Pros and Cons of scratch block

[Melissa Malone]

I have heard a lot about scratch blocks for chickens. I have a run that is 12 x 16 and have 13 hens. They are very comfortable and I try to let them free range ever day or at least every other day for a few hours. I was wondering if it beneficial to add a scratch block in their run so that they have something else to entertain them?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hmmmm...

Purina's Flock Block
Kalmach's All Natural Pountry Block
Same "Henhouse Reserve" Block
IFA's Flock Block

So, each and every example is low protein, wildly deficient in key amino acids, and utterly beyond your ability to control how much of it your chickens eat - or what they might pick out of it. Additionally, ewvery example has roughly twice the levels of calcium recommended for roosters or hatchling, juvenile, and adolescent chickens (to who those grossly deficient lysine and methionine numbers will do the greatest damage).

Each comes with recommends that it not exceed 10% of the daily diet, just like Scratch. So it provides the *illusion* of offering Scratch without the hassle of going out and offering it to the birds (a practice I am, admittedly, not fond of for nutritional reasons) while in reality requiring that you remove it (at a typical weight of 20-25#), daily, to help moderate their feed intake.

No, I would NOT recommend it as beneficial, to you, or your birds.

 

[Melissa Malone]

Hmmmm...

Purina's Flock Block
Kalmach's All Natural Pountry Block
Same "Henhouse Reserve" Block
IFA's Flock Block

So, each and every example is low protein, wildly deficient in key amino acids, and utterly beyond your ability to control how much of it your chickens eat - or what they might pick out of it. Additionally, ewvery example has roughly twice the levels of calcium recommended for roosters or hatchling, juvenile, and adolescent chickens (to who those grossly deficient lysine and methionine numbers will do the greatest damage).

Each comes with recommends that it not exceed 10% of the daily diet, just like Scratch. So it provides the *illusion* of offering Scratch without the hassle of going out and offering it to the birds (a practice I am, admittedly, not fond of for nutritional reasons) while in reality requiring that you remove it (at a typical weight of 20-25#), daily, to help moderate their feed intake.

No, I would NOT recommend it as beneficial, to you, or your birds.

Thanks ... That was pretty much my opinion since I know my ladies get plenty of nutritional benefits from their , grain, oats, free range bugs and such, and I give them vegetables, fruits and yogurt and mealworms.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hmmmm...

Purina's Flock Block
Kalmach's All Natural Pountry Block
Same "Henhouse Reserve" Block
IFA's Flock Block

So, each and every example is low protein, wildly deficient in key amino acids, and utterly beyond your ability to control how much of it your chickens eat - or what they might pick out of it. Additionally, ewvery example has roughly twice the levels of calcium recommended for roosters or hatchling, juvenile, and adolescent chickens (to who those grossly deficient lysine and methionine numbers will do the greatest damage).

Each comes with recommends that it not exceed 10% of the daily diet, just like Scratch. So it provides the *illusion* of offering Scratch without the hassle of going out and offering it to the birds (a practice I am, admittedly, not fond of for nutritional reasons) while in reality requiring that you remove it (at a typical weight of 20-25#), daily, to help moderate their feed intake.

No, I would NOT recommend it as beneficial, to you, or your birds.

I feed Nutrena Naturewise All Flock Pellets.
I noticed the Purina Flock Block is about 1% higher then the feed I feed.

Is the Calcium Range fine?https://www.nutrenaworld.com/produc...I3cM22NoaAsiYEALw_wcB#guaranteed-analysis-anc

 

[kerbotx]

Pros & cons, like everything else. I like the idea of the flock block, but they're so expensive, it's always seemed like a ripoff. And they can be really hard - I had to keep a brick nearby, so I could chisel a little off now & then. To regulate their intake, I'd also cover it with a rubber bowl part of the time, which reduces its effectiveness as a boredom buster - more like, "hey, she took the cover off, let's go grab a snack, quick!" Used in this fashion, the higher-up girls could prevent the lower-down girls from enjoying the block. So, if I could catch a really great sale, I might get one; or if I knew a bad storm was coming, where they were probably going to be confined for a few days, that might be a good time to have one. Otherwise, they are quite happy with plain old scratch grains, tossed around the run a bit.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I give a flock block to my birds every other month. I keep it spaced out, so the birds have plenty of time before getting another.

I usually give a flock block 1-2 times during the summer months, 1-2 times in the fall. So not very often, just to give them something different to snack on.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I feed Nutrena Naturewise All Flock Pellets.
I noticed the Purina Flock Block is about 1% higher then the feed I feed.

Is the Calcium Range fine?https://www.nutrenaworld.com/produc...I3cM22NoaAsiYEALw_wcB#guaranteed-analysis-anc

Mystery, I've used Nutrena NatureWise All Flock myself. Its not bad, and better than many. The Methionine and Lysine levels meet or exceed USDA/NRCS recommends for adult layers, and overlap some of the other categories as well. Since I essentially always have hatchlings, juvelines, and adolescents in my flock, I would like to see higher, but 0.35% and 0.8%, respectively beat the 0.3% and 0.6% I see on so many bags.

The fat, at 2.5%, is a bit low - but nothing that's going to damage your birds, and frankly, that's got to be the easiest number to "fix" with an occasional treat - like feeding excess eggs back to the flock (10% fat +/-). Likewise, fiber is a bit high, but lots of ways to address that (including those eggs) if there's a need (and generally, there isn't). If you were raising CornishX for the table, this wouldn't be in the top three choices for me - I'd want more fat (4-5%) and less fiber (3.5% or less). For a layer or a dual bird, those numbers are acceptable, but not optimum.

That brings me to your question, and calcium (its taken me this long to organize my thoughts). Research varies. For non layers, I target a calcium percentage of around 1.3% +/-. Calcium toxicity is a progressive disease, with a lot of interrelated components. As you know, my own Roosters, after about 9 weeiks, get fed what the rest of the flock does, a mix that can range from 2.4% to about 2.7% - thus far, I've had no discernable issues, and I'm poking around inside them pretty frequently. Once again, i consider the Nutrena number acceptable, not optimal, based on the research.

I know you free choice oyster shell, and I have absolutely no concerns whatsoever about the use of this feed with active layers. I'll even note positively that All Flock has a very good Phoshorus number at 0.6% compared to many, and includes phytase to make phytate (that is, plant based) phosphorus bioavailable to your birds. Phosphorus helps mitigate the effects of excess calcium. I **think** that Nutrena also uses a mix of calcium sources, including some less prone to the development of calcium toxicity than calcium carbonate (essentially, oyster shell), but I can't remember where I misplaced their ingredient list to double check my recollection.

 

[Brooks_]

Additionally, ewvery example has roughly twice the levels of calcium recommended for roosters or hatchling, juvenile, and adolescent chickens

The calcium level is what has stopped me from buying it.

Is the Calcium Range fine?

It's high for my taste. Storm gives a better breakdown. For where I buy, should flock raiser dissapear, I would probably accept the slightly increased risk of Nutrena all flock. I would mis the crumble. All life stages can eat that.

 

[centrarchid]

As a supplement to free-range activity, I like the flock blocks better than scratch grain mixes I can buy. They do have supplmental vitamins and minerals plus make the birds work for the intake. I like it when the free-range birds are motivated to forage as easier the meeting energy needs when foraging. The flock block becomes more important when it gets really cold or forage is depleted. Then I step in with more complete feed or give the chickens access to an area that is not depleted or otherwise inaccessible.

For me the benefit it is a tool allowing me to see when energy needs in particular are not being easily met.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Honestly, the ONLY reason I would use a flock block would be outside my electric fence, to attract the local wildlife, so that I could "take" them with a firearm of appropriate caliber.