Purina Feed?

[ChikinInThePines]

Hey everyone! My wife and I are new to keeping chickens and have been using Manna Pro for awhile now (even in the past with Quail). We will most likely need to change to a more "bulk" option of feed - however, our local stores have stopped carrying Purina due to the issues they have caused for our friends, local breeders and growers. Even We can still order Purina as it a much more budget friendly option, but has anyone had issues with Purina recently?
Or does anyone recommend a good bulk feed other than Purina?

 

[nuthatched]

Go read all the threads on this, but there's nothing wrong with the feed. :] Just a perfect storm of aging chickens + low daylight+ inexperienced keepers + social media hysteria.

 

[Brooks_]

has anyone had issues with Purina recently?

I have not.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you- good grief!! Was really starting to wonder... almost as bad as getting jumped ALL over on a different site for calling my TSC chick (at the time) a "Majestic Midnight Maran" and people FLIPPING out & going off about how that's NOT a Maran!! Easy- not showing here... was simply for identification sake looking for info!! People need to maybe get out more- or less...?? I dunno!

Anyway as I posted in my response, daylight is NOT an issue for me in PARTICULAR for reasons listed- as it is SO much better now....have 3 of remaining 5 laying pretty consistently- daily or OOD... but one I have to watch and give extra CA++ to as she simply won't eat ANY extra source of it left out to eat as needed and has laid soft shelled eggs pretty frequently in the last couple weeks especially...

Won't go into anymore details as this isn't really the place but I'd logged on to ask the question myself and then checked first in a search and this thread popped up... Silly me

DO appreciate you responding and letting me know all that- always a few bad eggs eh?!

I think when people talk about daylight they are talking about day length not about whether the coop gets a lot of light or just a little bit of light.
Longer days means the chickens start laying again versus shorter days in winter they lay less.

 

[FunClucks]

I have noticed when we have wild weather, like high winds, heavy blowing snow, or torrential rain, the chickens get "out of synch" with their laying. I'd guess it's the noise, or maybe the shaking of the coop that bothers them? It's not something we get too often, so it's out of the ordinary for them, and we know how they don't like things like that.

Chickens can be funny sometimes. Mine definitely respond to sunlight - if it's cloudy for a few days they lay less eggs, and then it get sunny for a while and my slow layers speed back up and we get the regular amount of eggs.

When we have weather that's really cold for a while and stays that way, they're fine, or if it's hot and stays that way they're not super happy but can cope, but when it does several days of super cold, several days of warm and then back and forth a few times, I see smaller eggs and a few of my less frequent layers slow down more, so I get a few less eggs also.

 

[Sally PB]

I would like add that those birds are kept confined and not kept for more than two years.

I do not recommend layer feed for anyone with what we think of as a backyard flock. Even if it had 20% protein, the birds will not need all the calcium all the time.

Yes, both good points, thank you!

Especially the calcium! I forgot to add that I have a dish of oyster shell and another of crushed eggshells for the ladies to get their calcium. They nosh on it when they need it.

My rooster has pecked at both. When he took a piece of oyster shell, he looked like, "What the...? You girls eat this stuff?"

 

[Sally PB]

Now I finally post a reply to what looks like a pretty recent post- compared to what I normally see on everything I've looked into...and I'm sorry to have evidently offended!! I will read the links that you so passionately posted!!

Don't worry, you're ok. This topic got hashed about for a few weeks, and got very contentious. Some people got made and left BYC over it.

Read the threads if you like; there was some interesting information in with all the hubbub.

I agree that the "my chickens aren't laying, is it the feed" was pretty much disproven. Could some people have gotten bad feed? Sure.

My criteria for chicken feed is 20% protein, like an all flock or flock maker, and how fresh it is. If a Purina feed checks those boxes, I'd say it's fine.

 

[ChknMama50]

Thank you- good grief!! Was really starting to wonder... almost as bad as getting jumped ALL over on a different site for calling my TSC chick (at the time) a "Majestic Midnight Maran" and people FLIPPING out & going off about how that's NOT a Maran!! Easy- not showing here... was simply for identification sake looking for info!! People need to maybe get out more- or less...?? I dunno!

Anyway as I posted in my response, daylight is NOT an issue for me in PARTICULAR for reasons listed- as it is SO much better now....have 3 of remaining 5 laying pretty consistently- daily or OOD... but one I have to watch and give extra CA++ to as she simply won't eat ANY extra source of it left out to eat as needed and has laid soft shelled eggs pretty frequently in the last couple weeks especially...

Won't go into anymore details as this isn't really the place but I'd logged on to ask the question myself and then checked first in a search and this thread popped up... Silly me

DO appreciate you responding and letting me know all that- always a few bad eggs eh?!

 

[Silexian]

I have used Purina feed for years. Purchased from either my local Purina store or TSC. I feed Purina to all of my livestock. Over the winter my egg laying flock had a sharper decline in production than they have in the past. Oddly my ornamental breeds that normally taper off or cease production. Barely slowed down at all. All of chickens are fed Flock Raiser. So I don’t think I had a feed issue. I am sure you can find some way to get Purina delivered. With shipping cost being what they are. You may be ahead to go with a different brand. Going to a feed store in a more rural area and getting enough feed for a couple of months. May be a viable option also. That is what I did. When I kept chickens in a suburban setting.

 

[nuthatched]

Yikes- excuse me!!

I apologize, friend, I should have thrown a smiley on there so you wouldn't think I was being mean. I didn't intend to come across as 'passionate', mean or anything else, I'm sorry.