Anyone tried Agway's new soy-free feed 'hearty hen'?

Hi, Ed,
I'm just reading through this post about agway foods, as i'm desperately trying to figure out a low cost non-soy organic feed instead of $35/bag green mountain. i switched to purina for the past months to save some money, but noticed such a difference in them, i have to go back. have you made any developments on your own feed? I would certainly be interested. i have looked up many recipes that would be great, but at the end of the day, the shipping of products and storage of perishables for my 6 stupid chickens make it somewhat ridiculous. put me on the list if you're still moving towards production and if i can help with anything to make that happen, i would love to. thanks! robyn.

Hi Robyn

nice to hear from you

Yes I am still planning a large volume buy

My issue at the moment is storage

Once I can address this I will be pretty much ready to go forward

When everything is done I'll notify everyone interested

Ed

Excellent - if there's anything to help, I'll be glad to.
Thanks,
Robyn.

The only feed store near us is an Agway, so our chickens have been fed with Agway feeds since they were a day old. We had the "Agway Chick Starter and Grower", our chickens loved it, they were always eager to see me filling up their feeder. However, there was one bag of feed that was moldy, even though we bought it fresh from the store.

Then at 18 weeks, I switched over to "Agway Hearty Hen Layer" pellets, which is soy-free fortified with Omega 3. At 20 weeks, the white Leghorns started to lay eggs. However, as soon as I switched the feed, my girls don't want to eat anymore. After 3 days, I used some warm water to wet the pellets and mix it with some plain yogurt to get them to eat something, been doing that daily. There was no treats given other than grits and egg shells. In the last 6 days, their feeder has remained full without the daily refill. They just look at the food, peck at it a bit, then completely ignore it. Two days ago, I found my first soft shell egg.

This is really disappointing, especially there is no other feed store nearby for us to have a different choice. Anyone has any experience with the Agway feed?

Hi Ed,
I would be interested in your feed when you get thing going!
Judy

HI

I would go back to your original food then slowly mix in the soy free food

I always slowly integrate any new foods into the original food

Ed

I think I have the storage issue sorted out

At first I was looking at a silo and setting this up was going to be a big project
until I saw someone free ranging their birds
quite a ways from any barn using a grain wagon for grain storage



it is a brilliant idea having a moveable grain storage unit
this will fit my needs on how my land is set up

Ed

Hello Ed... and everyone...


Just checking in to say hello. I still feed Hearty Hen and I am very happy with it. I am going to look into changing to an organic soy free if I can find it in my area, ,but so far.. nada. My local Agway sells it for $18 dollars a bag, so I am happy about that. I hope they don't stop making it because I don't know what I'd do then!

MB