Hens not caring for Local Feed

[Aki no niwatori]

So I recently had switched my feed to a local source and it is similar to some of the feeds I had gotten in the past(5+ years ago) where you can visibly see some of the corn and it is not like the crumbles or pellets. I am curious if I accidentally purchased a scratch feed. I don't have the bag now but the hens do not seem to like it. Their food is often scattered and scratched out of the dish but they do eventually eat it. They also do not really seem interested in their treats now except for the mealworms or bits of scrambled egg. Am I right that they don't like this food? I don't know what to do with the rest of it moving forward.

I gave them some of the chick crumble yesterday and they loved it so I am picking up some layer crumble today.

 

[saysfaa]

If you see only bits of corn (as opposed to whole kernels of corn and sometimes oats and other things) then it is most likely not just scratch.

The two mostly likely reasons they are reluctant to eat it are that it is not good fresh feed or that they are used the pellets or crumbles.

If it is not good fresh feed than it might be anything from a bit stale but not teally harmful to actually harmful from molds or something like that.

If it is not something they are used to.... chickens do that. Mine were raised on ground feed. They were 18 months old before I got them some pellets. They made it very clear that they did not like the pellets. After they finished a few days of pellets, I gave them a bowl of ground feed. They dove into it. I could very clearly see them saying as domistratively as they could,"This is what feed should be."

They will eat either kind without hesitation now.