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.

 

[Folly's place]

Not being in Italy, I have no idea what's available for your flock.
Here poultry feed is labeled with it's mill date, so it's not difficult to choose feed that's within a month or six weeks of milling, and to feed it within a couple more weeks. Fresh!
Our flock can free range often, and so they eat less of their Flock Raiser crumble when the ground isn't frozen and bugs, worms, and stuff is available outside.
We don't feed moldy or spoiled feed, ever!
Here our flock includes males, young birds, molting and older hens, so an all flock feed is best, with oyster shell and grit offered separately.
What feed is best will depend on what's available fresh where you shop, there's no one best choice. Our local store stores their Kalbach feed in an open shed, rain, rodents, whatever available to degrade those bags. Won't buy it!
Nutrena seems more expensive for what's in it here, and the Purina Flock Raiser is most always fresh where we shop.
Mary

 

[Altairsky]

We don't feed moldy or spoiled feed, ever!

Nobody feeds moldy feed, but the dust from crumbles never gets eaten unless chickens are starved, and chickens that free range are never actually starved enough to eat the dust. If you wait long enough for the chickens to finish it (which they never will, they'd rather eat grass), it will eventually get moldy inside the feeder. This is my experience with crumbles. Pellets are a lot better in my climate, they have no dust so no risk of mold, and the chickens like them better overall.

 

[Folly's place]

We dump the dust in the feeders occasionally, it's all under a roof, and haven't ever had tis problem. Fortunately!
The feed I buy only comes in crumbles here, and the smaller/ younger birds can't do pellets gracefully anyway. Otherwise I'd prefer pellets too.
Mary