I have to ask this as this!😂

[Outta Here]

Walmart Pennington Classic Wild Bird Feed: Millet: 11.6% protein, Milo: 8.9% protein, Wheat:11-15 % depending on soft or hard; Black Oil Sunflower Seeds: 16%
If these were in equal parts, you'd have 11.87-12.87% protein. If the mix contained more lower protein ingredients, you'd have lower than that, and if the mix contained more of the higher protein ingredients, you'd have a bit higher percentage. But it would never reach 16%.
Chicken scratch has about 9-10% protein.
Chicks need 20% protein, then 18%, then at least 16% while layers.
So snacks and scratch are fun, but you are lowering their overall intake of protein if you feed anything less than a 16% protein snack. It's the same as when you add meat to your dog's kibble--if you do it everyday, you're giving him a calcium deficiency, but just as an occasional treat, what fun!
A great place to evaluate ingredients and even formulate your own chicken food is here: https://www.gardenbetty.com/garden-...culator-for-determining-your-protein-content/

 

[Driley62]

Walmart Pennington Classic Wild Bird Feed: Millet: 11.6% protein, Milo: 8.9% protein, Wheat:11-15 % depending on soft or hard; Black Oil Sunflower Seeds: 16%
If these were in equal parts, you'd have 11.87-12.87% protein. If the mix contained more lower protein ingredients, you'd have lower than that, and if the mix contained more of the higher protein ingredients, you'd have a bit higher percentage. But it would never reach 16%.
Chicken scratch has about 9-10% protein.
Chicks need 20% protein, then 18%, then at least 16% while layers.
So snacks and scratch are fun, but you are lowering their overall intake of protein if you feed anything less than a 16% protein snack.
A great place to evaluate ingredients and even formulate your own chicken food is here: https://www.gardenbetty.com/garden-...culator-for-determining-your-protein-content/

Thanks lol wasn't actually thinking of making it a food staple...wasn't thinking of giving it at all because price wise is more costly than bagged and labeled scratch at any feed store. But it was honestly a random thought as a treat lol.

 

[Outta Here]

Thanks lol wasn't actually thinking of making it a food staple...wasn't thinking of giving it at all because price wise is more costly than bagged and labeled scratch at any feed store. But it was honestly a random thought as a treat lol.

Well then, chickens can sure eat all those ingredients, so it would work as a sometime treat. Hey, when I throw a handful of strawberries or some crumbled cheese, I don't think about the protein content! Now, if I did it every day, then it would be part of their food staple and I'd have to figure it in...


P.S. The bird seed would actually be a better treat than 9% scratch! Too bad the price is higher...

 

[KingD]

I can't help it I have to ask as this was so random as I was walking through the Walmart garden section.

Has anyone fed bird seed from the garden section to their birds? Can you? I'm legitimately curious! I don't plan on it but it was just a random thought in my head, "hmm...wonder if the chickens would like that. It does have black sunflower seeds in it."

Yeh I've fed it as treats a few times.
They haven't died yet so I'm guessing it's fine.
Obviously wouldn't be good as a main food source though.

 

[Brooks_]

In the opposite direction, I put 5 grain in the bird feeder.

 

[Suzz]

Ours does to

My wal mart has chicken feed

I bought a bag of chicken food from wal mart one time out of convenience It smelled so bad I threw it away

 

[Driley62]

I bought a bag of chicken food from wal mart one time out of convenience It smelled so bad I threw it away

I didnt trust the idea. I saw one thing in the same section 8 months out of date. I informed associates about it they didn't do a damn thing about it. I was in a month later and those same bags were still there.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I didnt trust the idea. I saw one thing in the same section 8 months out of date. I informed associates about it they didn't do a damn thing about it. I was in a month later and those same bags were still there.

The feed store that I have been purchasing feed from sold me a bag of feed that was milled on January 7th. They couldn't understand why I cared and how I knew the mill date

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So. Bird Seed (and I've used several, in a pinch, as substitutues for Scratch (under 10%, by weight of the total daily diet) of the various brands is usually and largely cracked corn, BOSS, and millet. As others have noted, its low protein, and typically high fat. In addition, its an incomplete protein - neither the corn nor the seeds contain much Lysine, which chickens can't make on their own, and corn is low on Tryptophan, another amino acid they need to get from their feed. Adding oats helps with the tryptophan, you need soy meal for the missing lysine. At which point, just buy pelleted complete feed and scatter that for them...

I HAVE used it for erosion control, outside areas the chickens usually forage, and to help establish areas of my woods I've recently cleared - making sure to put it down when the birds are already a bed, or otherwise can't see it - so they don't gorge on it before its had a chance to sprout. What lives, lives. As result, there are some scattered sunflower plants and millet sprays in my pasture. Cheaper than throwing bags of grass seeds, and helps to maintain a biodiverse polyculture in my pasture (see, doesn't that sound better than "weed field"?)

As secondary warning, remember that wild birds are currently one of the largest drivers of poultry disease transmission (mostly salmonella) right now, particularly on the west coast - doesn't matter how good your chicken biosecurity and flock quarantine practices are if you are inviting wild birds to the same areas your chickens forage...

 

[neo71665]

I bought a bag of chicken food from wal mart one time out of convenience It smelled so bad I threw it away

Thats why you check the date. I'm rural so they sell and rotate stock pretty well. I would buy it from "my" store in a pinch but tend to buy it at a local mill.