Out of feed - emergency help!

[ChickenHawk12]

I use Scratch & Peck milled (non-gmo, organic, all that crunchy stuff) feed. It comes from the West coast and I live on the East coast in a VERY non-rural area. The only thing we have here is TSC about 40 mins away, and I think there may be an Agway about the same distance away. There is someone in my state (but 2 hours away) that carries their feed on his "farmette", but I only have email to get a hold of him. We have been emailing back and forth, first he had to check his inventory and get back to me, then he asked if I was paying paypal or cash, now I have been waiting since Thursday to hear from him and it's Monday night and still no return email to see if my husband's colleague (who lives nearby) can come tomorrow and pick up the feed for us. When I started this communication, I thought I had enough food (since I wasn't going to have to wait for it to ship), but now I basically have enough feed for tomorrow and then it's gone.

I would have to wait just as long or longer for S&P to ship it to me from the West coast, so I need a solution in the meantime. Does anyone know of a similar feed that might be available in TSC or Agway? I don't want to buy 25 pounds of something I don't really want to feed my chickens, but I need to feed them something while I wait for this guy. Is there anything that is minimally processed, non-gmo, organic, non-medicated and corn/soy-free that I may be able to get in a store? Some of those criteria are better than none, if there is anything that is similar....

Thanks!!

 

[islafarm]

How many birds do you have? I can only suggest buying grains at the store and making do until your feed ships. Sounds like you could do oats, wheat berries, millet, couscous, yogurt, even day old bread?? And sprout some lentils or other legumes. In a pinch some organic pasta . . . ?

Sorry can't be of more help, good luck!

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Shipping feed from the West to East Coast seems very problematic. I would look into finding something a little closer through the internet or making or mixing your own.

Amazon sells organic chicken feed. Alternatively you could buy non-gmo grains and seeds- sprouting them, growing fodder from them, or mixing them (and fermenting them).

I think you need a solution not just now but in general. Shipping feed from one side of the country to another is crazy! There must be a better way to do things, don't you think?

 

[TalkALittle]

Bob's Red Mill products can be found in most every grocery store. They are certified organic and non-gmo. You could buy red wheat, barley, split green peas and oats and mix it with what you have left of the Scratch and Peck to stretch what you have until you get your order. It might end up being pricey but you can get your hands on it quick and it meets all your requirements. You can also feed them back their own eggs. It's not a complete feed by any means but it would get you through. Unfortunately, there is nothing like Scratch and Peck made on the east coast.

 

[Cindy in PA]

TSC probably is carrying Nature's Best Organic now, but my store is usually out of stock of the 40lb bags. They sell 10 lb bags, but they are super pricey. There are several organic producers in Lancaster & Chester County PA. Would help to know where you're at. I have a local guy that sells soy & no soy organic mash also.

 

[TalkALittle]

Nature's Best contains soy and corn though. It's also a pelleted feed so strikes out in the "minimally processed" category.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Why is a pelleted feed not minimally processed? The way they make pelleted feed is to first gather up all the ingredients and grind them up together. That’s called mash. To make pellets they add water to make a paste and extrude that through dyes, then flash dry that. That’s pellets. To make crumbles they gently crush the pellets. Pellets are not further processing but are simply another form of the same thing. Maybe it is the grinding you don’t like?

In mash the different ingredients can separate by gravity, the denser feeds sinking to the bottom. Mash is often fed stirred up then mixed with water or something else wet to keep the feed mixed up so they don’t get too much of one thing and not enough of another. Pellets and crumble take care of this problem.

With a mixed grain feed, the chickens will often pick out which grains they prefer so they are not getting a good mix of nutrients unless you limit how much they get at a time so they always clean their plate when you feed them.

 

[TalkALittle]

Relative to a whole or cracked grain diet, pellets are a more processed feed. I've personally got nothing against pellets but the OP has a preference. I made no statement as to the benefits or superiority of feeding one or the other.

 

[pdirt]

Not sure how far east you are but you may want to check out Azure Standard. If you meet the minimal requirements, you could have scratch n peck delivered to you for free.

In the mean time, yes, just feed some grain and perhaps cook up some organic meat. They'll be fine for a few days or longer. In fact, many people go out of their way to not feed formulated chicken feed and just make their own recipes!

 

[pdirt]

Why is a pelleted feed not minimally processed? The way they make pelleted feed is to first gather up all the ingredients and grind them up together. That’s called mash. To make pellets they add water to make a paste and extrude that through dyes, then flash dry that. That’s pellets. To make crumbles they gently crush the pellets. Pellets are not further processing but are simply another form of the same thing. Maybe it is the grinding you don’t like?

In mash the different ingredients can separate by gravity, the denser feeds sinking to the bottom. Mash is often fed stirred up then mixed with water or something else wet to keep the feed mixed up so they don’t get too much of one thing and not enough of another. Pellets and crumble take care of this problem.

With a mixed grain feed, the chickens will often pick out which grains they prefer so they are not getting a good mix of nutrients unless you limit how much they get at a time so they always clean their plate when you feed them.

Every time those feed ingredients are exposed to moisture and heat, it degrades the nutritional value a little bit. The feed manufacturers know this, so they add in extra vitamins and minerals to compensate when they make pelleted feed. Generally these are synthetic vitamins and some people don't like synthetic anything.

My philosophy is that the sum of the parts don't equal the whole. Whole food means just that... Its nutritional components have not been broken down but are intact as a whole. I for one would never take a synthetic vitamin unless it was the only thing available to save my life.

As far as chickens picking through for the choice grains, yes mine do that with the Scratch n Peck whole grain feed...at first. Then they go back and eat more and eventually they eat the powdery stuff. Some people mix the powdery stuff with liquid to make it easier to eat, but I find they will eat it if they get hungry enough, which isn't very long!

Some people complain about feed wastage with non-pelleted feeds and I say if you really want to minimize waste, you need either a different feeder or to modify it. We have no feed waste on our whole grain diet.