Can I use pigeon mix to feed my chickens?

I've been looking into a whole-grain diet for my chickens and found this local mill that mixes pigeon food:

http://www.leachgrain.com/pigeonmixes.html

Royal Super Race 17%
Ingredients: whole corn, winter red wheat, Canadian peas, milo, kafir, maple peas, Austrian peas, safflower, vetch, rice, vitamins

Royal Racing 16%
Ingredients: milo, popcorn, winter red wheat, oat groats, safflower, barley, various peas, vitamins

Royal Pigeon Low Carb 16% (no corn)
Ingredients: wheat, milo, peas, safflower, oat groats, paddy rice, white milo, vetch, vitamins

Looking at the ingredients above, is there any reason why I couldn't feed one of these mixes to my chickens? They have the same protein content as other chicken feed I've found, just not as much fat as most of them.

It looks pretty good to me. It's similar to what I feed, I don't care for commercial pellet/crumble feeds anyway. You'll want to make sure they've got a good source of extra calcium though, as plain whole grains are rather low in calcium for laying hens.

That's what I figured. The girls are on crumbles right now but I want to start switching them to whole grains. Do you think I should mix in some crushed oyster shell with the whole grain mix, or just leave them as free choice? They're not laying yet, but are 17-18 weeks old.

I picked up some pigeon feed as well. The general concensus seems to be that it is good to gradually switch them over so they and their crops and gizzards can adjust to the new feed. It will take them longer to process whole grains than it does the processed feed. I am still trying to figure mine out but there are a couple threads (one is the heritage feed for heritage breeds) and there is a long thread on making your own feed. There has also been some discussion on the differing needs of hard feathered vs soft feathered breeds and how the type of feed can affect them. Good luck. It is somewhat frustrating but I don't want to feed the comercial pulverized feeds. I am using egg shells right now but will probably try oyster shell again.
sharon

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/livestock/poultry/bba01s21.html
here is a good document on peas

My BYC page might be interesting to you.

You might consider adding a few other things to the mix for variety. I don't know if the nutrition on this mix alone would be ok...just wanted to give you this peas document, since I thought it was interesting.

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Thanks for this. I know that a lot of the soy-free commercial feeds (Modesto Milling, Countryside Naturals, Scratch and Peck, etc.) use peas in place of soybean meal to up the protein content. The general consensus in the forums seems to be positive.

Quote:
I plan to start mixing in some whole grains with their crumbles over the next few weeks. Is this a good way of gradually switching them over?

Quote:
I plan to start mixing in some whole grains with their crumbles over the next few weeks. Is this a good way of gradually switching them over?

This is what I have been doing. The pigeon feed that I found is all grains but doesn't have vitamins/minerals and I am going to have to order some as I lower the amount of crumbles.

A lot depends on what breeds you are feeding,
Most hatchery and soft feather breeds do very poorly on a whole all grain diet and should be feed a be feed a ground food diet.
Hard feather breeds like large fowl Gamefowl, and Oriental fowl do very well with a more whole grain diet.

For soft feather breeds a good rule of thumb is 30% any grain or mixture of grains and 70% of either Mash, Crumble or Pellet.

Soft feather heavy,
The soft feather heavy includes birds like the sussex, orpington, plymouth rock, wyandotte & many others. The 'Soft Feather Heavy Breeds' are historically those developed for table or utility production, many of them having a good reputation for egg laying.
Example of Breeds:-
Ausralorp, Barnevelder, Brahma, Cochin, Langshan, Dorking, Faverolles, Frizzle, Marans, Orpington, PlymouthRock, Rhode Island Red, Sussex, Wyandotte, Araucana

Soft feather lights,
The soft feather light includes birds like the ancona,araucana,appenzeller & a many others.
The 'Soft Feather Light' Breeds are traditionally those with a good reputation for egg laying, rather than as table birds. Usually, they will lay good numbers of white or cream eggs.
Example of Breeds:-
Ancona,Appenzeller,Araucana,Rumpless Araucana,Hamburgh,
Leghorn, Minorca, Poland, Redcap, Scots Dumpy, Scots Grey, Silkie,Welsummer

Hard Feather,
The Hard Feather category includes breed like the Old English Game, Rumpless Game & modern game, Asian breeds like the Shamo,Asil & Malay. As the term suggests, they have tighter feathering than the 'soft' feather breeds.
Example of Breeds:-
Asil, Belgian Game, Indian Game, Shamo, Malay,Modern Game, Old English Game, Rumpless Game ,Tuzu,

Chris

I should have remembered, you posted the info that I had read. Unfortunately I have o shamo in with araucanas (they were raised together so I left them) if I provide a grain and crumble mixture and/or grind the larger grains will I cover my bases in this pen?