Any alternatives to scratch ? whole oats ?

[I*Eat*Chickens*Yum]

I feed my 6 chicken's a handful of scratch each day but they waste the cracked corn in it. They barely eat any of it.

Is there an alternative that any of you feed them that you can buy at the feed store ? Like whole oats or crimped oats ?

What is crimped oats ?

Thanks !

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

I prefer a feeder of whole oats and feeder of granite grit esides a feeder of crumbles
the scratch is a waste of money
the chickens definely do not like it
It is probably a section of light weight seeds
meaning there is not much protein in it
your hens will be better off with whole oats

crimped oats is like oat meal
it is good but expensive and they do very well laying on whole oats

stick with the whole oats and hens do not build up needless gut fat with whole oats

they lay good on it but you do need crumbles also

 

[2DogsFarm]

The way my feedstore sells them crimped oats have been cracked so the outer hull is partly open and aren't that much different than whole oats.
Rolled oats have the texture of oatmeal.

The TSC here sells crimped oats and labels them "rolled".

Both run me around $13 for a 50# bag - I get steam-rolled & steam-crimped for my horses.

Glenda:
At what age could I switch hens from a starter feed to oats?
What's in the crumbles you feed your layers with the oats?

 

[Akane]

I use sunflower seeds. They have to be the small black ones sold in large bags for birds not the striped ones. They love it more than any grain and it's got a lot more nutrition. They eat less feed when they have sunflower seeds so despite the fact it costs more than other things you could use it balances itself out. I've never given mine scratch.

 

[I*Eat*Chickens*Yum]

thank u all for your replies...going to try some of the suggestion