Scratch as feed?!

[MIKE555444]

Quote:
I will back you up on this 100%... my grandma alway said that sometimes her chickens she kept, only got scrach and were lucky to just get that ...they didnt have special feed or anything they fed them WHAT they could, and got eggs every day...

Alot of things were different... Like when a hawk started catching your free range chicks you would shoot it. SSS was very common for dogs and cats also. It hard to giove them the same enviroment "grammaw" had.

 

[phoenixmama]

I say that the big ag companies have been very good at teaching us the "right" way to do things.

People have been raising chickens for an awfully long time...long before Purina came around. I agree with the other posters about scratch...it's grains and corn. Oh the horror! Do you have chickens that are all cooped up and can't forage at all...then sure, you better give them the processed stuff. Otherwise, if the chickens are producing well, acting happy and healthy, and have plenty of opportunity to get bugs then what is the big deal? It certainly is cheaper than the processed stuff.

 

[trilyn]

Quote:
Fertrell's does sell protein supplements:

http://www.fertrell.com/poultry.html

As I understand it, that's what is primarily lacking in a scratch diet (protein). I have a friend who feeds his flock scratch supplemented with cat food for protein.

Thank you for the link!

 

[cnj-tx50]

I do throw out about 2 cups of scratch every morning, but I also have crumble when they want it. The gets dinner scrapes, garden left overs and grass and whatever else they can find - not free range but a 50x50 yard of their own. They don't eat a lot of the crumble but they always find and eat all the scratch.

 

[GrannySue]

I use layer pellets for all my birds*, but they probably get what some people might say is too much scratch. They also freerange all day so I don't worry too much about a balanced feed during late spring-early fall. Sometimes they've hardly made a dent in their food because there's so much natural stuff around for them. (Including dahlia leaves which is so annoying! I made a fence around the dahlias but it wasn't high enough. No flower prizes for me at the Fall Fair this year!

)

But I know a woman who has extremely healthy good layers and she feeds all her birds just wheat and white bread! This includes peafowl and chickens, plus wild geese, farm geese and deer. (Oh, sorry, deer aren't poultry are they?

) She does use non-medicated starter for her peeps but after she runs out of that they're fed the same as the grown-ups.

*my birds at present are;
- 3 retired Hybrid layers
- 2 year-old Australorps
- 1 year-old Buff Orp
- 2 year-old mutts
- 4 mature runner ducks
- 1 mature runner drake
- 2 12 wk old runner drakes
- 1 12 wk old runner duck

 

[rstampa]

There is one thing. That companies that make feeds for animals will always say that theirs is the best. Now where to you think that came from scratch is not good for you chickens? Hooray!!! Purina and all the rest. How else could they make their money. Just some feed for thought.

Great input from all.

PS My girls are on Starter Grow feed and they free range about 1-2 hours a day. With my supervision. So I haven't desided which to feed them when they are grown.

 

[outbackbill]

Just food for thought. Winter is coming and FAT chickens can survive in the cold better than skinny ones. I think that right now during the fall it is good to "over feed" (if that is even possible) is good. I am feeding mine everything they will eat because I think this is going to be a COLD winter up here in the north.

 

[BeccaOH]

I been talking to my aunt who had chickens for 40 years. She feeds mainly whole wheat, cracked corn, and veggie scraps. Chickens free range in summer.

I'm thinking of quitting the pricey layer food and going to either my own mix of oats, corn, millet, and sunflower or to a good scratch mix.

Chickens are hating the Dumor layer pellets I tried because I thought crumbles were getting wasted. Egg laying is way down.