in regards to pellets

Dump them in a bucket, add a splash of water or a broth for flavor and stir. This will make a damp, crumbles type feed. They'll love it. Waste not, want not.

 

Wait a couple of hours to fill the feeders and see if they eat the 'dust'. Some brands of crumble are little more than a powder.

 

I add mine to spent grains for brewing beer, vegetable pulp from juicing, oyster calcium, and what ever else I have hanging around. I then add hot water to make a paste. Feed it to the chickens the next day and they go nuts. Or, I just add how water and make the paste - they still go nuts, though my wife does not like the fact that I feed it to them in her tupperware containers......

 

I let them eat it. Quit adding they will eat it. They have no choice.

 

I usually buy two 50 lb. bags of pellets every two weeks. When those two are finished and the feeder is almost empty, I take it out and dump all the dust and broken pellets in the yard before filling the feeder with fresh new whole pellets. The chickens LOVE the pile of dust and pellet bits! They ignore the new stuff until they've thoroughly scratched and picked through the pile. Dumping the feeder when I finish 2 bags keeps the bottom of the feeder from getting so full of dust that the new pellets can't fall down to the tray where the hens can get them. Nothing goes to waste.