best brand of chicken feed?

[catfish/okie]

I use Evergreen 16% Laying crumbles. Evergreen 18% start/gro/lay, and Red river grain brand scratch. Thats whats avaliable at the feed store I go to.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well ive been feeding my chicks dumor from the local tsc they have been eating it sence day 1 i might check with the local blueseal store and check out there price on feed but thats cause its not out of my way most times when im in town i have to drive by both places its just that tsc is the place i go to most of the time cause if i forget to pick up something its the last place i go by on my way home ive noticed that the retrever dog food is cheaper there my dogs like it so i just hapen to be in the store more often so i like the idea of picking up my chicken feed and dog food at the same time but its a price thing for me so if its cheaper per 50 pound bag at buleseal i will try it out on my chickens but as far as ive seen that they will eat about anything you toss to them

 

[Cindy in PA]

Quote:
The reason they use soy in feed is because it is cheap and because they can. Government says it's healthy for us all. It's your choice to use it or not.

I'm still undecided on the soy. If it is cheap, why is it in a lot of organic feeds, which are not cheap? And also, if it was bad for chickens, why would it be in the organic feeds?

I just don't know. So many opinions and so many brands that I am not sure there is one great overall feed.

It's in organic feed because it is the protein of choice for many, so that's what is grown in the USA. The organic feed isn't cheap, because organic grains & protein costs more than conventional no matter what the item.

 

[ChickenAl]

Quote:
I'm still undecided on the soy. If it is cheap, why is it in a lot of organic feeds, which are not cheap? And also, if it was bad for chickens, why would it be in the organic feeds?

I just don't know. So many opinions and so many brands that I am not sure there is one great overall feed.

It's in organic feed because it is the protein of choice for many, so that's what is grown in the USA. The organic feed isn't cheap, because organic grains & protein costs more than conventional no matter what the item.

Thanks Cindy, that makes sense. Still have a time before we need to switch over to layer feed, so I guess I'll keep looking and decide which way is best to go. Had this issue with dog food until we settled on Orijen out of Canada. The dogs do much better on it, but it ain't cheap by any means. One of our dogs who had chronic back leg problems saw them resolve after a few weeks on the Orijen. Just trying to do the same for the girls.

 

[GreenMountainEric]

Quote:
The above is true, however, I wanted to add-

1- With the ingredients that are currently available for Organic feed manufacturing, Soy has the best Amino Acid profile for optimum health and production. Other available ingredients dont cover those needs as well. Soy can be avoided, however, it has a negative impact on production levels. It would be easier to avoid if there were more available Organic ingredients. Conventional operations have a lot more options.

2- Chickens like soy. There are less palatability problems with feeding a product with soy in it.

3- Sadly, the fact that soy is grown in the USA, doesn't mean that your organic feed uses it. Most organic feed companies use soybean meal that is imported from China and India. It is substantially cheaper, which drives most of them to use it. I cant see how the cost savings is worth the risk, or the effect on the local economy.

 

[cubalaya]

how many of you can say that you have been using the same feed for 30 years? i can: southern states layer and southern states starter grower.

 

[LilyD]

Wow I don't recognize any of these brands other than purina.

Up here in New England we have Poulin which has medicated chick starter then grower and then Egg production Plus for layers

and blue seal which has a similar program.

That's it.

 

[ECBW]

Quote:
I never gave it much thought until now. I buy my supply from local stores to support the independants rather than big-box stores (TSC). I did notice that my local farm sells Agway brand but the local Agway store sells Southern States.

 

[colebarnhart]

Quote:
Very True!!!!!!

 

[cybercat]

I will not feed Purina for the are all veggi foods and chickens are not veggitarians. They are omnivours that Need meat to do their best.

I have fed a few different feeds and made notes to myself about them. One thing about soy I know for a fact it is a filler, animals can not digest it well at all. This comes from vetinarian study. It is also a major allergent that can be passed on in eggs and meat.

Some feed, chickens need to eat alot more of to get what they need. From my experiance TSC Dunmor was a huge waste of money that way. It is made by Purina and one of thier lesser brands made just for TSC. I went from a bag a month to a bag in a week and a half. Poop smell increased too and I had feather loss. This was not a fluk either as it was noted from many on here and other owner I knew have had same issues with Dunmors feeds.

Buying cheap can cost you alot in the short and long run. Quality cost money but if you feed less then it saves you money. This winter I changed to ADM and was feeding just that, chickens out but nothing to eat ourside. I went threw one bag every 3 weeks with 15 chickens. That was real good since we had snow on the ground. The year before I was going threw a bag every other week. Yes, I changed feed companies I had too since my other left the state. Now I am glad I did.