best brand of chicken feed?

[Chicken.Lytle]

Just bought M-G 20 Layer Pellets from a local gas station. They have been selling premium quality feed for 15 years. I have been driving by their sign for 15 years wondering where the feed store was. 15 years.

So now I am feeding a mix of M-G 20 Layer Pellets, scratch, BOSS, and gamebird feed.

 

[kuntrygirl]

So what are the side effects of feeding your chickens Purina? I don't understand why some people don't feed their chickens Purina. What's the deal? Will feeding Purina kill them? Stop egg production? Causes diseases? Make the meat taste bad? Cause infertile eggs? What are the specifics? I have been feeding my chickens Purina for years and I haven't noticed any problems. I have 80 laying hens that produced 1,891 eggs this past February 2011. They also hatch about 150 chicks each year. There are no diseases or injuries and the roosters are delicious. So, I'm confused. What am I missing about the Purina chicken feed?

Please educate me. Maybe I need to switch to another feed as well. Maybe I can get 2,000 eggs in the next few months or 300 baby chicks this year.

 

[EweSheep]

I never had any issues with Purina either. We have been feeding Purina for YEARS and had good results. However a few moldy bags being returned because it is the fault of the feed mill dealer, not Purina.

I feed both combo of Layena and Flock Raiser and my girls has been doing very well on them. Excellent feather color, liviablity and never had any leg or growth issues.

My biggest drawback of Purina is the price. You get what you pay for. What I love about it, the girls like to eat it, they eat well and poop less. Less stink and high digestiblity.I would throw in a handful of Calf Manna pellets in there too (be careful, its like candy to them and they will get FAT on it).

I have the feed tag on hand here and there isn't anything I can see that says SOY in it and it is meat ruminant and bone meal FREE so ground up chicks in it, naaaaaaaah! My cousin in Montana who is a district manager for Purina had to laugh and said there is NO animal byproducts in the feed and that is what the customers WANTED so they had to change the formula to non animal protein. They switched over because of the fear of "mad cow" that was so rampant and people quit buying animal byproducts in their feeds. He told me if you all wanted to change back to the old formula, you'all have to write or stomping pavement all the way to Purina headquarters in St Louis, MO and tell them you demand to have animal protein in the chicken feeds. If enough people want it, they will probably have a trial run of animal proteined supplemented feeds for chickens. Dumour is the same thing but lesser quality of grain, that didn't make the A1 grade but like Grade B grains, perfectably acceptable for animal grains.

Reasons of crippled chicks or some feed problems, it may be directed to storage and how it is being exposed and how it is being stored by both grain mills and dealers as well as customers themselves. Too hot of a can where you store your feed can decrease "viability" of the vitamins in the feed. It has to be kept in a cool DRY area or container, otherwise they will go bad quickly or vitamins and minerals going bad.

If it happens to one or two chicks getting bad Purina feed, it may not be the case, it could have been genetics, brood floor or enivironmental reasons. If your entire chick or flock are affected, investigations are needed to find out what is going on with the flock, enivornment and feeds as well.

I've fed generic feeds and I found out I was paying MORE and they pooped MORE. Local farmer mill, same thing, eat more, pay more and poop more and more stinky than ever. Rural King brand, it is not too bad but still the eat and poop ratio could have been better and poop still stink more. So I went back to Purina and quite pleased with the results. I know it didn't have animal proteins in it, so I add my own animal protein morning and night of eggs, leftover supper meals, etc. A stray bug or two would be nabbed up in a hot second by one of my girls.

 

[Jackie B.]

I'm a Countryside Naturals beliver all the way. Yeah the shipping stinks but my girls don't waste any of it even when it dumps out of the feeder. They love it. I gave Purina to my starter flock and they were so mad at me they flipped over the feeder and pood directly on top of the spot where it all dumped out. Ok ok I get it!

-Jackie

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Thanks for the detailed information. I appreciate that. I agree with you 110% about the excellent feather color & liviabilty in my chickens and no leg or growth problems.

What are Calf Manna pellets and how can I get some? I would like to try some of those as well. I also enjoy the fact that there are NO animal protein in the chicken feeds. Why would chicken owners want animal protein? What does animal protein do for chickens?

 

[EweSheep]

I do like animal protein in my chicken feeds however I have to supplement animal protein with leftovers from my supper table. It is just protein and fat, good for chickens! Like Vegans vs meat eaters in humans!

Chickens ARE ominvores so they do eat meat if given the chance!

 

[ladybug99]

Mine eat BLue Seal....they love it!!

 

[Carrie Lynn]

What type of animal protein is in Dumor?

 

[bluere11e]

Quote:
You're so lucky! I pay as much for shipping as I do for the feed. Darn. But the feed is so good, I'm willing to pay.

I'll say Purina is crap. get a load of the dog food and cat food labels.. Poultry Digest.. This is what comes out of the birds after they eat and includes the litter.
It's ground up and given to our house pets. Coupled with the amount of antibiotics in that feed.. It's scary.
AND to interpret the feed label. It says No "RUMINENT" meat or bone mal products added.. It doesn't exclude ground up dead chickens and their body parts.. EEEWW!!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
I don't see anything wrong with Purina, I just feel it's overpriced for what you are getting. I've tried about every feed out there including a short stint with trying to make my own. My chickens all done fine with Purina, no problems other than I did notice after a while a bit of feather picking/eating in some of the more crowded grow out pens. I thinned them down, started throwing them out some extra table scraps and it stopped right away. I put it down to lack of animal protein, but maybe it was just a fluke?

I like animal protein in our chickens feed because chickens naturaly eat bugs, insects, even a mouse every now and then. I just think that chickens aren't natural vegetarians. In a set up like yours where they have room to roam I'm sure they catch bugs and stuff naturally so would be different than those with static coops.

Here Purina is up to about $16.00 a bag or so, Dumor (Which has a bit lower quality ingredients and animal protein) is $13.89.
I buy mine at our local mill or co-op right now for $10.20 a bag. It has the same protein (16%) animal protein, and is milled fresh. I haven't noticed any difference at all in production using any of these. With me it's a price thing, but I feed around a ton of feed a month most times here on the farm, so price is very imporant to me.

I do still buy Purina or Dumor starter because our feed mill only makes 18% chick starter and I use 20% - 24% depending on the breeds.

I think it's just a personal choice thing.