Accidently ended up with crumbles instead of pellets

[itsy]

I'd like to switch over to pellets to save on waste. Not to be counter productive, but could you put the pellets in a grinder for a quick moment to "crack" them to make them more appealing, but not enough to crumble them? I've never touched pellets, so I don't know their make up.....

 

[202roosterlane]

Quote:
Yes when I first introduced pellets to them they hated them. I thought well they willeat when they are hungry. But I gave in after a day in a half. LOL I put 2 cups at a time in my grinder. But I only chopped then up. You can accidently turn it into powder. Then I mixed it with a few pellets. After about a week they where fine with just pellet and scratch/grit crumbles.

 

[sassypants'mama]

That happened to me too. I ended up mixing it with the rest of the pellets we had. Now, they will pick through for the crumble and finish the pellets last in the feeder. They are picky little things!

 

[dewey]

Thanks everyone.

I haven't weighed it or anything but I'm (totally) guessing there's probably around the equivalent of 50-100 crumbles in each pellet. Pellets fill them up fast, so there's not much time spent hanging around the feeder and pecking for each tiny bite of food. I haven't noticed a difference in mine, but maybe the ones that go for the greens more after switching to pellets are just getting their peck on, lol.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

so far my chicks have been eatting crumbles i was just wondering if the pellets would store for a longer time then the crumbles would id like to start stocking up on chicken feed so that i dont run out of feed in the winter time i dont have that many chickens this year ive only got 14 now but next spring im planning to build my flock up to around 40 birds ive got a homemade feeder that i copied from another byc person i built mine a bit bigger than his was by accident his holds 100 pounds of feed mine is holding 150 pounds and im thinking it might even hold another 25 pounds if i fill it to the top i do want to make the switch over to the pellets when they start laying or should i just mix in the crumbles with the pellets when i fill up the feeder so they get a mix till i can do the switch over to just pellets

 

[mandelyn]

I use the crumbles (that they want to waste by kicking everywhere) because they hate the pellets.

I only have 5 hens, but I was going through crumbles left and right. I changed the way I feed it to prevent them from wasting it. They have a clay bowl outside, heavy, no flip. They have a two sided plastic no-flip dog bowl inside. I place that bowl into a kitten litter pan, with a brick behind it the bowl (prevents them from flipping it)

They walk up to it and flip out a lot, but instead of landing on the floor to mix with bedding, it lands in the litter pan. Instead of it being empty the next morning, the picked through bits are in the pan. I take those and dump in the outside bowl, where they can kick it out of the bowl, but they eat it off the ground. I sprinkle some grit and oyster shell around that bowl to make a nice place to pick through things.

I was having to scoop a folgers plastic coffee jug full every day. I'm down to about a 1/4 of that container per day now just by changing the way I feed it.