Alternative to Scratch feed???

[LeslieDJoyce]

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

Ha! Funny you should ask. Here is a link to a video that shows the feeders we made and is about scratch grains. Double whammy. It isn't the most exciting video, and is probably a little too long ... I'm making the sniffing noises into the iPhone (sorry!) ...

We have several of these feed station throughout the coop because we have so many birds and I want to make sure the meanies aren't keeping the others from eating. That said, they tend to favor one feeder, the one closest to the door to the pasture.

I think for ducks I'll make a trough version of these feeders, meaning one large opening along the top side of the pipe. I think I prefer the plastic to metal alternatives as theoretically the plastic would work a bit better for fermented feed if I should ever decide to start feeding that, but the metal gutter version of this feeder would maybe be a little less work as sawing through this pipe and then sanding the edges took me a long time.

 

[grizlyadams3]

Try adding screened golden flax seed to their feed. It's about 24% protein and is high in omaga3 also. You could also add calf manna which is also about 23 - 24% protein . I just had the local feed & grain mill here mix up 700#s of custom feed that I give them the formula for and it has a 24% protein value . My birds are fed fruits and veggies that I get from the local market everyday along with 2 day old bread and rolls from the bakery , and the their feed in the evening before they are put up for the night. I raise LF breeds and I make sure that they get at least 6 - 7 oz's of food every day including their feed , and I've never had any problems with them pecking or any other problems from not having enough protein .

Griz
Montana

 

[OldGuy43]

I was looking at the scratch that we use from a local mill, and it doesn't contain a lot of corn. Mostly millet and flax. Kinda makes sense because the climate here in Central Texas is not conducive to raising corn.

The girls don't seem to waste any of it though.

 

[plund]

off thread but your coop is beautiful

 

[JPs Chickens]

I have about 6 hens and a Roo. I use to give them scratch on the daily I don't know it was just a " Snack" until yesterday. I have about 50 pullets (6-14 week olds) there Buff ORP., Rhode Island, White Leghorn, Barred Rock , Cuckoo Maran, and Red Rangers. So they will be eating allot. . Im dreading itsgoing to be eexpensive. And not to mention the 28 Cinnamon queens that are 3 days old. . . The upside is that I'm on 1 acre and they will have allot of room to pasture in I also have a patch of alfalfa they can eat. (I grow my own alfalfa for my goats) . Hopefully I don't have to get rid any.

 

[TERRY4]

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?

You can google it. But I can tell you, I give my goats some cracked corn in the winter and it helps keep them warm. It's a heat food! IMO even a piece of it will cause heat. That one of the purposes of it. Here in the summer I don't feed anything to any of our animals with corn in it.

Hope this link works for you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cor...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[Baymule]

I'm cutting out all of the treats (chops, scratch and etc.) because they waste all their feed trying to get the treats out of the crumbes. Their treat now with spring here is fresh cut grass mainly clover every night. I've seen their egg production going down since adding the chops or scratch, maybe nothing to do with it but their diet has changed for the better for my pocket book.

Dave, don't mix treats with crumbles. I put 2 cinder blocks in the coop as "treat tables" for the girls and have no trouble with them picking through the pellets. I used to mix mine too, and they slung the feed out in their manic search for the goodies.

 

[OldGuy43]

That brings up another question; Is scratch feed or treat?

I say feed. While not a complete diet (the stuff I buy says so right on the bag) it is sold as feed, so our girls get some daily.

 

[TERRY4]

I never believe everything I read, completely. A snack to me is like, a tray of veggies I give them almost daily. Our chickens love cucumbers and deep green leaf veggies.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Dave, don't mix treats with crumbles. I put 2 cinder blocks in the coop as "treat tables" for the girls and have no trouble with them picking through the pellets. I used to mix mine too, and they slung the feed out in their manic search for the goodies.

Yeah, I found out Nelson had been putting mealworms in the crumbles, which was a very effective way to train the flock to completely empty a 30 lb feeder before lunch. Obviously we stopped putting treats in the feed, but we also switched to pellets for less waste. They don't go through a lot of layer feed now, but I do put out a small amount of general purpose feed for the little birds ... it is crumbles ... and the flock dives for that like I've been starving them for weeks. Clearly a switch has been set in their little brains: crumbles = treats!