Changing chicken feed: a horror story

[BuckeyeFoodie]

I’m not a fan of whole grain feeds. How would fermentation have helped this situation? Fermentation works with pellet or crumble feed in a few days but would take way to long before whole grains would break down.

I'm not averse to wholegrain feeds, as I have always offered scratch grains in supplement to a standard homogeneous feed.

I have never heard of fermenting commercial pellet/crumble feed, especially as the whole point of them is to be ready to go as-is.... in this case I'm not sure how it would work - it is possible to purchase the two components separately, so in theory you could ferment each component separately and then combine at feeding time.

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

Sorry you’ve had so much trouble!

I’ve seen this kind of feed. I’m west of Columbus, and feed Kalmbach feed. They have “Henhouse Reserve” (HR) which sounds similar to what you purchased: whole grains and nutrient pellets. We’ve never used it as the only feed, we treat it as a treat. So, the flock gets their usual feed and later in the day (some of the days) we give them the HR in a pan. The gobble up the grains, leaving the pellets for last. They will eat them,, but not first choice.

I'm also west of Cbus, and am back to feeding Kalmbach ($5 says we both go to ASE?)! I had tried the henhouse reserve when it first came out, and weighing the cost/pound vs. how many of it's ingredients my savages kicked into their bedding and refused to eat (shockingly, not the pellet on that one), I decided it wasn't worth it. I go through at least two bags of feed a week between my fancy birds and my layer flock, so financially it just wasn't worth it.

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

I know there is (supposedly) less waste with pellets, but does any chicken care for them? I've bought pellet feed in the past and mine just scatter them all over the ground. They will only eat them as a very last resort.
I'm a "cookie grandma" kind of girl; I will give them a treat because I feel guilty if they hate "dinner".

I have always preferred crumble over pellets for just this reason! I also second making sure your feeders are set higher if you are having a lot of loss.

 

[BuckeyeFoodie]

Thank you for this useful warning. I have a special powdery feed that's the best in my hatchery's store - I do notice that my girls pick out the corn bits first, and don't seem to be too excited about the rest. Should I worry about this? Egg production has gone down lately... I just did a post about that problem actually.

The other FVF feeds I fed with no issues are a powdery consistency, and it was just fine - the whole grains are small enough that they eat the rest too. What I was feeding more closely resembled a sweet feed for horses than a crumble, so was much much easier to pick around.

 

[Chickassan]

Wet kalmbach must be gourmet or something to chickens.
I fed this last batch kalmbach mash pretty much since day one and now even the older ones prefer it over the usual dry kalmbach/grain mixture.

 

[janiedoe]

LOL! The main “treat” I give myflock is wet feed! The treat sprinkled on top is either the Kalmbach HR I mentioned above, scratch, or scrambled eggs. That way the go bananas got their feed and gobble it all up. It’s not fermented, just feed mixed with water until batter consistency. The bins come back clean ... can chickens “lick the bowl”, bc it sure seems that way!!

one way to minimize the mess with pellets is to hang their feeder at back height. Also get a feeder that has baffles or similar to prevent them from swiping side to side.

I do this too (wet feed). It sure stretches the feed budget. I have feeders at different heights because there are almost always chicks as well as large adults here.

 

[3KillerBs]

I know there is (supposedly) less waste with pellets, but does any chicken care for them? I've bought pellet feed in the past and mine just scatter them all over the ground. They will only eat them as a very last resort.

I've never asked an animal if it liked the food I gave it or not.

I choose a healthy, nutritionally-complete food, put it in the feeder and they either eat or starve.

I told the people at the feed store that I didn't care if the layer feed was pellet or crumble but I wanted the higher protein because I toss all the vegetable trimmings and such from the kitchen into the pen. What they gave me was pellet.

I don't find the pellets being wasted, probably because of the design of the feeder I use and the fact that it's hung high up. If I had different sizes of chicken in the flock I'd hang the feeder for the taller ones and put a brick down so the short ones could reach.

 

[Acre4Me]

Wet kalmbach must be gourmet or something to chickens.
I fed this last batch kalmbach mash pretty much since day one and now even the older ones prefer it over the usual dry kalmbach/grain mixture.

mine gulp down the wet Kalmbach...they just tear into it like there is nothing better! The higher pecking order ones will eat several mouthfuls before reprimanding the lower pecking order ones , go back to snarfing it down before more giving out more reprimands. It’s funny bc they get wet feed only in the afternoons (but not every day) so they aren’t starving! We feed the all-flock, higher protein pellet in their feeders, same pellet is used for wet feed. We add the Kalmbach HR sprinkled on top.

 

[Chickassan]

Everybody here is on the all flock crumbles although I have moistened pellets and gotten the same enthusiasm.
There was a shipping mistake due to black Friday sale crapola and everyone is eating starter grower and you talk about a madhouse in the morning over that kalmbach baby food lol!
These do get a round of wet everyday, there is a cross beaked pullet iv'e grown fond of out there that hopefully gets a few bites.

mine gulp down the wet Kalmbach...they just tear into it like there is nothing better! The higher pecking order ones will eat several mouthfuls before reprimanding the lower pecking order ones , go back to snarfing it down before more giving out more reprimands. It’s funny bc they get wet feed only in the afternoons (but not every day) so they aren’t starving! We feed the all-flock, higher protein pellet in their feeders, same pellet is used for wet feed. We add the Kalmbach HR sprinkled on top.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I know there is (supposedly) less waste with pellets, but does any chicken care for them? I've bought pellet feed in the past and mine just scatter them all over the ground. They will only eat them as a very last resort.

Might try a different brand of pellet then? My chickens seem to enjoy the layer pellets currently I offer as much as the all flock crumble, so I get almost no billing out/waste, but previous to that I had tried a different brand of pellets that they did not care for, and those they threw all over the place for months until I finally gave in and switched back to their preferred brand.

Chickens are no different than me... put an oatmeal cookie and a bowl of quinoa in front of me and I will eat the oatmeal cookie every time.

Hmm... I like quinoa though. Given the choice, you can have the cookie, I'll take the quinoa!

I’m not a fan of whole grain feeds. How would fermentation have helped this situation?

My own goal with fermenting is to ensure that the chickens eat the entire feed. When it gets fermented, all the fines become sticky and cling to the grains, which 1) ensures the fines are all eaten and 2) allows the fines to mask the individual grain particles, meaning the birds will eat everything instead of only choosing favorite grain pieces.

I have never heard of fermenting commercial pellet/crumble feed

I think generally people ferment whole grain feeds. Not that you couldn't ferment pellets or crumble (I save any pellet/crumble fines and serve that wet, to save on waste) but I would think it'd be slightly more prone to molding, given what I've seen with pellets vs whole grain feed outside and water-to-feed ratios might differ a bit.