Mash feed ?

[harleyjo]

I am going to start buying my layer feed from an elevator the grinds their own feed. It is a mash. I used it one other time and found I like it best best mixed with some water but they did tell me that people feed it dry too. How do you keep it from blowing away if you feed that dry?

 

[Cindy in PA]

Feed it inside the coop. Have a deep lipped feeder. Never had a problem.

 

[mickey328]

We have one of those plastic feeders that you screw in a quart sized canning jar. We only have 6 hens so we fill it once or twice a day. We supplement with a lot of other stuff, so generally once a day is plenty...there's some left in it pretty much every night. DH screwed the plastic tray to a piece of 1/4 inch plywood that's about 10 x 14 inches...that way it doesn't tip over and most of what gets spilled lands on the board and they pick it up from there.

We keep the feed in the run during the day and put it in the shed when the girls go to bed. That way it doesn't get wet and other critters don't help themselves. We fill it and put it in the run before we let the girls out in the morning. We don't plan on putting the feed inside the coop at all, but that may depend on the winter weather. It's usually fairly mild here and we generally don't get a lot of snow, but if we do, we can move it inside till the snow melts.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I am going to start buying my layer feed from an elevator the grinds their own feed. It is a mash. I used it one other time and found I like it best best mixed with some water but they did tell me that people feed it dry too. How do you keep it from blowing away if you feed that dry?

Wow, maybe it's just my old eyes, but I can barely read the print, the font you're choosing. Whew!!!

Anyhow, mash is not THAT much different from crumbles, really, but since it is fresh ground, there is considerable dust or flour covering the particles, depending on how fine your local mill grinds. It varies.

You'll either need a deep lipped feeder, old school works best, as the mash is what mills had, back in the day, before pelletizing. Another option is to make a thick porridge by adding a little water and potion feeding. Either way works just fine. It did for decades and still does today. Considering that mash is fresher and costs me roughly half the cost of pellets, I absolutely prefer it as we've lots of mouths to feed.

 

[devora]

I was gonna start a new thread on this but will try here.

Please explain "mash". Someone posted about having cracked corn in it that the birds weren't eating. I imagine mash as crumbles, it's all one homogeneous cereal. But that can't be right b/c then "mash" and "crumbles" would be the same thing.

Help me. Help!

 

[mickey328]

I'm not certain what "crumbles" look like since we've not used them. We're feeding mash just now and will be switching to pellets shortly. The mash is pretty fine...not quite flour but it looks like everything has been ground pretty well. It almost looks like corn meal with some larger pieces in it. We're switching to pellets simply because we think there'll be less waste. The mash is fine enough that it can get lost in the grass when it's spilled. The pellets are larger pieces so they'll be able to find them in the grass and eat them.

 

[CAjerseychick]

I'm not certain what "crumbles" look like since we've not used them. We're feeding mash just now and will be switching to pellets shortly. The mash is pretty fine...not quite flour but it looks like everything has been ground pretty well. It almost looks like corn meal with some larger pieces in it. We're switching to pellets simply because we think there'll be less waste. The mash is fine enough that it can get lost in the grass when it's spilled. The pellets are larger pieces so they'll be able to find them in the grass and eat them.

I like crumbles because they are inbetween mash and pellets-- they are like crumbled pellets, LOL...

 

[devora]

A BYCer posted this. Is this "mash" w/ whole grains added? Is there such a thing?
"My local layer mash is grains, meal & vitamin powder, so there is whole wheat, oats & cracked peas & corn etc."

 

[Fred's Hens]

A local mill seldom has the capability to grind the raw materials, (corn, soybeans, sunflower seeds, and/or other grains) add the vitamin/nutrient package, mix, and then pelletize. Those pellet aren't cheap machines. To make crumbles, crush pellets as desired. Larger farms have a feed mill on site, be it for hogs, dairy or poultry. Lately, people have been buying grain mills for their home, grinding their own grains for cereals, baking and the like. These table top models aren't cheap, however.

Mash is an old fashioned word. It is merely coarse ground feed. Not quite as fine as people think. But, since it is ground fresh and mixed and bagged locally, yes, it's "dusty", although flour coated might be a more accurate expression.

Just how fine the mix is ground is the choice of the mill, of course. But in any case, when you add some water and stir, you can see that mash looks a bit like granola or a chunky grain cereal.

For centuries, feed has been ground at the mill. Human food too! The advent of pre-bagged feed that is trucked about the country is a relatively recent innovation.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Feed it inside the coop. Have a deep lipped feeder. Never had a problem.

Although seldom mentioned on BYC, you are correct. Certain feeds work better, using certain feeders. Back when all chicken feed meant mash and only mash, the typical poultry feeder looked nothing like most of the feeders of today, no plastic anything. This was a typical feeder back I was growing up. It was a great feeder then and still it today, especially if you feed mash. There was little to no waste.