Just feeding chickens scratch feed & cracked corn.

[The Moonshiner]

I suspect it's not actually food but compressed sawdust or something.

You didn't accidentally buy some of that new fangled pellet bedding instead of feed, did you?
I think that stuff is made of wood and would explain why they wouldn't eat it.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You still gotta wonder what's in pellet food if even a wild animal wont eat it. Even the local possums and raccoons wont touch the pellets. Food resources actually improve here in fall and winter due to rain (SoCal) but never really go away. Odd thing is despite foraging, they still eat plenty of scratch but not the pellets so I figure there's something in the scratch that they need that is far more nutritious than pellets and they can't get foraging. I put oyster shell in all their food, they don't eat that either but their egg shells are fine other than the two hens that have egg drop syndrome, so they're getting calcium from somewhere. Could be from the grilled cheese sandwich with Tillamook and Brie I share with them! LOL

Scratch tastes better. It's a treat. Mine will eat that over pinkies half the time, and they love pinkies.

As for wildlife nor eating pellets, heck, I wish that were the case. Then I wouldn't be going through as many bags as I am

 

[Avocadoman]

If protein is the primary concern

What nutrients are lacking? Protein is one of the most obvious ones. Check the bag for the percent protein in the scratch.

There has been a lot of research into what percent protein is needed by chickens. Protein is one of the most expensive things in chicken feed, so all the big companies want to know how little they can get away with. The general consensus seems to be about 18% minimum for chicks, 15% minimum for layers, with higher numbers in some specific cases.

Protein is made of amino acids. Chickens need certain ones in particular ratios. If there is not enough of one, all the rest go to waste because they cannot be used correctly. There is plenty of research on that too. Methionine and Lysine are the two that are most likely to run short first, so they tend to have individual listings on bags of chicken food, but I'm not sure whether they would be listed on the scratch grains bag. In Europe, chicken foods tend to have lower overall protein than in the USA, but they are more careful about making sure all the amino acids are properly balanced so the chickens can use it effectively. Scratch grains alone does not have the right balance to get away with lower total protein amounts.

Can free ranging for 2-4 hours each day make up the difference? That depends on what they find while ranging. A plain grassy lawn, or a piece of barren desert, is not going to have what they need. I don't know how many bugs and worms are enough for each chicken each day, and I don't know what it takes to let the bugs and worms reproduce faster than the chickens eat them, so I cannot evaluate whether your specific property can produce what they need or not.



There are lots of studies about protein levels in chicken diets, going back about a hundred years. Here is one example:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7178002/
"The effect of low protein pullet growing diets on performance of laying hens housed in the fall," with authors R B Christmas, C R Douglas, L W Kalch, R H Harms
It was published in 1982.

Two quotes:
"A total of 6000 layer-type pullet chicks were fed either a low protein (9.1%) or a high protein (15.4%) diet from 8 through 18 weeks of the growing period"

"Pullets fed the low protein grower diet had higher mortality during the growing period, greater feed intake during the laying period, eggs with higher Haugh unit values, and reduced egg production in the laying house."

If protein is the main deficit with scratch then I'm not going to worry about them eating it because they hunt and kill lizards and giant night crawlers the size of snakes every morning. My alpha hen yanked a lizard tail off and the lizard just sat there and played dead while she ate it's tail then she turned around and ate the lizard...dumb lizard. I suspect they are getting a lot of proteins to more than account for any lack in scratch. My big problem is CRD flare ups and egg-drop syndrome it seems. Nothing I can do about either except play soothing music to the hens.

 

[Avocadoman]

You didn't accidentally buy some of that new fangled pellet bedding instead of feed, did you?
I think that stuff is made of wood and would explain why they wouldn't eat it.

ha no, but my chickens have always been fussy eaters, I think they just weren't meant to be cooped up and fed "scientifically formulated" feed. They love the bugs and grass and I've caught them making guacamole with a fallen avocado on more than one occasion. My late great rooster like to snitch my beer when I wasn't lookin' They just might have gourmet tastes. I mean would you eat pellet food?

 

[NatJ]

You still gotta wonder what's in pellet food if even a wild animal wont eat it. Even the local possums and raccoons wont touch the pellets.

It is certainly possible to get a bad bag of pelleted feed (moldy, old, mixing error at the mill, etc.)
Is this just one bag, or have you tried multiple bags and gotten the same results?

If protein is the main deficit with scratch then I'm not going to worry about them eating it because they hunt and kill lizards and giant night crawlers the size of snakes every morning. My alpha hen yanked a lizard tail off and the lizard just sat there and played dead while she ate it's tail then she turned around and ate the lizard...dumb lizard. I suspect they are getting a lot of proteins to more than account for any lack in scratch. My big problem is CRD flare ups and egg-drop syndrome it seems. Nothing I can do about either except play soothing music to the hens.

That is something that varies drastically from one area to another. If your hens have access to plenty of good sources of protein, they may be fine. And if there are that many creatures they can eat, that might be a sign that your area also provides enough of the various vitamins and minerals that animals need. There are many places where that is not the case, but it might be true where YOU live.

Scratch is a fine source of just plain calories for energy, which might be the main thing your chickens need in addition to what they can forage. (If someone fed scratch to chickens that are confined to a coop, with no other food options, the situation would be very different.)

Nutrition can make chickens more susceptible or less susceptible to many physical problems, but I don't know enough about CRD, or egg-drop syndrome, or the nutritional details of what your chickens eat, to know if there is any effect in this case.

 

[Avocadoman]

It is certainly possible to get a bad bag of pelleted feed (moldy, old, mixing error at the mill, etc.)
Is this just one bag, or have you tried multiple bags and gotten the same results?


That is something that varies drastically from one area to another. If your hens have access to plenty of good sources of protein, they may be fine. And if there are that many creatures they can eat, that might be a sign that your area also provides enough of the various vitamins and minerals that animals need. There are many places where that is not the case, but it might be true where YOU live.

Scratch is a fine source of just plain calories for energy, which might be the main thing your chickens need in addition to what they can forage. (If someone fed scratch to chickens that are confined to a coop, with no other food options, the situation would be very different.)

Nutrition can make chickens more susceptible or less susceptible to many physical problems, but I don't know enough about CRD, or egg-drop syndrome, or the nutritional details of what your chickens eat, to know if there is any effect in this case.

I know I got CRD and egg-drop-syndrome from a full grown Delaware hen I bought on Craigslist and integrated into the flock last October. I will never ever buy a chicken on Craigslist again. I quarantined and treated with antibiotics before integration but none of that matters with CRD since they always have it and can be contagious. I didn't even know about egg-drop-syndrome other than this same chicken kept laying soft small eggs in the middle of the night whenever she was stressed particularly. Then I got another hen doing the same thing once in awhile a few months later and that's when I looked it up. One thing for sure is stress sets off both issues and my rooster was really bugging them both this spring so the rooster had to go, poor guy, good adobo though.

 

[Avocadoman]

It is certainly possible to get a bad bag of pelleted feed (moldy, old, mixing error at the mill, etc.)
Is this just one bag, or have you tried multiple bags and gotten the same results?


That is something that varies drastically from one area to another. If your hens have access to plenty of good sources of protein, they may be fine. And if there are that many creatures they can eat, that might be a sign that your area also provides enough of the various vitamins and minerals that animals need. There are many places where that is not the case, but it might be true where YOU live.

Scratch is a fine source of just plain calories for energy, which might be the main thing your chickens need in addition to what they can forage. (If someone fed scratch to chickens that are confined to a coop, with no other food options, the situation would be very different.)

Nutrition can make chickens more susceptible or less susceptible to many physical problems, but I don't know enough about CRD, or egg-drop syndrome, or the nutritional details of what your chickens eat, to know if there is any effect in this case.

I've had four different bags of pellet food, four different brands all with 16% protein or higher and only one of them do they eat a little of. The one they will eat is Nutrena Naturewise All Flock (smells like spaghetti sauce due to oregano oil in it). I wouldn't say they "like" it but if there's nothing else to eat within 15 feet they'll eat it. It's like prison food to them I guess. One other bag I got smelled like fish, I suspect they use squid meal or something in it, they wouldn't touch it even though they love sushi grade tuna so I think they just are foodies and snobs.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Have you tried moistening some of the feed with plain water?

Many birds that are picky will eat the layer ration if it is wetted and the consistency of cooked oatmeal.

If you are fine with your birds eating scratch and whatever they forage that's up to you.

Fatty liver disease is a real thing and for some birds there are no warning signs. They just keel over from blood vessels in the liver rupturing.

The pellet feed is not defective. Your birds are spoiled by all the high calorie, high fat treats.

 

[Avocadoman]

Have you tried moistening some of the feed with plain water?

Many birds that are picky will eat the layer ration if it is wetted and the consistency of cooked oatmeal.

If you are fine with your birds eating scratch and whatever they forage that's up to you.

Fatty liver disease is a real thing and for some birds there are no warning signs. They just keel over from blood vessels in the liver rupturing.

The pellet feed is not defective. Your birds are spoiled by all the high calorie, high fat treat

Spoiled chicken is only bad if they're already in the fridge. 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. I used that pellet bag for ground squirrel bait in a trap and it worked well for that at least, the other bags of food not-so-much. Luckily one of the pellet bags I got from a neighbor and was free so throwing it out was no loss.

 

[nuthatched]

I've had 10 chickens and not one will eat pelleted food from four different brands no matter how much I "feed them pelleted food" I just can't force feed it to them. I don't think you understood to what extent THEY WILL NOT EAT PELLETED FOOD. Healthy birds will refuse to eat if the food is not to their taste. I can feed them a piece of wood and they will not eat it even when there is no other option. This really says a lot with regards to what ever is in pelleted food. I suspect it's not actually food but compressed sawdust or something. I can't even use it for squirrel trap bait, even the squirrels wont eat it. The wild birds wont eat pelleted food either. I'm curious why scratch would "slowly kill them." What nutrient is it lacking? Or better still what nutrient is scratch lacking that could not easily be compensated for by grazing for grass and bugs 2-4 hours a day? What evidence do you have that scratch will actually kill a bird? Are there any studies regarding this or is it just one of those opinions passed down by word of mouth with no hard evidence supporting it?

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.