Crumbles vs. Pellets

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:
That is the same problem I had. my chickens said

They kick out the pellets all over the place and are wasting a lot. I put a little corn in there since it is cold and that is the first thing to go. They wait untill very last thing to eat the pellets. I guess I'll buy crumbles again. I bought the pellets because I heard there is supposed to be less waste, but I find a big circle spilled out of the bowl every time I feed them.

Thats not a "feed" problem...that's a FEEDER problem.
If they can get their feet in it , youre wasting food no matter what goes in it. Get a hanging feeder, or raise the bowl on a platform, and youll cut your feed bill in half

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

When I first tried switching to pellets they objected. I threw half of what I feed into an extra old blender and mixed it half and half and gradually reduced to just pellets.

 

[carress]

Quote:
Grain is not good for chickens?
Grain is the primary (and secondary and tertiary) ingredient in chicken feed...

 

[sugarbush]

I feed crumble. My theory is that if your chickens waste feed it is because you feed them too much. I feed mine once a day and I place the feed in large flower pot pans. If they scratch it out onto the floor they eat it from there so there is never any waste. I like well fed chickens that will scratch around for bugs and worms as part of their diet. Overfed chickens just scratch around for the sake of scratching.

The only time I use a silo type feeder is when we go out of town.

 

[lichick28]

I started with pellets & it was going bad before the bag was finished. Went to crumbles and they love it

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Too much grain isn't good for chickens, the same way that too much grain isn't good for people, either. Both species need more than that to be healthy. Vegetarians eat more than just grain, too.

Chicken feed is a balanced diet. Does it have a lot of grain in it? Sure. But it also has protein, vitamins and minerals added. Plain grain, like scratch, doesn't have all of those things added to it.

We're lucky that our chickens aren't picky. They'll eat crumbles, pellets or even powdery stuff. The feed store we usually shop at has changed what they carry for layer feed multiple times in the last couple of years. Not only the brand, but the style of the food. Not much I can do about it, but at least the chickens are good sports about it.

 

[aberfitch]

I have really small bantams. eating pellets is like taking a horse pill. its funny watching them eat. one pellet and they are full.

they ate it just fine. Right now I have them on crumble and I have the feeder on the ground so all the extra feed is eaten up. No waste at all. Its the birds who are in the barn with the cages that waste so much food because it goes through the wire and is thrown away. I compost it.

 

[joshua.w.garner]

I have 55 gallon drums cut off at about 4 inches that I hang my feeder over. They don't like to stand on the edge so they don't get in the feeder and scratch, and every few days I dump it back in the feeder.

 

[AdamGiesick]

I used to have trouble with them scratching the crumble all over the place, until I put a big rock in their food dish. Now my rooster perches on it to eat

 

[Black Jaque]

Is it possible that what is perceived as the chickens "not eating" pellets is actually the result of "less waste"? When we switched to pellets my daughter said she doesn't need to fill the feeders as often. I thought the problem was the chickens lost appetitie, but they were in fact eating, and they would still eat kitchen scraps. So I am thinking that when we switched to pellets more of the feed was getting into the chicken and less was getting tossed about. So going out to the coop and finding the feeder 1/2 full instead of empty doesn't necessarily mean they ate less feed, it might mean they ate the same amount as usual but didn't waste the rest.