Pellets, crumbles and... "fines"?

[Riven]

I know about pellets and crumbles, my neighbor and I recently ordered some bulk feed from the mill and we ended up with a ton of chicken feed... but it hasn't been pressed at all. So it's basically like very fine crumbles, it has the consistency of bran to me. Basically similar to the fines you get out of a bag.

Will they eat this okay? I was kind of startled to see it when we got it. It would be great for making a mash, but what about everyday feeding? I'm still using up some crumbles but I was kind of wanting to get some thoughts.

Would love to hear thoughts!

 

[gritsar]

The only thing close to fines that I can think of available around here is what we call scratch. We have three types of scratch - chops (cracked corn), scratch grains (cracked corn w/other grains) and scratch (finely ground corn).
The only way my chickens will eat scratch is if I mix it with warm water as a wintertime treat.
Hope someone else will be along to help you.

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
That is also the only way mine will eat it, is if I put warm water, yogart or oatmeal in it.

 

[SC_Hugh]

Quote:
The crumble fines are like the last of the small stuff at the bottom of the cereal box.

My chickens don't seem to eat the fines because it is hard for them to pick up out of their feeders. Making a mash out of it should work fine (pun intended).

--Hugh

 

[sjh]

Yep you bought chicken mash. Millions of them eat it every day with no problem. The key to feeding it is to have a feeder that the chickens can not bill the feed out. They will look for the larger stuff first if they can beak it out of the container. I feed mash in a antique feeder with holes in a flapping cover. Over the 2.5 yrs I have had chickens I have spilt more feed cleaning the feeder then they have.

 

[Elite Silkies]

I have had trouble finding anything mine would eat with out adding water, oatmeal, etc. All I could find was scratch and pellets. I finally found the layer crumbles and they love ite. A lot less work on me. I don't think scratch is good for them all the time, I think it is more of a treat, but they had to eat what I could find and they hate the pellets. I think they would rather starve.