Mash, Pellets or Crumbles? Poll!

[Tacampbell1973]

I stopped feeding crumbles for a while because I had a buff hen that would shovel them out of the feeder and they would get wasted. So I changed to pellets. She did the same with that, but the other hens would clean up the pellets better than the crumbles. She is gone now, and I have gone back to crumbles with no problems. I like the crumbles to mix flax seed better than the pellets because it stays more uniformly mixed. With the pellets, the flax tends to work it's way to the bottom of the feeder. If I end up with another feed shoveler, I'll have to go back to pellets.

Um Hi Jedgell,
By feed shoveler, is that what my hen does...She stands in the plate and throws food all over the place,then she scratches it out of the plate like she is looking for a specfic piece? Invariably she winds up pooping in it. But I worry too what she has walked thru prior to standing inthe plate that the other birds are now having to eat.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Crumbles, they are very versatile. I feed crumbles to chicks, juveniles, adults, meat birds, turkeys and ....my cat?

 

[chicken Queen]

I use the crumbles. My chickens like it best. My husband happend to get the pellets once by accident ,and my chicken would not eat them . To big. I think the pellets are hard for the chickens eat.

 

[MoonShadows]

Crumbles for the chicks, but once they are old enough, it's pellets. Never used mash before.

 

[Chickenlady50]

I feed crumble to my chicks and ground feed to my layers. My bantams get crumble also. My new 8 week chicks throw a lot of the crumble out of the feeder. I don't know how to break them of that.

 

[amemendoza]

I use crumbles when my chickens were babies and for hatchlings, but mostly my chickens eat everything. I dont waste food in my house and all of the scraps that I dont use or have leftover go to the animals. They have a variety of vegetables, proteins, and grains, but they seem to prefer my dogs food above all else. My dogs let the chickens feed with them so I havent had any problems.

 

[Bonnie 39]

I am using crumbles... they are all over the floor so may go back to trying pellets, it just seems they don't like them. I do have the feeder hanging off the floor but they pull it out and don't seem to use it then... I do feed... oatmeal - quite often, especially in the winter. They love it... eat it all till the pans are clean. Seem to do fine with that. Costs more, but they are family after all.

 

[marlishama]

I tried one bag of pellets, they scattered them everywhere and wasted them. For some reason they really seemed to dislike them. I feed crumbles now, mixed with some grain. They naturally pick the grain first but get to the crumbles when the grain is gone. For a treat I feed red river cereal or oat bran with warm water.

 

[Casey09]

Mine refuse pellets.

 

[starchix]

Crumbles for babies, then switch to a layer grain mix (local), which my hens devour like it was manna from heaven. When I started on this layer mix I still had half of a 40 lb bag of organic pellets, and that was months ago. It just sits there in the feeder, or if I mix it with the grains, the girls toss it out onto the ground and ignore it. In desperation and to avoid throwing it out, I plan to mix it in with other ingredients for a homemade flock block. Same with the dust from the grain mix.