Crumbles or Pellets?

[ThinkingChickens]

I know a lot of people consider this personal preference. I've been feeding crumbles but it seems like there's a lot of waste. Do your chickens eat the pellets? I'm heading to the feed store today to get some more feed and I'm trying to decide what to get. Oh, and they have baby chicks! Must..... resist..... the baby..... chicks!

 

[cgtara3]

Ours preferred crumble. We tried both. For variety, we mixed water in, and they ate the crumble with less waste.

 

[mistymeadowchicks]

I switched to pellets which mine seem to waste less. I also added a 5 gallon bucket lid under the feeder to catch what they spilled.

 

[akcharlie1960]

We've always used crumbles but accidently bought pellets the last time. Made no difference to the girls. I mix the crumble dust from the bottom of the bag into their oatmeal or pasta so there's no waste.

 

[clairabean]

We prefer pellets. Less waste.

When we did do crumble I put a huge tray under the feeder to catch waste. I was surprised how much those hens were chucking out. If we didn't have the tray there, then the waste would be lost in the deep litter.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Awesome! Thank you guys. I can always count on everyone for a quick reply. =0)

 

[tiffanya]

I prefer pellets much more myself. The birds clean up whatever they knock out of the feeder and I can just throw them in the yard if I want to.

 

[gryeyes]

I JUST changed to pellets last week. At first I thought the chickens weren't eating it, and worried about that. But apparently they ARE eating it (chucked a handful out, they scarfed 'em down, later spilled some filling a feeder, they scarfed those down) so it must just be a whole lot less waste. My feed store folks have been suggesting it for my adult flock for some time, and I just stayed with crumbles until recently.

Shoulda listened to 'em earlier.

 

[write2caroline]

My chickens waste the same with crumbles or pellets - they knock it all onto the cement no matter what I do so I just get whichever bag I grab now.
Caroline

 

[SeaHen]

I have less waste with pellets and prefer them, but I understand that the availability of one versus the other is a geographic or regional thing. At our local feed stores Flock Raiser is only sold in crumble form; however, Layena only comes in pellets. Anyone else notice this?