pellets

[unrealcolin]

hiya everyone just got two silkie hens about 12 weeks old.they love having little treats but will not touch the grower pellets ive got for them.tried feeding them by hand with them but they just walk off,any ideas thanks

 

[Mahonri]

Welcome to BYC....

My chickens hate the pellets. I'm getting sick of these picky eaters, but they love the crumbles and very little goes to waste so...

 

[Judy]

They will eat them when they get hungry enough.

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
You sound like my dad did when I was a kid.

We were feeding some of our cattle wheat and barley straw, drizzled with molases and they were turning their noses up at it and my dad said, "They'll eat it before they start chewing on their front feet!"

 

[NicInNC]

I bought pellets for my chickens and they refused to eat it. They kept eating the chick started that I had out for my chicks. I was not going to let the bag go to waste, so I sat one day for about 30 minutes putting the pellets into a blender and chopping them up. I only accomplished chopping up 1/2 bag, so I've still got my work cut out for me.

Oh, the things I do for these darn chickens....

 

[whatthecluck]

Quote:
I was also told that a coffee grinder works great for this too if need be...both are cheap enough I guess (ours was 20-)....blender might be easier to clean after though.

 

[NicInNC]

I was going to use my food chopper, but I have a bad habit of breaking those, so I decided against it.

We hardly ever use our blender.

 

[new-roo]

Mine all eat the pellets they are given, if you dont give them an option, they will eat it. All my birds will leave whatever they are doing if they think they can get in with the babies and steal some chick starter. I dont know if its easier to eat, or tastes better, I havent tried it, but if there is no starter they will eat the pellets. I havent lost one to starvation YET.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

My adult birds will also gobble down the chick starter whenever they can get their beaks close enough to it. They eat it as if they were starving, but I know for a fact they are not. I wonder if there is more corn in chick starter, and that's what they like so much about it. It's not that they don't like their pellets, it's just that they'd prefer chick starter, pretty please.

If you really think your birds won't eat pellets, before you wear out your blender grinding it into crumbles why not try wetting the pellets? Not in a drop feeder, go ahead & keep some dry pellets in that. But put some pellets in a pan and add water until it gets like oatmeal. If they still need enticement, add a handful of some other treat, cracked corn or chopped apple or something. You could then try adding just a little less water each day, until they were eating almost-dry pellets. By then they should be reconciled to them.

 

[gritsar]

The other day I carried a bucket of pellets out to the coop to refill the feeder, but set it down outside the coop while I went to check on something.
I came back to find my hens eating the pellets out of the bucket, so I scooped a handful out of the bucket and hand fed them some. They went nuts, like they had never tasted anything better.

Mine have been on pellets since they started laying and they do just fine.