Best whole grain feed

[Ducking_dallas]

I have two indoor hens and they used to be fed on a whole-grain diet that was homemade the people sell it but they live two hours away and it’s just unethical to drive all the way out there to get it. Do you guys have any recommendations for a good whole-grain layer feed? I have a pigeon who eats a specific diet for pigeons and chickens keep trying to break in and get it.

 

[FrostRanger]

Kalmbach's henhouse reserve is whole grain I think. I have no experience with that particular formulation but I love their flock maker pellets. Only thing to be aware of with whole grain feeds is you have to make a mash or ferment it or the birds can pick and choose and not get the full amount of nutrition in the feed

 

[Ducking_dallas]

Kalmbach's henhouse reserve is whole grain I think. I have no experience with that particular formulation but I love their flock maker pellets. Only thing to be aware of with whole grain feeds is you have to make a mash or ferment it or the birds can pick and choose and not get the full amount of nutrition in the feed

Yeah my pigeon used to do this occasionally so I plan on fermenting the food. I was looking into that brand.

 

[FrostRanger]

Yeah my pigeon used to do this occasionally so I plan on fermenting the food. I was looking into that brand.

Make sure to get all the dust in the bag too as that dust is added vitamins and not a quality issue
Myself and many others here like the brand and some even use that particular formulation as a healthy alternative to scratch

 

[Perris]

I have a pigeon who eats a specific diet for pigeons

can you list its ingredients, or link to a website for it?

chickens keep trying to break in and get it.

I make my own feed and the base mix is about 80% whole wheat, and about 20% of one or another seed mix for pigeons. I describe it here if you are interested https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wholesome-homemade-feed-2.79307/ My guess would be your chickens are after the milo, peas, safflower, buckwheat and /or other pseudo-cereals in it.

If you offer them your pigeon feed (soaked overnight and rinsed to remove some of the natural digestion-inhibitors in the seed) and you let them select what they want, they will choose a balanced diet as best they can from what's on offer.

It would also be good for them to be able to range outside sometimes, especially on grass or in borders.

 

[Altairsky]

My pigeon mix has faba, sorghum, pea, corn, oat, safflower, sunflower in it. There is also another brown legume I cannot quite identify.

 

[Ducking_dallas]

can you list its ingredients, or link to a website for it?

I make my own feed and the base mix is about 80% whole wheat, and about 20% of one or another seed mix for pigeons. I describe it here if you are interested https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wholesome-homemade-feed-2.79307/ My guess would be your chickens are after the milo, peas, safflower, buckwheat and /or other pseudo-cereals in it.

If you offer them your pigeon feed (soaked overnight and rinsed to remove some of the natural digestion-inhibitors in the seed) and you let them select what they want, they will choose a balanced diet as best they can from what's on offer.

It would also be good for them to

can you list its ingredients, or link to a website for it?

I make my own feed and the base mix is about 80% whole wheat, and about 20% of one or another seed mix for pigeons. I describe it here if you are interested https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wholesome-homemade-feed-2.79307/ My guess would be your chickens are after the milo, peas, safflower, buckwheat and /or other pseudo-cereals in it.

If

can you list its ingredients, or link to a website for it?

I make my own feed and the base mix is about 80% whole wheat, and about 20% of one or another seed mix for pigeons. I describe it here if you are interested https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wholesome-homemade-feed-2.79307/ My guess would be your chickens are after the milo, peas, safflower, buckwheat and /or other pseudo-cereals in it.

If you offer them your pigeon feed (soaked overnight and rinsed to remove some of the natural digestion-inhibitors in the seed) and you let them select what they want, they will choose a balanced diet as best they can from what's on offer.

It would also be good for them to be able to range outside sometimes, especially on grass or in borders.

I recently had to switch my pigeons food because she wasn’t eating the big seeds in the regular pigeon mix so now she’s on a Dove mix. She refused to eat the bigger pieces of corn and the big peas but the dove mix just has smaller Corns I was thinking about getting this for my chickens cause I haven’t seen anyone else. Suggest other whole-grain feeds but the chicken feed that I’m sending a photo of doesn’t appear to have a lot of the seeds that my chickens really like in the pigeon food

 

[Perris]

The Dove/pigeon feed has - in order of listing so presumably in order of prominence within the feed - milo, millet, wheat, corn, safflower, groats, soybean meal, canary seed, buckwheat, flax, and peas, plus over 13 lines full of refined additives, and ending with the user-friendly and easily readable rosemary extract, with a whole line to itself. (Those additives are presumably the powder/dust that people have been talking about elsewhere with reference to such 'wholegrain feeds'.) I would offer that to my flock minus the dust, if the sack was dated less than a year old, and had been stored properly i.e. dry. Any component the chickens didn't eat, I'd leave on the lawn for the wild birds and other wildlife, and I would expect relatively little to be wasted. Anything still on the lawn the next morning, so having been rejected by all wildlife that passed by in the crepuscular hours and the dark, would worry me and put me off that feed. That assumes there is wildlife in the form of birds, small mammals, reptiles or amphibians etc. passing through your garden overnight; obviously if not, that test won't work.

The Kalmbach's 3 principal ingredients are corn and soy (including soy in 2 different forms), and overall seems insignificantly different from regular commercial layer feed, except that it has not been milled or pelletised. I would not offer that to my flock. You do what suits you.

 

[Ducking_dallas]

The Dove/pigeon feed has - in order of listing so presumably in order of prominence within the feed - milo, millet, wheat, corn, safflower, groats, soybean meal, canary seed, buckwheat, flax, and peas, plus over 13 lines full of refined additives, and ending with the user-friendly and easily readable rosemary extract, with a whole line to itself. (Those additives are presumably the powder/dust that people have been talking about elsewhere with reference to such 'wholegrain feeds'.) I would offer that to my flock minus the dust, if the sack was dated less than a year old, and had been stored properly i.e. dry. Any component the chickens didn't eat, I'd leave on the lawn for the wild birds and other wildlife, and I would expect relatively little to be wasted. Anything still on the lawn the next morning, so having been rejected by all wildlife that passed by in the crepuscular hours and the dark, would worry me and put me off that feed. That assumes there is wildlife in the form of birds, small mammals, reptiles or amphibians etc. passing through your garden overnight; obviously if not, that test won't work.

The Kalmbach's 3 principal ingredients are corn and soy (including soy in 2 different forms), and overall seems insignificantly different from regular commercial layer feed, except that it has not been milled or pelletised. I would not offer that to my flock. You do what suits you.

The only down side to the pigeon seed is the price along with that there isn’t a lot of protein only 13 and chickens need like 17 (the pigeon seed a actually has little pellets so it’s not dusty the vitamins are maid into it ) hounistly I’m just so lost

 

[Perris]

you can fix the protein issue easily by simply offering your flock some meat scraps, some fish (ideally not farmed fish; I use tinned sardines), and some dairy products (plain natural yogurt is widely available and cheap) a couple of times a week. Grass is also a widely overlooked good source of nutrients, and its protein value can be in the 20s (lots of variables there).
Do your flock get to range and forage at all?