That makes sense. Thanks for explaining!Well, all of the maintenance or adult feeds only have 18% protein. I feed veggie scraps, and my hens have had a protein deficiency before because of the veggies diluting the protein. I don have a compost, and would way hater give that the the chickens then throw it away. So, I have opted for a flock raiser since it has 20% protein. Most layer pellets only have 18% I have found. Same with this brand.