FINE OR NOT CRUMBLES?

[Roxannemc]

i HAVE ONLY HAD CHICKENS FOR 4 WEEKS SO HAVE LOTS OF QUESTIONS... ONE IS I HAVE HEARD THE CHICKENS WONT EAT THE FINE CRUMBLES WELL
.THEY DO SEEM TO BE AT THE BOTTOM UNEATEN BUT I RE FILL THEIR FEEDERS EVERY FEW HOURS.

SOMEONE SAID ADD WATER TO THE FINE FLOUR LIKE CRUMBS TO ME A PASTE AND THEY LIKE IT
..
SOMEONE ELSE, (A LONG TIME CHICKEN OWNER ) TOLD ME CHICKS CHOKE EASY SO THEY CAN EAT BIGGER AND SMALLER FINE CRUMBS BUT ITS BETTER FOR THEM TO EAT THE FINE SO THEY DONT CHOKE..
WHICH OF THESE ARE TRUE?
I AM CONFUSED.

 

[bairo]

None in my opinion.
As long as you are feeding a quality chick starter...you are fine. They will play and peck as they start learning about those natural feelings to peck at everything to investigate. This pecking causes some of the crumbles to bread down into the finer stuff. They will eat it and be fine. No need to refill every few hours unless they run out or the feeder is full of poo or shavings. As far as adding water to make a mush...you can do that if you wish but it is not necessary, especially at the age of 4 weeks. Now if you happen to get a crumble that is extremely dry and breaks down toooo easily or has a lot of powder in the bag, then I would probably look for a replacement. I happen to like Purina chick starter, and Blue Seal in everything else (if you can find it)...but that is only a personal preference

 

[Roxannemc]

I bought 2 brands at the local farm store. ONly brands they had . Dont know if they are good brands but they are medicated and seem to do well on them so far but the small bag has a lot of floury textured crumbs.. the big bag i just started and its all crumbles dont know what it will be like down farther in the bag though.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You can always take the "dust" and stir in just a bit of moisture. The result is a kind of mash that the chickens will enjoy.