No to Yellow Peas!!? My girls won't eat the peas in their Sratch & Peck feed.

[Madison-Jamil]

My three girls just hate the yellow peas in their Scratch & Peck feed! I give them the feed in various forms, dry, fermented, in organic Nancy's plain yogurt and they always toss out the peas or leave them in the bottom of the bowl! The meticulously avoid them... Anyone else encountered this? My girls are 15 weeks old and love all sorts of greens from the garden and forage for bugs but just loathe those dang peas!

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Every flock seems to have their own individual likes and dislikes. Mine hate milo.

 

[Folly's place]

That's why I feed a complete pelleted or crumble feed, so the birds don't eat the yummy bits and unbalance their diet. The scratch and goodies are treats, not more than about 10% of their daily ration. Mary

 

[pdirt]

Don't overdo it too much, but try to let them get a bit hungry before feeding them. They might decide that those peas are tasty after all.

And clarification to Mary and others who might think the same thing...Scratch n Peck is not a scratch feed, it is a complete feed. The scratch in the name is confusing, I know.

I don't like feeding pellets or crumbles because of the steam heat used to make the pellets. This denatures fats and destroys natural vitamins and synthetic vitamins are added to make up for this. Scratch and Peck feeds don't make pellets or crumbles.

 

[pdirt]

Also, since your birds are free ranging right now, they may be getting enough whatever nutrients are in the yellow peas from ranging. Come winter that might change.

Another option would be to coarse grind your feed in a grain mill first, but that's extra work.

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Thanks for the suggestions pdirt. They are getting bugs, slugs, ants, etc. while foraging and then we give them kale and spinach from the garden daily. They were getting broccoli Raab too but I had to pull it cause it was finally bolting and I have started a new batch for them. They are crazy for broccoli and kale! Thanks for the tough love encouragement and if the pea boycott continues I will grind it up as you suggested and ferment those peas in with the rest of the feed!

 

[HighStreetCoop]

I find that with the Scratch and Peck I end up with a lot of the ground part left in the feeder. I put it aside and make flock block out of it and feed that to them as "treats".

 

[Folly's place]

I realize that it's meant to be a complete feed, but if the birds don't eat all the ingredients, then it's not so complete anymore. Mary

 

[HighStreetCoop]

I realize that it's meant to be a complete feed, but if the birds don't eat all the ingredients, then it's not so complete anymore. Mary

I trust them to eat what they need, just as they would if they were free ranging. And I supplement with lots of greens and veg and scratch that has a WIDE variety of ingredients including multiple kinds of insects. I'm pretty happy with the results. The birds are HUGE and in very good condition and their eggs are amazing.

 

[pdirt]

When our feeder hopper is empty, I remove the "hole-y feed board" (see image below) and there is perhaps 2 cups of the dusty/finer particles. When I remove the feeder board, they clean up the rest of the fines and then I refill the feeder.