Just feeding chickens scratch feed & cracked corn.

nuthatched said:

Chickens will always choose the tastier scratch

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While this is probably true for most chickens it is not for my broody raised pullets, they choose forage over scratch mix all the time and they are constantly wasting a majority of the scratch mix.
I really don't have a side with all this diet discussion (I do not believe processed pellets are bad and I don't believe a whole grain/forage diet is the only way), but I think it's good to discuss all the options and sides.

Avocadoman said:

I did try grinding up some of the original pellets I had and moisten it and a few of my hens at least tried it out but I would not call their reaction "enthusiastic," and I'm certainly not going to grind and moisten food for picky chickens.

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The grinding is not needed. Just put the pellets in a dish, add water, and they will soak up the water and fall apart within a few minutes. Much less bother that way. (But if your hens don't like it, probably not worth even that reduced effort.)

Somewhere_In_The_Clouds said:

While this is probably true for most chickens it is not for my broody raised pullets, they choose forage over scratch mix all the time

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Is forage what you call chicken pellets?
Mine won't eat things like strawberries, grapes or lettuce, chickens are strange sometimes.

nuthatched said:

Is forage what you call chicken pellets?
Mine won't eat things like strawberries, grapes or lettuce, chickens are strange sometimes.

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No, forage is grass, weeds, bugs etc. Whatever they can find when not in their run, including sneaking into the garden but they mostly stick to the lawn and leaf litter under the trees.
All my other chickens love their scratch but the broody raised are noticeably different.

Somewhere_In_The_Clouds said:

No, forage is grass, weeds, bugs etc. Whatever they can find when not in their run, including sneaking into the garden but they mostly stick to the lawn and leaf litter under the trees.
All my other chickens love their scratch but the broody raised are noticeably different.

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Maybe that broody doesn't care for scratch so she raised the pullets that way.
I was comparing scratch to pellets, not scratch the forage. Mine prefer forage too.

nuthatched said:

What type of feed are you buying? How old is it? Is it rancid or spoiled? Have you tried other brands or fresher feed? How long did you leave the feed for them to eat?
The age and quality make a difference.
Chickens will always choose the tastier scratch, which is high in fat, carbs and calories and low in vitamins, minerals, protein. It's like I said, junk food for chickens. it should be less than a 10% of their diet. Diets high in carbs and fat cause fat to build up on all of us, but on birds, the fat builds up internally, around the heart, liver and organs, eventually causing them to fail.
Poultry nutrition is one of the highest researched areas of the studies on the planet (every country researchs it heavily), if they could thrive off scratch, we'd feed them that. But they can't in most environments. Unless you having roving flocks of feral chickens in your area, your modern breeds will not get enough nutrients to thrive as they should.
We can show how to find these studies so you can make your own choices I but get the feeling you're not really interested in it anyway.

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I've bought and inherited food from a variety of brands, none moldy, all dry stored the only brand I've had limited success with has been Nutrena All Flock. Sorry but I don't buy into that "chickens will always choose the tastier scratch" If I put a steak, pork chop, or live bug in front of them next to a bowl of scratch, they will always choose the steak, pork, or live bug (and chook happily) so they aren't pre-disposed to like the taste of protein poor food. So the real question isn't the nutritional value of scratch vs pellet but why are food producers so poor at producing an attractive tasting nutritionally balanced food with all their "scientifically designed" nonsense. I'm actually a scientist, and there's one thing I've learned working in the sciences is how often BS is passed off by a marketing department as "scientifically proven". It's not that I'm not interested, it's just I know from experience that there's HEAPS of BS palmed off as so-called "scientific" which is anything but. At the end of the day if my chickens wont eat it, I don't care how nutritionally balanced it is because they MUST eat it to reap any benefit.

Avocadoman said:

why are food producers so poor at producing an attractive tasting nutritionally balanced food with all their "scientifically designed" nonsense.

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Mainly because they are trying to produce a nutritional but economical product that is commensurate with the value of the animal that is being fed. Most people don't want to pay $50 a bag just for chicken feed. But if you want to they certainly have perhaps tastier feeds that range from $50 to almost a $100 a bag.

I get not wanting to feed pellets, nothing wrong with that at all, but I don't see why some people feel the need to vilify them. Obviously the vast majority of chickens raised are fed commercial diets and are perfectly happy and healthy.

My husband says in the old days all they fed chickens was scratch so he doesn’t want to feed them anything else. I did convince him to feed them pellets in the winter but we also don’t leave food out all day long. They get fed a small amount in the morning and then a little bit around 4 pm when we let them out. Their pen is about 2500 sf for 30 chickens or so, so it is quite large. He says they get plenty of feed. The hens go through cycles of laying good or not but over all it is pretty good. So our chickens will probably keep just getting scratch for the most part.