Hello Everyone,
I have two little hens (pullets) - one is 7 weeks old, and the other is 5 weeks old. We went through the first bag of medicated chick starter that was given to us when we purchased the chicks, and just prior to emptying it, I went online and purchased the Scratch 'N Peck chick starter feed after reading good things about it. After four days of mixing this with the last of the original feed and then giving it alone with nothing else, the hens are eating far less and don't seem to like this feed as much as I had expected them to. The other thing that concerns me a bit is that this feed has dried peas in it, and although the peas are cut in half, they are still rather large in size for chicks these age to try and eat - I worry that they would choke on these if they did try to eat them. Lastly, we live in the suburbs and want to do everything we can to keep down the smell of our coop and run, but this feed smells really bad - it is a combination of sourkraut and fish smell, and you can smell it outside of the run and coop area to the point where I don't want my neighbors to have to tolerate this smell. Have any of you found a non-medicated chick/grower feed without large peas that your birds really like and that doesn't smell so bad? Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions.
I have two little hens (pullets) - one is 7 weeks old, and the other is 5 weeks old. We went through the first bag of medicated chick starter that was given to us when we purchased the chicks, and just prior to emptying it, I went online and purchased the Scratch 'N Peck chick starter feed after reading good things about it. After four days of mixing this with the last of the original feed and then giving it alone with nothing else, the hens are eating far less and don't seem to like this feed as much as I had expected them to. The other thing that concerns me a bit is that this feed has dried peas in it, and although the peas are cut in half, they are still rather large in size for chicks these age to try and eat - I worry that they would choke on these if they did try to eat them. Lastly, we live in the suburbs and want to do everything we can to keep down the smell of our coop and run, but this feed smells really bad - it is a combination of sourkraut and fish smell, and you can smell it outside of the run and coop area to the point where I don't want my neighbors to have to tolerate this smell. Have any of you found a non-medicated chick/grower feed without large peas that your birds really like and that doesn't smell so bad? Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions.
