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

[Bryant Redhawk]

Soy has some sulfur components within its chemistry. This could be what is happening, the sulfur components of the feed turning into sulfides and sulfates which will permeate through the animals blood to all cells. That would give an off flavor, since it is normal for egg yolks to have sulfur compounds any extra sulfur compounds would increase the quantity in the yolk, which would be very noticeable to the pallet of the eater of the eggs. Those compounds would also become present in the muscle tissues of the animal and make the meat have an off flavor.

If a human eats sulfur in the forms of sulfates (sodium sulfate for instance) it will permeate the muscles and be exuded through the sweat pores, the good side effect of this is that biting insects then don't want to bite you. This is probably the same mechanism that is happening to chickens.

 

[pdirt]

Pdirt, your tough love approach worked and my girls eat the peas if I just hold out on refilling

To the other folks dealing with the finer ingredients falling to the bottom: fermenting, mixing with yogurt or just making a quick mash with water solves that issue and the girls get the bonus of better hydration this has been working very well for me as I noticed the same issue when I started them on Scratch & Peck. Last time I had chickens many years ago I feed pellets and crumbles but since in the last 15 years I have changed my diet I decided to go with a more natural diet for my chickens. It is more work but I hope to see worthwhile payout in the quality of my eggs and the health of my flock. The changes I have made in my diet were well worth it for myself and the members of my family I cook for.

Glad it worked. You can also use the same tough love approach with the powder in the bottom of your feeder. Our girls and boys clean it all right up when they get hungry enough. I probably wouldn't do this if they also didn't free range some part of the day. A chicken will act hungry even if they hadn't had food for a day but check their crop and it will still have a lot of feed left in it. They aren't starving!

 

[pdirt]

Soy has some sulfur components within its chemistry. This could be what is happening, the sulfur components of the feed turning into sulfides and sulfates which will permeate through the animals blood to all cells.  That would give an off flavor, since it is normal for egg yolks to have sulfur compounds any extra sulfur compounds would increase the quantity in the yolk, which would be very noticeable to the pallet of the eater of the eggs. Those compounds would also become present in the muscle tissues of the animal and make the meat have an off flavor. 

If a human eats sulfur in the forms of sulfates (sodium sulfate for instance) it will permeate the muscles and be exuded through the sweat pores, the good side effect of this is that biting insects then don't want to bite you. This is probably the same mechanism that is happening to chickens.

Thanks for your knowledge on soy. Hadn't heard of the sulfur angle before.

 

[Madison-Jamil]

Thanks again Bryant for all the great scientific information, I have learned a lot.

Pdirt, you are right about the finer components of the food. I have been putting their bowl in the coop that has the remnants of their feed at the end of the day and when I let them out in the morning they have finished every last bite. Then I start fresh again! I just ordered a 40lb bag from Azure Standard of the Scratch and Peck that will be here tomorrow so I will be working on making a good bulk fermentation routine set up in the garage. I will also continue to offer some dry as they seem to really like enjoying the feed in both forms. They act like it is a treat when it is dry Kale, spinach and broccoli get them even more riled up though.