crumbs left over from pellets

[SparksNV]

I feed my gals Flockraiser pellets - soon to switch to Layena pellets. With dogs, I know to mix the two different feeds to transition to the new feed. Do I need to do this with chickens?

The feed is placed in a long rectanglar planter. As they eat the feed, they crumble up the pellets and I am left with a bunch of pellet dust in the bottom of the feeder - seems like alot of waste. What can I do with the dust?

Thanks!

 

[dirtsaver]

We feed the crumbles here and also have a bit of dust collect in the bottom of our feeder. Once a week or so when the feeder is low we dump whats left on an old window screen and sift out the dust,then pour the crumbles back into the feeder. The girls go crazy over the screenings(dust) like it was really good candy! None of it ever goes to waste!

Larry

 

[TomG]

You could mix the dust with a little scratch and water to make mash. They will love it.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Like the above post, mix it with water. I won't even add scratch. Just make it a big wet blob of chicken feed, and your girls won't even notice their eating their feed.

 

[dedicateddourly]

Someone else on the forum recommended mixing the dust with yogurt to make a mash. I've been doing that and my girls love it!

 

[33yardbirds]

When I switched to to layer pellets I went 50/50 from grower finisher to layer. It may not be that important but it made me feel better. As you say you do it with your dog so why wouldn't it follow? As far as the dust, I can't be bothered and dump it on the compost heap. The birds jump on the heap and scratch around but I don't think they're after the dust.

 

[SparksNV]

thanks everyone!

 

[swordgeek]

I just started mixing my grower crumbles and layer pellets. They'll eat anything, apparently.

As for the dust, I dump it into a little pile for wild birds and chipmunks to snack on. Or when I'm lazy, it just goes into the compost.