Nutrena swap

[mossyoakpro]

Starting my bunch on Nutrena since my local co-op doesn't sell much of the all flock feed and it is bug riddled after a few days of having it. The Nutrena All-flock sure smells good and the 40# bags will actually be a help to me with a small flock. I added a small amount to their existing feed to try and get them used to the new, I also put some out for a "treat" and they seem to be eating it right off.

My co-op fella said I was supposed to be feeding a layer feed instead of the low calcium high protein feed hence the reason it is so old and pest riddled apparently....so I went to TSC and retrieved my new feed. I hate to not do business local but that's the way it goes sometimes. Guess he should be reading this forum!! LOL

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Nutrena is probably my favorite commercial feed. My chickens seem healthiest on it. Purina is good too but for about the same price, I like that Nutrena has oregano, marigold, and other natural additives. They also sell all-flock in pellet form, which I can't seem to ever find for Purina.

By the way, you don't have to buy the high-calcium/low protein layer feed. A lot of people prefer to do the all flock with oyster shell on the side. Many people even say the standard 16% layer feed is too low of protein. It's not gonna kill your birds but it's just what some people think. Make sure you aren't giving layer feed if you have a rooster.

 

[mossyoakpro]

Nutrena is probably my favorite commercial feed. My chickens seem healthiest on it. Purina is good too but for about the same price, I like that Nutrena has oregano, marigold, and other natural additives. They also sell all-flock in pellet form, which I can't seem to ever find for Purina.

By the way, you don't have to buy the high-calcium/low protein layer feed. A lot of people prefer to do the all flock with oyster shell on the side. Many people even say the standard 16% layer feed is too low of protein. It's not gonna kill your birds but it's just what some people think. Make sure you aren't giving layer feed if you have a rooster.

That's why I'm doing the all flock with oyster/egg shell on the side....I have a rooster, he's an A$$ but I don't want to hurt him since he does his job to perfection so far. That was the argument from my local guy about feeding the high protein all flock...I'm sure that's why he hardly sold any since he didn't like to feed it.

 

[TooCheep]

Do not accept poor quality (bug riddled) feed. There are arguments on both sides of the layer vs. all-flock+calcium debate. I started on the first and moved to the latter.

I prefer to offer more than the base minimum protein (16% for most layer feeds) vs. (18%+ for all-flock). Just make sure you offer calcium (crushed egg shell and/or oyster shell) on the side. That allows birds to eat as much or little calcium as their bodies need.

Layer feed is easier if all you have is active layers. Young non-laying pullets, older non-laying hens, hens in winter that have stopped laying and all cockerels do better without the extra calcium. I concluded that the extra protein plus all of those exceptions made it easier to just use all-flock + calcium.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Starting my bunch on Nutrena since my local co-op doesn't sell much of the all flock feed and it is bug riddled after a few days of having it. The Nutrena All-flock sure smells good and the 40# bags will actually be a help to me with a small flock. I added a small amount to their existing feed to try and get them used to the new, I also put some out for a "treat" and they seem to be eating it right off.

My co-op fella said I was supposed to be feeding a layer feed instead of the low calcium high protein feed hence the reason it is so old and pest riddled apparently....so I went to TSC and retrieved my new feed. I hate to not do business local but that's the way it goes sometimes. Guess he should be reading this forum!! LOL

In defense of the local co-op guy, they are likely supporting commercial poultry operations by mom and pops under contract to egg purchasers. For those buyers, margins are so very tight, that a cheaper, minimally nutritious feed to get the birds through a year of production before being "repurposed" is the only thing that makes economic sense.

There are few studies, sadly, but the one I'm most familiar with indicated that the differences between a 16% crude protein feed and a 20% crude protein feed of near identical AA profile increased egg size, and egg frequency of lay as well as slight improvement in feed efficiency and reeduced mortality. That's the positive.

Now the details. Those improvements were measurable, but generally in the realm of 1-3%. about 1gm in egg weight, on average. perhaps as many as 10 additional eggs in a production year from a single bird. Maybe you lose only 98 birds in a year out of a flock of 4,000 instead of 100. On the other hand, your feed cost jumps probably 20%.

On a commercial scale, under commercial managment, that's just not good business.

The flip side is most of us BYCers, whose birds are more pet than commodity. There the couple extra dollars in feed each year for a bird that both looks, and is, healtheir, that molts faster, and is more disease resistant, generally better "put together" and likely to live longer if repurposing of the commercial layers didn't occur makes good economic sense.

There is no one right way. There are thousands of wrong ways. Feeding your birds is part of a system - what is best for one is not always best for others. Though All FLock + Oyster shell is, in my opinion, the best choice for the majority of BYCs with the majority of flocks. Pure commercial layer flocks and flocks of pure "meaties" being both extremes, for which differing feed methods make much more sense.