Pellets vs mash

[BigBen]

Well I gave in and bought them some Mash, they were sooooo happy. They were all trying to eat at the same time and making a ton of noise.
Everyone went to bed with a full belly. All is good in there world again.

 

[cybercat]

Hmm you all have giving me some thing to think about. I am still feeding starter BUT the last bag I picked up was starter crumbles. It is a starter / grower just like my other was but in crumbles form. I noticed the differance when I opened the bag but since bag sat in a container I did not look at tag. Today I did and formula is the same somewhat. The GA is mostly the same but the ingredients do vary in a way I do not like. For one molasses instead of alfalfa meal, next time I will be more watchful when they load the car. So ingredients do change from mash to crumbles and I am sure to pellets also. Just a heads up all.

 

[journey's end]

I tried the crumbles when we first started out and the waste was horrible. I won't go back to them. I do use crumbles for starter though. I've never used the pellets before. I don't even know if we can buy them. I use a feed that's simply cracked grains and such. You can actually make out what the food item is, like pieces of corn, wheat etc. I find they waste very little of it, and they clean up whatever they spill.

 

[gritsar]

journey's end :

I tried the crumbles when we first started out and the waste was horrible. I won't go back to them. I do use crumbles for starter though. I've never used the pellets before. I don't even know if we can buy them. I use a feed that's simply cracked grains and such. You can actually make out what the food item is, like pieces of corn, wheat etc. I find they waste very little of it, and they clean up whatever they spill.

What you described sounds an awful lot like what we call scratch grains here. I give it to mine as a summertime treat, because it doesn't have as much corn in it. In the wintertime I give them what we call "chops"; which is basically just cracked corn.
Just goes to show, different locales, different names.​

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Are you all getting your mash, crumbles and pellets at a similar price?

Here I pay $8 per 50 lbs ( $0.16 per pound) for grower mash at the feedmill. Pellets cost over $11 per 50 lbs ( $0.22 per lb). Even if you factor in a 10% waste for mash it would be $8 for 45 lbs ( $0.18 per lb). Since I mix the mash with water to get a thick slurry, waste is minimized.

 

[embkm]

Around here, starter/grower is about $14 for 50 lb bag. Laying pellets and laying crumbles both cost the same at about $12 per 50 lb bag.

When my young girls turned 19 weeks, I started mixing the starter with the laying pellets. They picked all the pellets out and dropped the starter on the ground. So I decided to switch them completely to layer pellets. I was worried that it might be a bit harder to switch them over but it was easy.

Of course the little free loaders still haven't given me an egg yet so they aren't allowed to be picky. After all, little beggars can't be choosers! LOL

 

[cybercat]

Right now where I buy my feed all types of chicken is the same price $11 for 50 lbs. Other places it is up from there $15 being the highest I have found. We have alot of feed stores here. I have yet to check 2 others out.

 

[gritsar]

I'm paying $11 a 50# bag for locally milled layer pellets. $9 for a 50# bag of scratch grains.

 

[BigBen]

Quote:
I thought the prosses was Starter then grower then layer at or about 20 weeks

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I thought the prosses was Starter then grower then layer at or about 20 weeks

In some places, like here, seperate grower is not available. I fed starter/grower until they started laying.