Have I finally found good feed??

[ChaosMom]

There are some crazy numbers on that tag, and I don't think they are correct. However, since your pullets are very young (month old) and you're wanting to integrate them into your flock, it's going to be hard to have them eating different feed for so many months. Their (Grandadfarms) chick feed looks like a much better option and you can feed them all the same feed and just offer calcium supplement on the side for laying hens to use as needed. Just my two cents..

I’m really heading toward keeping mine on chick food (protein isn’t that high) with oyster shell on the side when they start laying. I only have three, so buying slightly smaller bags is no big deal.

Does the nutritional info here look adequate for layers, methionine, lysine etc. (besides the Ca)?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I’m really heading toward keeping mine on chick food (protein isn’t that high) with oyster shell on the side when they start laying. I only have three, so buying slightly smaller bags is no big deal.

Does the nutritional info here look adequate for layers, methionine, lysine etc. (besides the Ca)?

View attachment 4093670

The guy I talked to at the feed store the other day told me this Kalmbach stuff was the best feed and if I made my own feed I couldn’t make it better than this brand. I asked him why and he said “because it has vitamins.” It looks pretty but I have no idea if it is nutritionally superior to, say, Purina.

 

[ChaosMom]

The guy I talked to at the feed store the other day told me this Kalmbach stuff was the best feed and if I made my own feed I couldn’t make it better than this brand. I asked him why and he said “because it has vitamins.” It looks pretty but I have no idea if it is nutritionally superior to, say, Purina.

I buy it because I like the fact that it’s whole grain, and not some ground-down, homogenized, pressed-together feed. It does have some tiny pellets (much smaller than the ones in Henhouse Reserve), and that’s where the supplemented vitamins and minerals go. Since I ferment it, the girls (3 months old today!) eat them without quibbling. Geeze, they grow so fast!!

I do regret that the first two ingredients are corn and soy. I could put up with some if the first two were whole wheat and peas, but they’re not. This is what would eventually drive me to making my own. Right now, that feels like massive overkill for three young birds.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I buy it because I like the fact that it’s whole grain, and not some ground-down, homogenized, pressed-together feed. It does have some tiny pellets (much smaller than the ones in Henhouse Reserve), and that’s where the supplemented vitamins and minerals go. Since I ferment it, the girls (3 months old today!) eat them without quibbling. Geeze, they grow so fast!!

I do regret that the first two ingredients are corn and soy. I could put up with some if the first two were whole wheat and peas, but they’re not. This is what would eventually drive me to making my own. Right now, that feels like massive overkill for three young birds.

I told him I plan on fermenting it and he said that would effect the vitamins. I’m not sure how. He seemed to be implying it would have a negative effect.

 

[ChaosMom]

I told him I plan on fermenting it and he said that would effect the vitamins. I’m not sure how. He seemed to be implying it would have a negative effect.

Hmmm, yeah, not sure about that. What it does do (besides making it easy to feed) is make more of the nutrition available for digestion. My brain is baked for today; something about anti-nutrients, maybe. But that’s a bit weird. Anything’s possible, I guess.

 

[ChickenShepherd_6116]

UPDATE: I decided to go with the Scratch & Peck organic layer pellets for now. Any thoughts on that feed?

 

[Sic]

I’m really heading toward keeping mine on chick food (protein isn’t that high) with oyster shell on the side when they start laying. I only have three, so buying slightly smaller bags is no big deal.

Does the nutritional info here look adequate for layers, methionine, lysine etc. (besides the Ca)?

View attachment 4093670

(Not a poultry nutritionist)Looks fine to me. If this is the chickhouse feed - I also see no reason that you can't ferment it as you like to do.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I’m really heading toward keeping mine on chick food (protein isn’t that high) with oyster shell on the side when they start laying. I only have three, so buying slightly smaller bags is no big deal.

Does the nutritional info here look adequate for layers, methionine, lysine etc. (besides the Ca)?

View attachment 4093670

Yes, Kalmbach has good numbers (that's theory) and is used by many active posters here on BYC w/ good result (that's practice).

The one caveat is that their whole grain feeds (much/most of their product line) should be fed as a wet mash to keep the fines (the vitamin pre-mix they add to the whole grains) from falling thru to the bottom of the feeder and getting missed.

Doesn't need to be wet like soup, just damp enough the powder sticks. Alternatively, you can ferment it. That's also popular.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I told him I plan on fermenting it and he said that would effect the vitamins. I’m not sure how. He seemed to be implying it would have a negative effect.

Fermenting makes some things more bioavailable, other things less. Which things depend on what you are fermenting, and how you are fermenting it. Wine, Beer, Bread, Natto, Soy sauce, Kefir, Yogurt, Kimchi all fermented products. NOT interchangeable.

Whether its a net benefit or not depends almost entirely on whether or no the things made more bioavailable were previously deficient and the things less bioavailable were previously in excess.

I know that's a "non answer" but its honestly as accurate as I can offer as a general rule.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Fermenting makes some things more bioavailable, other things less. Which things depend on what you are fermenting, and how you are fermenting it. Wine, Beer, Bread, Natto, Soy sauce, Kefir, Yogurt, Kimchi all fermented products. NOT interchangeable.

Whether its a net benefit or not depends almost entirely on whether or no the things made more bioavailable were previously deficient and the things less bioavailable were previously in excess.

I know that's a "non answer" but its honestly as accurate as I can offer as a general rule.

That makes sense. Which is probably why the feed store guy was sort of non-committal with his answer.