an eye on your chickens for the first few weeks and consider if they are still staying healthy and growing strong. I'm like you and LOVE organic, non-GMO, soy free, corn free, etc. I cloth diaper, don't buy or use any paper products EVER, only chemical free household products and cleansers/ personal care items, yada yada. We're all natural here and try our best to do everything organically, but in this case it wasn't working for us and I'm OK with our recent decision. I am, however, hoping I can switch everyone to an organic layer feed down the road, \

I hear you !! Im a bit tired and have spent a fortune on feed to see what they will and will not eat and it drives me nuts. they hated the grower pellets, i was afraid they would starve. I will be sticking to the chick crumble for a while since my 9 week olds eat it, heck everyone eats it lol but also wanted to try this so my bigger girls have good food to munch on and all the rest do to., everyone loves the crumbles from the babies, but spread it all over. my big girls never did, but man the pullets are driving me nuts. Im going to keep feeding the crumble for a while and toss this down for a treat and get them used to real food . my chicks love seeds, nuts etc, so do the rest of my birds so I do not worry to much if they will eat this, but at this price on shipping for now i will have to use it as a food/treat. when there all adults and eating it well I will think on taking away pelleted food. they love scratch now, and they love love love sprouted wheat, so Im going to also try to sprout this stuff. see how it works and how they like that. thanks for your opinion, it is nice to get different views.

Also i looked and the place in idaho is almost 7 hours away, and with the cost of gas, the finding of a truck ( i do not own one) and the hassle of a long drive I will just stick with ordering it for now. thanks for your help and info

 

[karlamaria]

Ok the scrach and peck came. I filled the feeders and my birds have gone bolistic!! they love it and Im thrilled. It cost me a small fortune, but I see now its so worth it! every bird I own went nuts over it and not a drop was on the ground. i have purchased every feed around here, and my birds eat very little of any of it. its like I starved them and there now eating like mad. I added grit also as there not used to foods like this, I do give them some seeds and boss and of course there flock raiser but this is crazy. I will be ordering enough to last me all summer then enough to last all winter !

 

[FirewifeJess]

Ok the scrach and peck came. I filled the feeders and my birds have gone bolistic!! they love it and Im thrilled. It cost me a small fortune, but I see now its so worth it! every bird I own went nuts over it and not a drop was on the ground. i have purchased every feed around here, and my birds eat very little of any of it. its like I starved them and there now eating like mad. I added grit also as there not used to foods like this, I do give them some seeds and boss and of course there flock raiser but this is crazy. I will be ordering enough to last me all summer then enough to last all winter !

That's great! Glad they like it. Mine seemed to as well, but they are eating way more of the other feed now that we switched. Too funny, the differences in flocks. If I were you though, I wouldn't add grit to the food, I'd offer free choice in another container; they are smart and know how much they need, but if you put it in their food they have no choice but to eat it even if their bodies don't need as much as you give (even if it's very little, if that makes sense). The walls of my run are 1/2" hardware cloth so I just put grit in a bird feeder that hangs nicely on the side of the hdwr cloth and they love it. If it's two sided, you can also put oyster shell in one side and grit in the other when they're laying. HTH!