Alternative to Scratch feed???

[MouseCheese]

Is mixed bird seed okay to use as a base to make my own scratch? They seem to have lots of the same ingredients. I add dried mealworms, hemp seeds, instant oats, raisins and more cracked corn, but need to increase their protein for a short time due to aggression bordering on cannibalism. I have four Barred Rock sisters, about 6 months old. One all of a sudden began pecking sister's head and drew blood causing a frenzy! Separated the b*tchy pecker out, she'll have to earn her way back to the top. Sister is healing but so shy now. Most info I read said to add more protein to their diet, among a HUGE range of other things like boredom, more greens, bigger space, need salt, lack salt, need vinegar in water, etc. Most of which didn't apply to them. Hopefully they will be one day be a happy sister flock again. :/

 

[OldGuy43]

While I can not verify this I've always thought that the term chicken scratch originated with whatever chickens could scratch up to eat. Since chickens are omnivorous that means just about anything.
Using that as a criteria you could use just about anything in scratch.

 

[bleu chick]

I stopped feeding scratch a few years ago. I read that it raises the body temperature when they digest it. I live in Texas and its hot like 8 months of the year. They dont need another reason to be hotter.

I switched to milo and whole oats. I have to buy them seperate. They love the milo but they like the oats as well. I bought some scratch over the winter and they ate everything but the corn! Eventually they ate the corn.

Also the big BONUS - it cuts down on rats.

 

[FrogEggs]

Any pictures of your feeder? I hate the commercial feeders, too. My 20 chicks make such a mess, and waste so much food!

I put scratch under their roosts in the morning so they "make their beds," meaning they scratch around fluffing their bedding and mixing in the poo so there are no clumps and is no odor. I also sometimes toss some scratch out in the run before I gather eggs to lure all the fakers out of the nesting boxes. 

About food waste: when I was using store-bought feeders and feeding crumbles we were going through a crazy quantity of feed. One day I paid very close attention to what was going on and my flock wasted 90 lbs of feed before noon. You read that right ... 90 lbs, 3 feeders full, nearly 2 bags of feed. They just beaked it out of the feeders and then ignored it. I tried to get them to clean up the mess by not giving them more food, but feed on the floor gets nasty pretty fast.

We switched to feeders we made from large drain pipes -- a longer length of drain pipe as the "hopper" attached to a shorter piece by an angle connector, the shorter piece has large holes drilled on top (all edges are sanded smooth). The curved sides of the pipe and the holes mean they can't beak the food out. But crumbles didn't work very well in these feeders. We switched to pellets and this system is working great, whole grains would also work well in feeders like these. We go through a lot less feed, and if any pellets get spilled the flock cleans them up before they start to get nasty. 

After switching to the home-made feeders I had to remove and replace the deep bedding in the coop because it was so rancid and nasty from all the feed that got mixed in. I kick myself for not figuring out what was going on sooner, but I was new to chickens and having to figure out SO many things. And I have so many chickens.

Repeating myself: I'm not at all happy with commercial chicken feeders or waterers. 

 

[Reurra]

I stopped feeding scratch a few years ago. I read that it raises the body temperature when they digest it. I live in Texas and its hot like 8 months of the year. They dont need another reason to be hotter.

I switched to milo and whole oats. I have to buy them seperate. They love the milo but they like the oats as well. I bought some scratch over the winter and they ate everything but the corn! Eventually they ate the corn.

Also the big BONUS - it cuts down on rats.

It gets super cold here in winter so scratch is a good thing. My girls go for corn every time, but I buy it in the can. I rinse it really well, then throw it out in the coop for them. I stopped giving them grain scratch because i got a mouse. I think the mouse pooped in the "time out" run and my previous rooster must have eaten the droppings because he became seriously ill and died. I have since cleared the barn of anything that looked like a suspected dropping and got rid of all trace of scratch. If I get more scratch, it will be an outside feed only. I will continue with canned corn though. I know its high in sugars and salts, but a good soak helps, and I know they need the extra energy during our cold winters.

 

[OldGuy43]

Any pictures of your feeder? I hate the commercial feeders, too. My 20 chicks make such a mess, and waste so much food!

Made ours out of aluminum guttering, pallet lumber and a scrap of old hose.


(click image to enlarge)

I have nothing against commercial feeders. It's just that most don't work well for ducks.

 

[BinaryChicken]

I've used wild bird seed a lot, it's more expensive, but great, because the seed that doesn't get eaten sprouts and then they get greens! They especially love the millet in it.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I stopped feeding scratch a few years ago. I read that it raises the body temperature when they digest it. I live in Texas and its hot like 8 months of the year. They dont need another reason to be hotter.

I hear this repeated a lot but can not find any actually science behind it. It seems hard to believe that the reactions generated but the amount of corn a small bird is able to consume would be enough actually affect its body temperature. Does anyone have any real information?

 

[OldGuy43]

A search on "corn chicken body temperature" produces mixed results, however this seems to be the definitive scientific study:

http://en.engormix.com/MA-poultry-industry/nutrition/articles/effect-corn-zea-mays-t1883/141-p0.htm

Cutting to the chase (since it's a long and highly technical article) it seems that corn may actually lower a chicken's body temp a tiny amount.

 

[Arizona Son]

I hear this repeated a lot but can not find any actually science behind it. It seems hard to believe that the reactions generated but the amount of corn a small bird is able to consume would be enough actually affect its body temperature. Does anyone have any real information?

x2 This mis-information has been spread around for so long, people now tend to believe it as fact. Personally, I have my doubts about chickens having raised body temps as a result from eating grain/corn/scratch/etc.