O.K. First let me say I got my chicks on Good Friday and started them on chick crumble, then bought organic grower pellets from our local feed store. I wasn't happy with the pellets although the pullets and roo ate them just fine. I didn't way them eating soy because I am eating their eggs and I don't want soy! I don't give them anything I wouldn't eat and I am buying as much non-GMO/organic as I can. I recently found Countryside Organic feed in VA and although it is a long drive, I think quality food is vitally important. I heard that fermenting the feed heightens the nutrition content by making it more digestible. I still have organic layer pellets and my 17 year old daughter prefers to feed them those. Since she opens the pop door in the a.m. before school she gives them pellets. That said, when I go to feed the chickens around 1 or 2 p.m. I give them fermented mash (Countryside Organic). The practically jump up and down waiting for me to take the feeders inside to fill them. There are usually some pellets left in the feeders. I empty the pellets, wash the feeder, then add chopped veggies. I chop whatever is available from my garden and my neighbor's garden so they have been getting (kale, tomatoes, carrot and green pepper scraps, organic apple, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, turnip greens, cabbage, zucchini, etc.). I put the raw chopped veggie mix in one half and then add fermented mash in the other side. They drive into the veggies first!!! They love the fermented feed too. My chickens have free ranged up until a week or so ago when we had to put them up on the patio next to the house and winterize the tractor and put in deep liter. So, now that they are no longer getting the bugs and worms they were getting, I've bought a dried worm block. I am going to try sprouting once the garden items have been exhausted so they have greens and I am going to make a homemade flock block from a recipe I found. I may hang a cabbage if I can find an organic one as I heard that the chicken have fun with that and it keeps the winter boredom down. My husband thinks I'm nuts chopping all those veggies up. It is time consuming but I want to keep it small enough that they don't drag it onto the floor and into droppings. It works! They eat it so fast, none gets wasted or ruined by chicken poo.
e along the pen fence waiting for it. They can tell the difference between the larger feed can and the smaller scratch grain can just by the noise removing the lid makes. Very smart chickens are! 
