Pellets into mash?

[phicri72]

I accidentally bought pellets instead of crumbles. I thought the girls were eating it, but when we stopped giving treats except for scratch (it's cold here in Indiana right now, and I don't want them to freeze/starve to death), I realized that they are not eating the pellets at all. I don't relish trying to use the food processor to make them crumbles. 50 lbs is a lot to put a cuisinart through. Does anyone know if I soak the pellets in water if they will break down into a sort of mash that I can feed them? Haven't tried it yet, but thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts on this one.

 

[sourland]

Try soaking a small amount in warm/hot water to see if that will get them started on eating it.

 

[my sunwolf]

Mine actually love when the rain blows sideways and their pelleted feed turns to mush. Kind of like gourmet

Some hens have to get used to the texture at first.

 

[chickentooth]

I did the same thing once. I figured i would crush them down each time i fed them. But they don't crush into crumble like i thought they would. I ended up smashing some and then mixing it with regular crumbles.

I think the soaking is a bad idea just because you mention the cold tempurature, the mash would just freeze. Grinding them up in a blender is a great idea but time consuming.

 

[sourland]

The cold temps would be the reason for only soaking enough to be eaten immediately. At one time I commonly fed my chickens warm soaked mash twice a day in addition to their ad lib feeding.

 

[LaVidaGallina]

I add a bit of hot water to the pellets every morning and night and they are now eating it up. They didn't like the change from crumbles to pellets. I thought the pellets would be less messy, but turns out they make a mess with anything I give them. LOL
The mash gets eaten up quickly and the mess is minimal.

 

[Fairview01]

I've never seen a chicken starve itself to death because it didn't like the feed. Since there is less waste with pellets - they can't flick through it for the tasty morsels - the pellets last longer. They will eat it when they get hungry

 

[lazy gardener]

I've never seen a chicken starve itself to death because it didn't like the feed. Since there is less waste with pellets - they can't flick through it for the tasty morsels - the pellets last longer. They will eat it when they get hungry

I agree with above poster... up to a point. I once had a flock that was literally starving on a particular bag of feed. Same brand, same formulation, pellets, good mill date. But, they absolutely would not eat this feed, no matter how I served it: dry or fermented. I finally called the feed store and explained what was going on. The manager told me to bring it back. I did, they gave me a new bag, no questions asked. I upgraded to a multi flock since they had actually lost some condition while not eating. I have not experienced this issue ever again, but it's something to be aware of. Sometimes, feed, while looking, and smelling fine, and of a recent mill date simply is not good for what ever reason.

But, where OP has recently switched from crumble to pellets, I'm guessing that the birds are simply protesting. Might be a good opportunity to try fermenting the feed.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I give wet mash every morning. Seriously it is just wetted pellets with a couple cap fulls of ACV in it.

Mine head out the door for the scratch and right back in for the mash leaving the scratch on the ground for later.

All you can do is try it and see.

 

[barred2rock]

There is no difference between pellets and crumble once they've been soaking for a few minutes.