Safety of Whole Grain feed...

[Peaches Lee]

Just perusing some chicken feeds and came across some whole grain chicken feed. So, the grains are not ground into a fine powder like meal but rather left as nature intended. Having had two of my hens develop crop impactions, I'm a little gun shy about certain feeds.

I love the idea of whole grains, I'm sure my chickens would love it, but is it safe? Has anyone had issues with crops becoming blocked?

 

[DobieLover]

Just perusing some chicken feeds and came across some whole grain chicken feed. So, the grains are not ground into a fine powder like meal but rather left as nature intended. Having had two of my hens develop crop impactions, I'm a little gun shy about certain feeds.

I love the idea of whole grains, I'm sure my chickens would love it, but is it safe? Has anyone had issues with crops becoming blocked?

I feed about 1/2 Flock Raiser and have a homemade mix of whole grains, whole field peas, BOSS and flax seed with poultry nutri-balancer and fish meal. I ferment the grain mix to soften it as well as for the fermentation benefits. I've been feeding this for nearly 2 years without issue.

 

[Peaches Lee]

I feed about 1/2 Flock Raiser and have a homemade mix of whole grains, whole field peas, BOSS and flax seed with poultry nutri-balancer and fish meal. I ferment the grain mix to soften it as well as for the fermentation benefits. I've been feeding this for nearly 2 years without issue.

Oh, that makes so much sense! So, when you say "ferment" does that mean you soak it for a long time or like 10 minutes?

 

[DobieLover]

Oh, that makes so much sense! So, when you say "ferment" does that mean you soak it for a long time or like 10 minutes?

Three days.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Just perusing some chicken feeds and came across some whole grain chicken feed. So, the grains are not ground into a fine powder like meal but rather left as nature intended. Having had two of my hens develop crop impactions, I'm a little gun shy about certain feeds.

I love the idea of whole grains, I'm sure my chickens would love it, but is it safe? Has anyone had issues with crops becoming blocked?

The bigger problem I've seen with pretty feeds is birds picking out only their favorite parts and getting malnourished... or if predisposed genetically somehow (Orpington for example), and ALSO fed excess treats like scratch... have even resulted in fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome (and possibly sudden death). Most folks don;t have necropsies done and will blame it on heart attack.

I did fermented feed ONLY for 2+ years for flock of 82+... I saw NO benefit from fermenting... no increase to health, no decrease to feed cost. It may be helpful to birds who need it more... but dry feeding has not increased my bill OR health issues... Turns out our formulated rations area already formulated to meet the needs of our birds!

I don't feed a whole grain feed... but I have sprouted and even foddered whole grains... without ANY crop issues.

Sometimes crop impaction can be a symptom of something more serious like Marek's. Other times it may occur do to something to long getting tied up too big to pass into the gizzard (or hardware crop)... like a long piece of hay. But gizzards are made for grinding and whole grains should NOT present a problem and pass through the crop sphincter easily.

What nature intended is a cool ideal! It never intended for us to selectively breed fowl to lay hundreds of eggs per year and keep them in our yards. Everything made commercially is made to appeal to the consumer... US!

 

[Perris]

I feed whole grains, fermented, and have not had a single case of crop impaction (or indeed any crop issues). Your heritage breeds probably won't be laying hundreds of eggs per year (150 would be good going for some of those breeds) but the Cornish might need watching; I've never kept them but I hear they're prone to just sitting by food bowls guzzling down as much as possible. Whole grains work best with an active foraging lifestyle I think.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I love the idea of whole grains, I'm sure my chickens would love it, but is it safe? Has anyone had issues with crops becoming blocked?

I've had a chicken with impacted crop around 3 years ago.
It was caused from (excess consumption) of long grass.
I give Scratch Grains scattered in their pen as a treat daily to my chickens. Never had a crop impacted from that. .
You'll need to offer access to Poultry Grit so the chickens can digest the whole grains. .
Complete Whole Grain Poultry feeds are best served fermented so the chickens consume all the grains and the powder that contains the added vitamins and minerals. Reason I feed a Crumble or Pellet feed. GC

 

[Molpet]

I feed a fermented mash. There are several ways to ferment, but this is the way I do https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Folly's place]

I'm happy to feed a complete crumble or pelleted feed right out of the bag, and not spend time and effort fermenting anything. The whole grain feeds can definitely be a problem for some birds who pick out the good stuff and leave the rest.
A hen laying 'only' 150 eggs per year is still working very hard! 'Natural' chickens might produce 30!
I think that crop impactions happen because they happen; the individual bird has a problem with her crop, and it overfills with whatever she's eating. Years ago I had a family of birds who developed this, several by one year of age. I eliminated this family from my breeding group, and the issue hasn't appeared in any other birds here.
Of course a bird might eat something stupid and get impacted, but otherwise it's just something she's doing. Marek's? I imagine it might cause this too.
Mary

 

[Peaches Lee]

I feed a fermented mash. There are several ways to ferment, but this is the way I do https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

Thank you! I look forward to investigating this.

Three days.

Thank you! In warmer months, how do you prevent the feed from going bad or rancid?

The bigger problem I've seen with pretty feeds is birds picking out only their favorite parts and getting malnourished... or if predisposed genetically somehow (Orpington for example), and ALSO fed excess treats like scratch... have even resulted in fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome (and possibly sudden death). Most folks don;t have necropsies done and will blame it on heart attack.

I did fermented feed ONLY for 2+ years for flock of 82+... I saw NO benefit from fermenting... no increase to health, no decrease to feed cost. It may be helpful to birds who need it more... but dry feeding has not increased my bill OR health issues... Turns out our formulated rations area already formulated to meet the needs of our birds!

I don't feed a whole grain feed... but I have sprouted and even foddered whole grains... without ANY crop issues.

Sometimes crop impaction can be a symptom of something more serious like Marek's. Other times it may occur do to something to long getting tied up too big to pass into the gizzard (or hardware crop)... like a long piece of hay. But gizzards are made for grinding and whole grains should NOT present a problem and pass through the crop sphincter easily.

What nature intended is a cool ideal! It never intended for us to selectively breed fowl to lay hundreds of eggs per year and keep them in our yards. Everything made commercially is made to appeal to the consumer... US!

Thank you for your input. Perhaps maybe my girls did get hay caught in their crop rather than grains. The first time it happened to my now 9 year old Silkie hen, it was when I switched to pelleted feed. I just assumed it was the pellets that caused the impaction.

I feed whole grains, fermented, and have not had a single case of crop impaction (or indeed any crop issues). Your heritage breeds probably won't be laying hundreds of eggs per year (150 would be good going for some of those breeds) but the Cornish might need watching; I've never kept them but I hear they're prone to just sitting by food bowls guzzling down as much as possible. Whole grains work best with an active foraging lifestyle I think.

My Cornish girls are actually very active! To the point of sneaking off into the hayloft to lay their eggs LOL! It's their Orp sisters that are the food hogs that wait at the feed dish instead of foraging....why do you suppose whole grains work best with active foragers?

I've had a chicken with impacted crop around 3 years ago.
It was caused from (excess consumption) of long grass.
I give Scratch Grains scattered in their pen as a treat daily to my chickens. Never had a crop impacted from that.View attachment 2032919View attachment 2032928.
You'll need to offer access to Poultry Grit so the chickens can digest the whole grains.View attachment 2032938View attachment 2032939.
Complete Whole Grain Poultry feeds are best served fermented so the chickens consume all the grains and the powder that contains the added vitamins and minerals. Reason I feed a Crumble or Pellet feed. GC

The second time I had a hen get impacted I do, now, feel it was because she didn't have access to grit and hay was present in her coop. It was a slip in my management as I was busy moving pens and re-arranging flocks. Perhaps I should limit their access to hay? Luckily I caught it in time and she recovered perfectly, but I need to be more mindful in future.