Is it worth the extra $$

[nuthatched]

A lot of people would love to feed organic, but costs are too high. Congrats if you can afford it, but I can't. I go through a bag a feed every 12-14 days, organic costs $33 a bag in my area, I can't afford to pay 3x that a month.
I won't get into the certification, shipping, milling and bagging costs.
I'm my experience, organic stuff has more plastic packaging, I don't think that's helpful for the environment. Ie, fruits and veggies have special individual wrapping, like organic apples have their own bags and organic broccoli has a big plastic strap around it. not a pro or con, just observation.
I don't buy demor if I can help it, because it smells weird to me.
Like another poster said, you can raise something organically but unless you have the very expensive certifications, you can't sell it as such.
I've gotten in discussions on natural products and their pros and cons. 'Natural' isn't standardized by the fda, you could slap it on anything without any draw backs. Just because something is truly natural, means nothing. It doesn't make is more healthy or less processed.
Snake venom is organic, natural and free range.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think it also matters a bit, birds don't know whether the feed they eat is organic or not

 

[Wild-Turkey]

Maybe she has dedicated bachelor pens??? I say, cull or sell if you can't keep all you flock.

Yeah, hopefully. I completely agree on the cull or sell aspect of raising poultry, keeps the rest of the flock healthy and happy as well, I have bachelor pens for drakes but I plan to breed them and they’ve been really nice to the hens, so they have a reason to stay, and I have three turkey jakes to process today, actually. I sure hope those roosters are separated from the hens and each other, can’t be fun for a rooster to be separated from the ladies all the time, though.

 

[Folly's place]

Interesting thread!
I don't buy organic chicken feed for two reasons; cost, and because here we don't eat exclusively organic food ourselves, so feeding the chickens organic only doesn't make sense to me. Also, if they have mites, they are treated with permethrin, and no doubt they find a bit of Ivermectin in the horse poo they explore occasionally.
Fresh is the most important thing, if the feed bags have similar nutritional profiles. Old food isn't better!
I also don't use a layer feed, because my flock includes old, young, laying not currently laying birds, and males. Layer feed is not the best choice for any but actively laying smaller hens.
Mary

 

[kerbotx]

Is there inherently something wrong with the cheap stuff that it will eventually do bad to the birds? Am I supposed to feel guilty even thinking of feeding my children the generic stuff? WHAT am I missing, that is making the 8 dollar stuff, the 8 dollar stuff? What do I need to watch out for when reading ingredients?

I've been experimenting more this past year, due to shortages at the beginning of the pandemic and whatnot, and mainly what I've noticed is that cheaper feeds have more molasses, which IMO is just a cheap filler. My birds are a little picky about molasses feeds in their wet mash, so generally, I try to avoid it. But even Purina started adding more molasses to their feeds, a year or two back; don't know if they are still doing that, but I only buy their Flock Raiser now.

I tend to avoid Dumor brand bc of the molasses factor & bc it makes their poop smell like cigarette smoke - but I did get curious about their new All-Flock mini-pellet. It has "porcine meal and bone meal" in it, which is different... The birds seem to like it, but at $17.99 I'm not sure it's worth it; seems like they're trying to give Purina a run for their money!

I do understand that organic & non-gmo products cost more to produce, but I feel like they really maximize profits, to tap into that "oh, if it's more expensive, it MUST be better!" thinking, which is dumb. I really hate those all-grain/seed feeds Chickens have more in common with pigs than bluejays... but I won't go there! I'll be buying from the local feed mill on my next trip, at less than $9 a bag, and I'm curious to find out how the chickens will like it, if I notice any changes, etc. If the chickens are eating & drinking & going about their business, and they're producing good eggs, then we must be doing something right!

 

[Folly's place]

The local feed mill here quit making feed years ago, and the one bag I bought was definitely substandard. My chickens thought so too, and I went back to Purina, which is fresh at local feed stores here.
Everyone has different experiences with what's available locally where they live, there's no one perfect fit in either brand or if the local mill makes something worth feeding.
Buying the cheapest feed, just because it's cheap, may not be a good decision either, depending.
Mary

 

[rosemarythyme]

I feed organic because I try to eat organic as much as I can - that's part of the reason why I have chickens, and why I try to grow as much of my own produce as I can. So for me it's worth the extra $$ because otherwise I'd be spending that same cash to buy high priced eggs and vegetables from someone else, without any of the satisfaction of doing it myself.

I tend to avoid Dumor brand bc of the molasses factor & bc it makes their poop smell like cigarette smoke - but I did get curious about their new All-Flock mini-pellet. It has "porcine meal and bone meal" in it, which is different... The birds seem to like it, but at $17.99 I'm not sure it's worth it; seems like they're trying to give Purina a run for their money!

I've seen other posts on here saying Dumor feeds are problematic (like it's powdery or gives chickens nastier poops) so that may explain the lower price point. Interesting that they have an all flock with animal protein... that's something that's a little harder to find in feed that drives up the price as well.

 

[Ascholten]

It must be nice to know ones intentions and thought process just from one post they make, but they have to be evil if they don't agree with you right?

That's funny on the Dumor makes mine poop a lot. Now that you mention that, I just realized the same thing. I wonder why that is? Think they are putting a lot more fillers and well I guess you could call it fiber in there than the other brands? Even if they were, if pound for pound the bird is getting the same nutritional value then it's still good. Besides, I keep my poop, compost it and use it in the garden, so for me, extra droppings is not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't think the other non organic stuff is poisoned, I can't see a company purposely poisoning their food just because it's the cheap stuff. Sadly a lot of bad info and propaganda has been taken for gospel in the circles. When you think about it, every time there is a food recall because of a listeria outbreak or salmonella or something, it always seems to be the organic stuff that's being recalled, so one could argue, how much better is it really for you?

There is a company out here, I guess you could call it a grain mill? They sell bagged feed, a lot of ground up stuff, and it smells a bit citrusy too. Price is a little higher than the TSC discount feed, about even with their band name or 'average'feed. The birds seem to like it but unlike the pellets, it seems to have quite a bit more dust / flour? to it, so I wonder how much gets wasted to that? Chickens are NOT neat eaters no matter how hard you try. Stuff is always full of weevils too, which while some may find unpleasant, the chickie poos love the little mobile snacks

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

I feed organic because I try to eat organic as much as I can - that's part of the reason why I have chickens, and why I try to grow as much of my own produce as I can. So for me it's worth the extra $$ because otherwise I'd be spending that same cash to buy high priced eggs and vegetables from someone else, without any of the satisfaction of doing it myself.

Rosemary, another thing about the huge price eggs. When YOU raise them, you know exactly what is going into them, what they ate, or more importantly, did not eat, and that they ARE being well fed and kept happy etc. I let my birds free range a good part of the day, on the weeks that I am not working day shift, so they get an even bigger variety of food and it cuts down on my costs. When they are out eating bugs and scratching all day, I dont need to feed them as much.

One other thing, since we are talking food, in the summer, I leave a bug lamp in the cage, the one girl will stay up all night almost watching the thing, when it zaps, she taps it until the moth falls out and eats it!. I have 3 or 4 other lamps around the house with bowls under them catching the moths beetles and occasional gecko that gets into it. Empty these out every day or so and that is great feed as well for the chicken, and electric cost is maybe a penny or two a day for the lamp so it's cost efficient too.

 

[Ascholten]

The local feed mill here quit making feed years ago, and the one bag I bought was definitely substandard. My chickens thought so too, and I went back to Purina, which is fresh at local feed stores here.
Everyone has different experiences with what's available locally where they live, there's no one perfect fit in either brand or if the local mill makes something worth feeding.
Buying the cheapest feed, just because it's cheap, may not be a good decision either, depending.
Mary

Mary, and THAT is the 64,000 dollar question here. WHY is it cheap? If it's cheap because it's crap then, no do NOT buy it, if it's cheap because its local produced, or not a bunch of ad hype or well, the fools will pay that much for it because it says XXX on the bag then it IS a good reason to buy.

I guess one way to re word this might be.

Ok Lets say a chicken needs 10 percent of 5 vitamins daily. (using arbitrary number)
If all brands GIVE you that 10 percent of those 5 vitamins but the costs are across the board.. then WHY pay the higher cost?

IS one not as digestable in a certain form? ok maybe not a good buy

does one taste better, more expensive because they like it, well ok maybe you want to buy it, but it's not critical to the overall chicken health.

and on that, is there some magic word we need to be looking for?

It has 15 percent protein, ok they all do, but this one has 15 percent Chelated Protein, those others are cannonary protein. (throwing out stupid words). the Chelated is the key you need to look for, THAT is the useable protein .vs. just a total protein. Is there something like this going on we are missing / are not understanding?

Aaron