Layer Feed options

[KSnellgrose]

I am curious on what everyone else opinions/recommendations are. I have a flock of 8 Cinnamon Queen hens. They should start laying end of this month/beginning of next.
Should I do layer crumbles or pellets to start with? Should I mix it with 5 grain and berry scratch feed? They love it.
My birds can be kind of picky with pellets and crumble so it’s kind of a 50/50 chance on which works best. We do feed them fruits and vegetables as treats at night or during the day if it’s hot as heck. (Frozen fruits).
We have Tractor Supply, Rural King, and Menards if that helps.

 

[Debbie292d]

Do you have roosters or plan to raise chicks? If so, then I'd go with an all flock and a dish of oyster shell in a separate dish. All flock is good for chicks and roosters as it's less calcium and higher protein.

Otherwise, as for pellets or crumbles, that's hands down here crumbles. We have silkies and tried pellets once and that didn't go over well. Crumbles works great for them all.

As for which all flock, ours is Kalmbach's Flock Maker, from Chewy as no stores around here carry it.

 

[nuthatched]

Pellets tend to be less wasteful. Ill like nutrena all flock with oyster shells available since I have a roo and Littles
Never mix scratch in with the feed, they'll pick out the "junk food" and leave the healthy food.
For their health, all treats, including scratch should be less than 10% of their diet.

 

[KSnellgrose]

Do you have roosters or plan to raise chicks? If so, then I'd go with an all flock and a dish of oyster shell in a separate dish. All flock is good for chicks and roosters as it's less calcium and higher protein.

Otherwise, as for pellets or crumbles, that's hands down here crumbles. We have silkies and tried pellets once and that didn't go over well. Crumbles works great for them all.

As for which all flock, ours is Kalmbach's Flock Maker, from Chewy as no stores around here carry it.

Thank you, we plan to do chicks and a rooster in a few years when laying slows down.

 

[KSnellgrose]

Pellets tend to be less wasteful. Ill like nutrena all flock with oyster shells available since I have a roo and Littles
Never mix scratch in with the feed, they'll pick out the "junk food" and leave the healthy food.
For their health, all treats, including scratch should be less than 10% of their diet.

Thank you!

 

[K0k0shka]

If you have a good no-waste feeder, crumbles won't be wasteful. I have this one and nothing gets wasted. Chickens in general tend to prefer crumble, because the pieces are easier to swallow, and I don't have a preference myself (especially with waste not being a problem) so I feed them crumble. Some people complain about the finer dust being left behind at the bottom, but If I wait to refill the feeder until they've really finished with what's in it, they'll get hungry and even lick it clean I don't know how they do it. So no issue with the fines either.

Scratch is junk food, don't mix it with the feed. Don't mix anything with the feed - it needs to stay uniform. It's uniform for a reason - so the chickens eat everything and get a complete nutrition. Otherwise they'll pick out what they like and leave the rest. If you have picky chickens, there's a very easy cure for that - it's called hunger! They won't die in the presence of food, so they'll eat eventually. You just have to show them that they don't call the shots.

Chickens are omnivores with a strong lean towards carnivory, they aren't plant eaters. So fruits and vegetables aren't chicken food, they are filler and should be fed as treats - as somebody already said, anything non-poultry-feed should be no more than a total of 10% of their diet. The more they load up on plants or scratch grain, the less they are getting from the actual balanced nutrition of poultry feed, so their nutritional balance can get skewed fast.

My favorite feed is Purina Flock Raiser crumble. It's a good feed, it's easy to find, and not too expensive. I have calcium on the side so I don't need to worry about chicks, roosters, winter (when my hens don't lay) and so on. Everybody eats that and they're healthy and happy.

 

[Altairsky]

My chickens like pellets better.
I cant stand at the dust in crumbles and it easily spoils and get moldy because chickens only eat it if they're starved, and free range chickens are never starved.