Pellets

[familler]

Hi all, I have 4 grown chickens and they were given to me about 6 months ago by a friend. When they came to our backyard, they were accompanied by pellets to feed them. Once those were finished, I have bought whole grain/scratch since I wanted to feed them whole grains. They have not been eating all of the grains/ingredients of the scratch mix, and reading a bit on this I realized this may have been a bad idea: not enough nutrition? So I went back to pellets. Bought a non-GMO pellet (Bar-Ale brand, if you are familiar with Northern California local feed) and the chickens would not even care for it. They do not touch it!

I am torn between feeding them whole grains (this time I probably would like to buy whole wheat, oat kernels and more ingredients to make my own mix, but it is a big commitment of buying 50lb bag each.) and the pellet.

 

[Kiki]

Hi all, I have 4 grown chickens and they were given to me about 6 months ago by a friend. When they came to our backyard, they were accompanied by pellets to feed them. Once those were finished, I have bought whole grain/scratch since I wanted to feed them whole grains. They have not been eating all of the grains/ingredients of the scratch mix, and reading a bit on this I realized this may have been a bad idea: not enough nutrition? So I went back to pellets. Bought a non-GMO pellet (Bar-Ale brand, if you are familiar with Northern California local feed) and the chickens would not even care for it. They do not touch it!

I am torn between feeding them whole grains (this time I probably would like to buy whole wheat, oat kernels and more ingredients to make my own mix, but it is a big commitment of buying 50lb bag each.) and the pellet.

Oh boy... I would not go back to feeding them whole grains if I were you.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If they ONLY have pellets to eat, they'll eventually give in and eat them.

If you prefer feeding them a whole grain mash like the one you were using, then I highly suggest you consider fermenting it, so they're forced to eat the entire feed, not just the parts they want. I've gotten my waste down to 1% or less since I started fermenting my mash.

Mixing your own isn't going to be very cost effective nor will only 4 chickens be able to eat some 200+ lbs of feed before it starts to go bad.

 

[tralfaz]

Have you tried crumbles? I only toss in some scratch in the morning and evening to encourage ranging in certain areas

 

[pozees2]

Maybe buy a small bag of the pellets they were used to and mix with the ones you bought to see if you can get them switched over?