Contents of scratch

[jrudolph305]

I just opened a bag of scratch from Southern States and it had probably 50% whole kernels of corn. Is this normal? I always thought scratch had cracked corn. The whole kernels are quite large and my 12 week old girls won't eat them. Another question--I sifted out the kernels and was wondering if there is a way to crack the corn without a grinder?

 

[Den in Penn]

Scratch was usually whole grains. My grandfather mixed is own scratch and used whole corn. I never saw cracked corn growing up. People see young chicks struggling with whole corn and settle into the belief that chickens can't handle whole corn. So today a lot of scratch has cracked corn. Young chicks do struggle with the whole grains till they get big enough to swallow it. You could hammer it or drive over it. I think I'd wait till they are older when they can handle it better, it will keep.