Official BYC Poll: What Factors Affect Your Chicken Feed Buying Decisions?

[BYC Project Manager]

Feeding the flock is hands down the most important part of raising and keeping poultry, And choosing which feed to buy for your birds can be a complex process with many variables. There are so many choices involved in feeding your flock and it can be difficult to decide what to feed them. In this poll we would like to find out: What Factors Affect Your Chicken Feed Buying Decisions?

Please place your vote above (select up to 5 options), and elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

Further Reading:

• Feeding Chickens: An Introductory Guide
• Feeding Options At Different Life Stages
• Everything You Need To Know About Raising Baby Chicks

(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[cherrynberry]

Another factor for me is season. If its hatching season, I will get medicated feed. If its winter, I like to get a tiny bit of scratch. If its summer, I like to get some seeds for fodder. Other than molting seasons, I feed 20% protein.

 

[3KillerBs]

I buy the most favorable combination of low-price, 18+% protein, and freshness.

I do not care if it's pellets or crumble except with young chicks. One of my feeders feeds the pellets more easily. The other feeds the crumble more easily. The chickens eat what I put in the feeder.

I've only raised a couple batches of chicks, but I used one bag of medicated feed then swapped them to unmedicated based on the advice of people here whose experience I respect.

 

[Brooks_]

Protein (no less than 18%), non-medicated, all flock friendly (looking at you, calcium), crumble type, and freshness. Brand to a lesser degree.

 

[Perris]

I don't want to feed my flock unknowns, and I don't know what's in homogenized pellets (the ingredients list is only indicative). So I feed them things I can identify, like whole grains, peas and mealworms, and try to provide the best foraging environment that I can, so they can help themselves to what grows naturally round here. Plus oyster shell separately, and there's quite a lot of old lime mortar round the terrace that they take too.

 

[kerbotx]

Regarding lowest price - for my area, that means hitting up the local feed mill, but they changed their formula last time around, where it includes a lot of wheat, less milo, maybe more corn... But the chickens don't seem to eat it as well, after they pick out the wheat, of course! May have to switch things up next time.

For brand name - mainly that means there are brands/formulas I avoid, no matter what the price is - Dumor for stinky poops, most Purina for too much molasses, most Kalmbach for anise & other stinky spices/oils.

For other - chicken's preference, or at least what I *think* they like It makes me happy when I can find a feed that my animals will eat with enthusiasm.

 

[RubelliteRose]

All flock feed and freshness are my top priorities. Followed by price and distance from my home. TS is closest and cheapest, but for a dollar or two and 10 minutes more I can buy the same food MUCH fresher at a local feed store.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Organic is my main priority, since I want (mostly) organic eggs. So that pretty much throws cost out the window.

I also chose "other" as I want some animal protein in my feed. Insect protein would be fine, but seems to be more expensive.

 

[Driley62]

When we first started the hobby I went with cheapest but decent quality I could buy just to see if I could keep them alive. So my first brand was dumor from TSC. I later found out that in my part of the country it's made by purina. So I started looking at their stuff. It was about the same price so it didn't matter but purina advertised more on their bags. We have a local mill by the name of poulin grain that makes feed and I looked into them and many ppl from what I understand swear by them. But my neighbor swears by nutrena. Yes nutrena is a world wide company, but as I was talking to my local feed store(literally around the corner from me). He said he liked poulin grain and they were great. But nutrena had more in their feed than poulin. I must note that at that time both brands were the same exact price per bag. So he also highly recommended nutrena. But he also noted that nutrena had two mills in the neighboring state(20 minutes away by car) of Vermont. One mill was for horse feed which is closer to me. Then one that's chicken feed which is in southern VT which then gets sent to Albany, NY area to his distributor then to him...very short turn around as far as delivery goes.

So I know the feed is fresh and it's a quality product which the birds are eating it right up. I've noticed a significant difference of feed on the ground now compared to dumor. The bird look better and seem more active in a way but not always searching for food(like they're missing something in their feed). They still scratch around like chickens do...but not as intensely as before. Plus I like nutrenas plaid perks program! Buy any nutrena food, take a picture of the receipt and upload it and gain points towards giveaways, merchandise or coupons for another purchase!

I'm also not going through feed as fast as before and we have more birds than we did when we used dumor!

 

[Kenzelton the 3rd]

I like to see a list of ingredients, since I want to know what they’re eating.