Maybe a silly question, but... what is scratch?

[huckleberryfarm]

Is it something you buy at TSC? Where is it? I don't see anything labelled Scratch in the poultry section. Or is it something you make up yourself? Or is it a name for something common? Couldn't find the answer easily and obviously I haven't been giving that to my chicks. Thanks!

 

[gritsar]

We have three kinds of scratch available at our local farmer's co-op:
Scratch grains is cracked corn mixed with other grains and seeds. I feed this as a treat ONLY in the spring, summer and early fall.
Scratch is ground corn, looks like yellow cornmeal. I mix it with warm water to feed as a nightly treat in the wintertime.
Then we have what is known around here as Chops. Chops is chopped dry corn. I feed this in the wintertime too.

Most feed stores will have at least chops, but IMO it should be fed as a treat only and not make up more than 10% of the chickens daily diet.
They love it. It's chicken crack, but not nutritionally complete.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I buy the purina brand grains/scratch mixture. Has loads of good stuff in there for them and not just corn. They love it! And it's only 8 bucks a bag for 50 lbs. It lasts about a month because I don't feed them very much of it at a time. I do have loads of chickens though

 

[txchickie]

You can buy it at TSC. At our store, it's right beside the whole corn and cracked corn....it's called poultry scratch. Producer's Pride brand or something like that, it's $9.29 for 50lbs here.

 

[huckleberryfarm]

Thanks! Guess I need to just move around the store a little.