Corn can't be enough, can it?

[NaturalChick]

What are the differences between scratch, mash, etc.?

 

[hooligan]

Scratch is a mix of grains like cracked corn, millet, milo, oats etc
Layer pellets are sutable for hens at about 18-20 wks, has added calcium for egg production.
Crumbles are just squished pellets
Mash is more fine than crumbles
Starter has more protein for growing chicks.
If you go to that purinia link it will give you more indepth descriptions of the food differences.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

During the winter I feed cracked corn, oats, and wheat. During the summer they get laying pellets, and some cracked corn, oats and wheat. And calcium chips for hard eggs.
They also get laying mash from a local feed mill.
The chicks get non-medicated starter crumbles, and then flock raiser pellets, except the bantams, they keep getting crumbles.

 

[Beekissed]

I free range and keep free choice laying mash all year, every now and again will mix with BOSS or crimped oats. My grandmother didn't free range all the time, but some, and the only food I remember her feeding was corn. She had a big metal can with corn still on the cob and she would go shell a few ears to the hens and we would "help" her. She always had leghorns. Her chickens didn't look any different than do my fat and shiney group! Maybe chickens were just hardier and subsisted well back then on this "limited" diet? Her chicken always tasted great, the eggs were plentiful and she had little to no illnesses. Sometimes I think we overthink this whole chicken thing...

 

[speckledhen]

You have a point. I think many breeds people keep now are not as hardy as others. For instance, Leghorns, RIRs, Delawares and New Hampshires as breeds are naturally resistant to cocci. Many newer breeds are not. My grandparents rarely had purebred birds, either, and most were bantams if I recall. Hybrid vigor seems to kick in there. Some probably do fine without all the fussing with the feeds. Some forage better than others, too. Those will be the ones for which you dont have to overthink their feed regimen. JMO.

 

[Davaroo]

Beekissed does have a good point. It would be interesting to look at the chickens on her grannies farm and learn how they did get along.

We'd probably find that they were what they were, that there was little to be done about it regardless and so they were accepted as "just fine" and that grandma made up in numbers of chickens what we don't.

Thats how it was on my grannies dairy farm... more about attitude than consideration.