Mash, Pellets or Crumbles? Poll!

[skeetersmom]

Mine love crumbles, they turn their nose up to pellets.

 

[TheEggCollecter]

Chicks: crumble - year round
Hens: pellets - warmer weather
mash - cooler weather

 

[chickyfuzz]

I use crumble mixed with wheat and canola but sometimes I use pellets my ducks,chickens and pullets love it

.
Crumble is 20c more.

 

[realsis]

I use a USDA certified organic feed so it is whole grains. It does not come in pellets or crumbles. I will sometimes soak the seeds then sort of mash them up because my girls like it this way. Before I switched to the organic whole grains I was using crumbles. I would mash up the crumbles as well. The organic feed is now all whole seeds and they do not offer in crumbles or pellets. So when voting on this I guess it qualifies as "other". It's simply whole grains that are not processed into any form.

 

[motorboat]

My old flock would only eat mash and scratch. They hated pellets. It was a huge waste.

A guy at the feed store said he only feeds his flock a special mixed mash that has more protein and minerals than standard mash or scratch. He said scratch has too much wheat in it and corn is not a good source of nutrients for chickens.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

I’ve tried all three. With the mash, my Girls had trouble getting the amount the needed as it was so thin. It also produced dust which caused two of my Girls to sneeze while eating. (Not much fun!) The pellets were easier than the mash but still caused some problems. In the first few days of switching to pellets, three of my Girls coughed and made a chocking sound after each mealtime. I assume that since they were used to the mash and the pellets were so much bigger in size that they choked on them as they were used to taking big gulps of food. After a while, they were doing a little better but I noticed they were spilling the feed everywhere. I ended up going through two 50 pound bags in one month as they were wasting so much of it. Finally, I switched to crumbles. Within two days I didn’t hear any coughing, choking or sneezing at mealtime. There wasn’t any food on the ground and the Girls seemed much more content. I now go through about one bag every month and a half.

 

[ALJhappychicken]

I use pellets,.but my gals like crumbles better.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Pellets. I'm sure the Biddies would prefer crumbles or perhaps a live insect and blueberry diet, but pellets are what they get. I'm currently switching them over to King Freedom Natural Layer pellets which are free of both GMOs and Soy.

 

[steved350]

I haven't had a chance to use pellets yet so looking forward to it.

 

[Our Roost]

Well PheasantsFirst, Its not what I prefer, but what the chickens like best and is easiest for me to maintain. I have tried everything except fermented feed which I hear some chickens love and some dont. My biggest problem was uneaten feed and waste. Products like certain mash and scratch seem to have a lot of overground grist wheel product such as grain corn and such. Medicated products are added in powder form to coat the rest of the ingredients. Some gets digested and the rest is pure waste. I have talked to grainery experts and they blame it on the corn crop mostly and the added nutrients being added. Mash is a filler with little nutrients a chicken really needs. Pure corn grain in most instances. Scratch has more grain products within and less powdery residue. I like scratch and its candy for the chickens. Crumbles or pellets are manufactured products that contain a number of much needed supplements for good healty chickens. They contain little to no sediment if used by themselves. Usually their protein level is sufficient for weight growth. My birds are unhappy eating just crumbles or pellets. In fact, they dont like the size of pellets period. So I mix scratch and crumbles together with black oiled sunflower seeds. Some scratch producers already have the sunflower seeds in it. I still have feed on the ground, but not nearly the amount of sediment and a lot more food gets eaten. This has worked for me really well and for the chickens. Its a good combo and my chickens are healthier for it.