I bought some pellet layer feed and got a question before I give

[ChickenCanoe]

I too have gone back and forth. I first bought pellets when mill mistakenly loaded them in my car when I asked for crumbles.
My hens hated them so went to crumbles. They started wasting so much feed I went back to pellets and figured they wouldn't starve themselves to death and eventually eat them. I'm glad I switched.

 

[7L Farm]

Give them the pellets & walk away.

 

[WriterChick]

Fred's Hens :

Whatever I feed, they'll eat, or go hungry. Going hungry isn't in a chicken's nature, so they eat it.

What I do not like to do is mix. This encourages picking out the "good" stuff (determined by the chicken) and leads to beaking out the "bad" stuff (also determined by the chicken). Now, that is wasteful!! Chickens are incredibly easy creatures to spoil.

Pellets do a good job guarding against wastefulness. If only they didn't cost so much.

I'm with Fred (and his hens) on this one. Mixing just encourages them to pick out the good stuff. It's a rare animal that goes on a hunger strike because it doesn't like the texture of the food (that rare animal is Human - we are notoriously picky eaters). My hens thought the pellets were weird at first, but they thought a lot of things were weird at first. I feed them organic layer pellets as a dietary staple and supplement it with greens and other yummy treats. Would they rather have something other than pellets? Yes, they'd prefer it if I only fed them greens and cut up carrots and flax seed, but that is never going to happen.

From what I've read pellets are compressed crumbles and "dissolve" in the chicken's mouth, so I think crumbles vs. pellets may be a non-issue.

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Quote:
X2

 

[Fred's Hens]

It all begins as mash, really. Then, the company makes it into "crumbles" either by method or by default. The pellets are made by an expensive pelletizing machine which is why few local mills sell pellets. But, they do often sell mash at much, much lower price. It's all just feed, if you know what I mean. The shape doesn't mean a thing as regards to its content.

 

[remuda1]

Fred's Hens :

Whatever I feed, they'll eat, or go hungry. Going hungry isn't in a chicken's nature, so they eat it.

What I do not like to do is mix. This encourages picking out the "good" stuff (determined by the chicken) and leads to beaking out the "bad" stuff (also determined by the chicken). Now, that is wasteful!! Chickens are incredibly easy creatures to spoil.

Pellets do a good job guarding against wastefulness. If only they didn't cost so much.

X2 to all of the above. I have zero waste since I've switched to pellets and while I will occasionally make them a mash, I will not mix feeds for the reasons stated above.​