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

[Stef82]

I am using this product as well. Sadly I think it's got GMO's in it. But not sure? And yes, they only come in pellets. My silkies will not eat pellets so I end up buying two different brands of food. I asked the owner of AGWAY in Dublin PA (Dave) and he said they don't make crumbles, but if they sell enough pellets, they might make crumbles. Hearty Hen, can you please make a crumble of your product? This would be so much help.

So far this product is great. Just wish they'd make this GMO or Organic (GMO free). My hens love it so far. I haven't had an issue with it yet.

 

[redrstr29]

The only thingI noticed is it makes their poop dark, I think I might switch back to blue seal, Im not sure, Its been a few weeks and they are not toooo crazy about it, but they kind of like it

 

[NewBreeder]

HI MB

this is the second year I am feeding Agway's soy free food

Last year I was just about the only customer using this food at my local Agway

This year I am having difficulty buying all the bags I need for my flock at one time

After letting the word out of the availability of this food it is going viral were I live, more and more people are using it, good news for Agway

In my opinion I think the food lacks something for egg layers, even thou my birds are free ranging I noticed the egg yolk not as richly colored they are more yellow in color than using other foods

This is what I noticed in my eggs, I would not hesitate feeding this food my flock does well on it other than the egg color the birds are doing well

Any animal that is accustomed to eating a regular food and is switched to something new you will noticed a hesitation of eating the new food

I worked in the aquaculture food business for a long time (we even sold some of our products to the chicken industry) and we had to enhanced that food with items that turned on the fish to prevent hesitation for production reasons, but for the backyard chicken raiser time will do, the chickens will get back into the groove into feeding as normal

Its the new food if you notice a hesitation in eating not the product itself

My customers are very happy they can eat my eggs and the broilers without being sick, sad not being able to buy food

Just a note: I think it is a little deceiving to find out the order of the ingredients in animal food is not ordered by how much of each ingredient is in the final product

Like most of us we think along first ingredient is what is the most, in the food

I know the project manager for this product has been on this forum and should make an effort to work towards listening and improving a chicken food that can fill a desperately needed niche and become a market leader for providing such a product this niche is void of any competitors why not become a market leader for providing allergy free chicken food

Every year more and more people are coming out of the woodwork with allergy issues and concerns of being forced to eat foods we don't have a choice for making decisions on what we wish to put into our bodies

If Agway could eliminate or just provide non GMO corn in this product they could exponentially explode their sales of this product

The interest is there and the willingness to purchase products like this proves it

Agway your missing out on a opportunity all laid out for you, I know because being a project manager for large projects in my past life I wished something like this was placed on my desk with only having to make some adjustments to the product to capture the market share

 

[redrstr29]

Very well said, I think if they at least made a mash and/or crumbles would also be great, That could be the least to change, that way it would reach a larger base, even though pellets have become more popular over the past few years, there is still a large majority that feed mash and crumbles, and those two are also the top sellers in my two feed stores I frequent.

Aldo

 

[NewBreeder]

I agree, this way I could take my birds from egg to finished product on a soy free diet

At the moment I use turkey grower crumbles for my chicks till they can swallow the pellets and then I finish my broilers off on the soy free product

I generally take about 3-6 weeks to finish my birds off any soy, having some kind of crumble for the chicks would go a long way without having to change the formula

Agway is missing out on a opportunity

I have a small flock of layers seasonal broilers and turkeys, last year I was feeding about a ton of food monthly, if Agway is not willing to step up to the plate or any other chicken food producer to produce a badly needed food for the market I've got plans to start producing my own food

I have hesitated to do so at the moment even thou many people are prodding me along to fill this niche locally

I live in the upper central part of Massachusetts where VT, NH and Massachusetts intersect, out of curiosity if I was to make this type of food available how many would be interested

Let me know so I could get an idea if it makes sense for me to make this available

Ed

 

[redrstr29]

i LIVE IN CT, i WOULD DEF TAKE A RIDE UP AND BUY 200-300 LBS AT A CLIP!!! I used the hearty hen and ran it through the blender with added oyster shell and wheat lol, the girls LLLoved it then!! I fed them it for about a month, and even after that long it seemed they could not get accustomed to the pellets, they are quite large also, I really didn't notice darker yolks, Now yesterday I bought blue seal"extra egg" mash, I still have about 5 dozen eggs that were laid while on hearty hen , im gonna do a comparison with blue seal and see how different the eggs look after a couple weeks, Just to appease my curiosity, and hearty hen up here in ct was 22.50 for a 50lb bag blue seal is 18....

 

[NewBreeder]

wow 22.50 my agway charges 15.99

what I said my yolks were lighter more yellow than orange

good your interested I will put you down in case I decide to take the route of having my own food made

I am expecting 50lbs to be around $10 or less depending on how much I get

thanks for getting back

Ed

 

[redrstr29]

wow lol ct is expennnsive lol, It would be worth it to spend 20 dollars in gas and drive to you lol, yes they were def, yellow, not orange, Very hot todday in CT poor girls!! yes put me down how many chickens do you have??

Aldo

 

[NewBreeder]

I think the marigold powder in the food it making the yolks yellow, not really sure why they add it to the food

When I was in the aquaculture business
many of the ornamental fish growers wanted coloring agents in their foods and marigold powder was one of the coloring agents we used

It worked great for fish in the yellow/orange spectrum so marigold powder is a very powerful coloring agent

I also think Perdue uses it for coloring their broilers skin from pale white to something more appealing of a yellow/orange color

Just as a side note a few years ago I had friends come from France and stay with me,we discussed chicken rearing they also had a farm so it was only natural, they raised marans and were not familiar with our brown eggs

We had a traditional New England clam bake with lobsters, just as I was about to compost the lobster shells my friends encouraged me to break the shells into small pieces and feed them to my chickens

In just a couple days the yolks all turned a bright red/orange redder than any yolk I ever saw
so the color of the egg yolks can be changed other than what happens when they free range with all the natural colorings they obtain from grasses and bugs

At the moment I have about a 200 hundred birds going with many in the incubator

Last year I raised over 300 this year I am aiming to do 1000 but will be happy if I reach over 500

Will keep you on my list for the food if I decide to do it

My main concern now is storage, looking at different ways to work with the volume of food other than buying a silo

Would be nice to here from anybody else that might interested in buying non soy+ food in bulk
the savings might be worth it in the long run

 

[redrstr29]

That was interesting about the lobster shells??, ill have to try that next time i eat lobster and maybe crab would work too, My birds dont freerange but do have a run, I pick them tons of grass and clover, but do not get to eat many bugs, they get kitchen scraps and bread soaked in milk, and funny enough they love oyster shell??? lol i throw iti n the run and they go crazy picking it lol, instead of a silo maybe you can use a few of those LARGE metal garbage cans with lids and stack them. Also I think the pellet size they use is too large, it could just be my imagination, I notice the chickens like to pick on smaller more natural looking food, when I went to pensylvania (bradford) almost 18 years ago to visit family I remember my father buying pellets from a local mill and they were much slender than the ones I always see now, I even bought a bag, I cant remember wether or not my chickens liked it, but I do recall asking my family if the place was still open becaue they did finish it quick (it closed down)


Also Im sure if I was making a trip up there for a few hundred pounds a few of my friends would join in also

They rake us over the coals here with feed prices