Pellets or mash?

[xrex]

Ok so my chickens just layed there first eggs and they are about 6 months old. What should I feed them pellets or mash?

 

[Crooked-Creek]

Hello XREX,

What we do is start mixing feeds 50/50 when we are ready to wean them off the 20% protein Starter Grower. You may want to reduce their protein down between 14 and 16% once they start laying. (Layer Mash or Pellet. Either one is fine). Some flocks waste more Mash than they do Pellets. Young birds seem to always eat Mash better than pellets at our place. We were mixing chicken scratch with pellets at one time, but noticed our birds were wasting feed knocking out all the pellets to get to the chicken scratch. So now we hand feed scratch and crimped oats. That keeps them running toward us when we walk out the door with a feed bucket. Ultimately, you will just have to figure out what feed and how much works best for your birds. Good Luck!!!!

 

[xrex]

Hello XREX,

What we do is start mixing feeds 50/50 when we are ready to wean them off the 20% protein Starter Grower.  You may want to reduce their protein down between 14 and 16% once they start laying. (Layer Mash or Pellet. Either one is fine). Some flocks waste more Mash than they do Pellets. Young birds seem to always eat Mash better than pellets at our place. We were mixing chicken scratch with pellets at one time, but noticed our birds were wasting feed knocking out all the pellets to get to the chicken scratch. So now we hand feed scratch and crimped oats. That keeps them running toward us when we walk out the door with a feed bucket. Ultimately, you will just have to figure out what feed and how much works best for your birds. Good Luck!!!!       

Thank you very much!

 

[Ebers]

I feed pellets also because they don't seem to waste near as much & supplement w scratch it seems to also give the chickens something to do