How much scratch to give?

[TN_BIRD]

Quote:
I concur. Mine will fling the pellets everywhere trying to get to the scratch grain. Makes a mess and I'm sure a fair amount of the pellets are wasted.

 

[Tiffany from Nutrena]

A good rule to follow when you are feeding scratch: throw out what your birds will consume in about 15 minutes once per day. That should be just enough for a treat, but not enough to dilute the protein and vitamin/mineral content of the layer ration. I tell my customers to feed no more than 15% of the total diet in scratch when they are using our 16% protein layer feed, which roughly equates to the 15 minute feeding window (The scratch I am referring to is your basic 2 or 3 grain mix with a protein content around 8%).
Hope that helps!

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
I concur. Mine will fling the pellets everywhere trying to get to the scratch grain. Makes a mess and I'm sure a fair amount of the pellets are wasted.

Thats why I said to feed separate from there sole feed.

Chris

 

[they'reHISchickens]

I mix my own scratch from local available grains. The last batch was wheat, barley, rye,oats, cracked corn and BOSS, in just about equal amounts. Come winter, I will add more BOSS and some mixed bird seed.
We feed it almost free choice along with pelleted feed and we free range. The flock seems to eat well and is healthy and happy. We have a good percentage of eggs/hen considering the breeds and ages of the birds. I admit I don't know the percentage of protein in the scratch but I am happy knowing that it is good local pure grain mixture and not the 75% corn I see in packaged scratch mixes.

 

[TN_BIRD]

Quote:
I concur. Mine will fling the pellets everywhere trying to get to the scratch grain. Makes a mess and I'm sure a fair amount of the pellets are wasted.

Thats why I said to feed separate from there sole feed.

Chris

Yup. We learned this lesson the hard way.

I've recently started letting the chickens eat from my hand. I even managed to get the kids and neighbor kids involved. We figure that keepin the peace with the neighbors is a good idea (all our neighbors and neighbor kids like to play with the chickens...we've actually already had some ask if they could feed em and check for eggs).

 

[MarnieMcc]

I had some leftover beans from beans and cornbread dinner and let the chix have the leftovers. Yesterday I found my 3 year old Rhode Island Red dead in the coup. Was it the beans, possibly? I haven't seen that they can't eat cooked beans.
Thank you!