Can chickens eat powdered feed?

[BackyardChickener]

I ordered two bags of kalmbach crumbles for my 9 week old chicks and they came in about half the bag as powdery looking feed. I checked carefully for mites and saw none but now I am wondering, can the chicks eat the powdered food or are they unable to pick it up with their beaks?

 

[DobieLover]

can the chicks eat the powdered food or are they unable to pick it up with their beaks?

They will have a very difficult time eating powder. Just make it into a mash with water and they will love it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some chicken feed is sold as a powder. It is called mash. Because the components in the powder can separate out due to the differences in specific gravity it is best to serve mash mixed with water to form a thick paste. That way they still get a balanced diet instead of a concentration of certain ingredients.

 

[PoppasGrill]

I ordered two bags of kalmbach crumbles for my 9 week old chicks and they came in about half the bag as powdery looking feed. I checked carefully for mites and saw none but now I am wondering, can the chicks eat the powdered food or are they unable to pick it up with their beaks?

The starter feed we get from our local sourced feed store is a powdery corn mix feed. We add a few ground up mealworms and mix a mash. Every clutch has loved it. After a couple weeks we will put all flock crumbles , dry, on top of the mash, like bread crumbs on Mac-n-cheese. In the reasoning that when they are integrated they will eat from the trough with the big girls. Though breakfast is still mash for the whole flock.