Mash, Pellets or Crumbles? Poll!

[newpioneer75]

I also chop up the scrap veggies for my girls. They love celery and carrot and the garlic ends. My birds didn't seem to care for pellets so I get them whole grains or organic crumble. As long as it's non-gmo and organic, I will give it to them. If they are hungry enough they will eat.

 

[JesNflock]

O.K. First let me say I got my chicks on Good Friday and started them on chick crumble, then bought organic grower pellets from our local feed store. I wasn't happy with the pellets although the pullets and roo ate them just fine. I didn't way them eating soy because I am eating their eggs and I don't want soy! I don't give them anything I wouldn't eat and I am buying as much non-GMO/organic as I can. I recently found Countryside Organic feed in VA and although it is a long drive, I think quality food is vitally important. I heard that fermenting the feed heightens the nutrition content by making it more digestible. I still have organic layer pellets and my 17 year old daughter prefers to feed them those. Since she opens the pop door in the a.m. before school she gives them pellets. That said, when I go to feed the chickens around 1 or 2 p.m. I give them fermented mash (Countryside Organic). The practically jump up and down waiting for me to take the feeders inside to fill them. There are usually some pellets left in the feeders. I empty the pellets, wash the feeder, then add chopped veggies. I chop whatever is available from my garden and my neighbor's garden so they have been getting (kale, tomatoes, carrot and green pepper scraps, organic apple, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, turnip greens, cabbage, zucchini, etc.). I put the raw chopped veggie mix in one half and then add fermented mash in the other side. They drive into the veggies first!!! They love the fermented feed too. My chickens have free ranged up until a week or so ago when we had to put them up on the patio next to the house and winterize the tractor and put in deep liter. So, now that they are no longer getting the bugs and worms they were getting, I've bought a dried worm block. I am going to try sprouting once the garden items have been exhausted so they have greens and I am going to make a homemade flock block from a recipe I found. I may hang a cabbage if I can find an organic one as I heard that the chicken have fun with that and it keeps the winter boredom down. My husband thinks I'm nuts chopping all those veggies up. It is time consuming but I want to keep it small enough that they don't drag it onto the floor and into droppings. It works! They eat it so fast, none gets wasted or ruined by chicken poo.

There is a fermenting feed on here..you should check it out if you haven't already. Also, have you thought about raising mealworms? I started raising them not long ago and they are taking off so well (and so far they have been so easy to deal with) I think there is a really good article on here about raising mealies (I will have to look to see where it was but it is VERY informative)

 

[rolinfarms]

I use a small 18% pellet that I feed to everything except small chicks very little waste and they don't have to hog a spot I front of the feeder for near as long because they get a bigger bite bantoms do really well also with little loss I figure since I switched to pellets i'm saving over 50 lb of feed a month and that doesn't take very long to add up but this spring i'm goying to experiment with mash soaked like the old hog feed that my grandfather used for years on his hogs with great success Ronnie Windland

 

[All Henned Up]

Pellets for adults and crumbles for chicks, 1 cup per 8 birds scratch grains in morning and the same in the evening when cold. They go crazy :cd when they hear the lid coming off the scratch grain storage can. Pacing back and forth e along the pen fence waiting for it. They can tell the difference between the larger feed can and the smaller scratch grain can just by the noise removing the lid makes. Very smart chickens are!

 

[love2carve]

Good morning! this is my first time posting so I hope this works! Please bear with me! I have 28 sweet cluckers that are 1 year and 8 months old. Also have 3 other girls and 1 rooster that are 2 1/2 years old. All are in different phases of molting. I have always fed purina chicken feeds. Sometimes I mix the 18% flock raiser with the 16% Layena. However for some reason I have a few girls that are somewhat aggressive feather picker/eaters to the other less dominate girls. I have been reading on the different chicken blogs about that Nutrena Feather fixer feed. It has been getting really good reviews so I switched to it and have now fed about 5 or 6 bags of it. I think I am convinced that it really is making a visible difference in my chickens. They are looking so good, even for molting, their feathers are coming in faster and shinier and the feather picking has backed off considerably. The feather picking is caused by 5 hens that came from a different place than my first group and even though they were the same age and size of all my other girls they were that way from the day I put them together. I bought them from a feed store and they were overcrowded and dirty and I felt sorry for them. They are excellent layers and I think this new food has helped them to back off the feather picking. I think my chickens really prefer crumbles but I they dont waste so much with the pellets. I mixed the Feather Fixer with the Layena for the first 2 bags so it would not be an abrupt food change and now they just snarf it up. If you go to the Nutrena site and read up on the other ingredients you can compare it to your food. I have to go to a different store to get it because my TSC store does not carry Nutrena.

I love this BYC site and all the chicken lovers are so helpful and fun to read and learn from! I have already ordered 5 of the new calendars!

 

[chicknnugget]

O.K. First let me say I got my chicks on Good Friday and started them on chick crumble, then bought organic grower pellets from our local feed store. I wasn't happy with the pellets although the pullets and roo ate them just fine. I didn't way them eating soy because I am eating their eggs and I don't want soy! I don't give them anything I wouldn't eat and I am buying as much non-GMO/organic as I can. I recently found Countryside Organic feed in VA and although it is a long drive, I think quality food is vitally important. I heard that fermenting the feed heightens the nutrition content by making it more digestible. I still have organic layer pellets and my 17 year old daughter prefers to feed them those. Since she opens the pop door in the a.m. before school she gives them pellets. That said, when I go to feed the chickens around 1 or 2 p.m. I give them fermented mash (Countryside Organic). The practically jump up and down waiting for me to take the feeders inside to fill them. There are usually some pellets left in the feeders. I empty the pellets, wash the feeder, then add chopped veggies. I chop whatever is available from my garden and my neighbor's garden so they have been getting (kale, tomatoes, carrot and green pepper scraps, organic apple, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, turnip greens, cabbage, zucchini, etc.). I put the raw chopped veggie mix in one half and then add fermented mash in the other side. They drive into the veggies first!!! They love the fermented feed too. My chickens have free ranged up until a week or so ago when we had to put them up on the patio next to the house and winterize the tractor and put in deep liter. So, now that they are no longer getting the bugs and worms they were getting, I've bought a dried worm block. I am going to try sprouting once the garden items have been exhausted so they have greens and I am going to make a homemade flock block from a recipe I found. I may hang a cabbage if I can find an organic one as I heard that the chicken have fun with that and it keeps the winter boredom down. My husband thinks I'm nuts chopping all those veggies up. It is time consuming but I want to keep it small enough that they don't drag it onto the floor and into droppings. It works! They eat it so fast, none gets wasted or ruined by chicken poo.

Hi there. I enjoyed reading your post, and had a Q. How do you ferment your countryside organic feed? I have no idea how to go about something like that, but would love to try. Sounds like your chickens love it! I tried sprouting rye grass before with little success. I may try to sprout my counrtyside feed, just to see what happens. Thanks for your post!

 

[PheasantsFirst]

I use a small 18% pellet that I feed to everything except small chicks very little waste and they don't have to hog a spot I front of the feeder for near as long because they get a bigger bite bantoms do really well also with little loss I figure since I switched to pellets i'm saving over 50 lb of feed a month and that doesn't take very long to add up but this spring i'm goying to experiment with mash soaked like the old hog feed that my grandfather used for years on his hogs with great success Ronnie Windland

Good morning! this is my first time posting so I hope this works! Please bear with me! I have 28 sweet cluckers that are 1 year and 8 months old. Also have 3 other girls and 1 rooster that are 2 1/2 years old. All are in different phases of molting. I have always fed purina chicken feeds. Sometimes I mix the 18% flock raiser with the 16% Layena. However for some reason I have a few girls that are somewhat aggressive feather picker/eaters to the other less dominate girls. I have been reading on the different chicken blogs about that Nutrena Feather fixer feed. It has been getting really good reviews so I switched to it and have now fed about 5 or 6 bags of it. I think I am convinced that it really is making a visible difference in my chickens. They are looking so good, even for molting, their feathers are coming in faster and shinier and the feather picking has backed off considerably. The feather picking is caused by 5 hens that came from a different place than my first group and even though they were the same age and size of all my other girls they were that way from the day I put them together. I bought them from a feed store and they were overcrowded and dirty and I felt sorry for them. They are excellent layers and I think this new food has helped them to back off the feather picking. I think my chickens really prefer crumbles but I they dont waste so much with the pellets. I mixed the Feather Fixer with the Layena for the first 2 bags so it would not be an abrupt food change and now they just snarf it up. If you go to the Nutrena site and read up on the other ingredients you can compare it to your food. I have to go to a different store to get it because my TSC store does not carry Nutrena.

I love this BYC site and all the chicken lovers are so helpful and fun to read and learn from! I have already ordered 5 of the new calendars!

 

[rlkern]

My girls prefer crumbles and if they get wet first, that's even better!! I don't really have a problem with waste much as the feeders I use are long and slender, have a lip that goes in, are suspended off the ground so they can't dump them out and aren't filled up very high so that if they do root around in them, they don't get much pitched out on the ground. I have 3 like that to allow plenty of room for everyone to eat without getting pecked by the the senior hens.

 

[flickerloo]

Mash mixed with water, yogurt, cottage cheese or cooked oatmeal. Going to start doing fermented grains soon. Already do sprouted grain and fodder. Not at all interested in crumbles or pellets because the mash I have is non-GMO certified and local.

 

[gailmaison]

how do you ferment ??