Chicken Mash

[HyLinda]

I had been feeding my chicklets starter pellets and asked my DH to get a bag of feed for the next level. The feed mill sent him home with a 100# back of dust which they called chicken mash!!!!!!!!! anyone else use this stuff? They told him that was all they had that was unmedicated.

 

[thunderwagn]

After medicated chick starter, thats all my chickens get. I pick it up from a local feed and grain that makes their own. My chickens love it. I don't know if its true or not, but I heard its better because crumbles and pellets go thru more "cooking" process. ??

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Quote:
Were'd you hear that? The only thing different about crumbles and pellets is the form. Supossidly it starts as mash and is then passed through a grate or something of that matter to form a pellet, and crumbles are simply crumbled up pellets. I use the crumbles since I can't get pellets. After a few days of constant pecking and smashing the crumbles turn to mash, and I usually wet that and give it to them as treat since so much of the mash is wasted.

 

[thunderwagn]

Quote:
Were'd you hear that? The only thing different about crumbles and pellets is the form. Supossidly it starts as mash and is then passed through a grate or something of that matter to form a pellet, and crumbles are simply crumbled up pellets. I use the crumbles since I can't get pellets. After a few days of constant pecking and smashing the crumbles turn to mash, and I usually wet that and give it to them as treat since so much of the mash is wasted.

As I said, I don't know if its true or not... You might need to go back and re-read my post?
Here is one place https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1634552
Feed is made differently all over. Your mash may very well start out as pellets and broken down from there. Mine clearly isn't.
Mash would be the first step. It is my understanding that from that point, crumbles AND pellets go thru another cooking process to form them both... Never said anything about a difference in pellets and crumbles. Besides shape and size I don't know of any difference. But non of this really has much to do with what the original poster wanted to know. Maybe my post should have said, My chickens are given mash. They seem to prefer it over crumbles and pellets and waste less. I prefer it as well because to me it seems more natural and less refined. Of course you will have to do research on your own as this seems to be the case where I get my feed. Yours may differ.

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Yes that would be "politically correct"

Here is my take.. It all starts out as whole grains, which are ground. The ground mash is then pressed into pellets. One thing for sure is pellet making machines use heavy pressure to form the pellets. I am not sure if heat, extra water, or a binder are used to help them stick together. So one could consider pellets to be more processed than mash..

ON