Shelf Life of Chick Feed

[TheUrbanUndertaking]

Hello! I just purchased some chick feed (Mana Pro Chick Starter Feed Crumbles), but it looks like the manufacture date is already over a year ago. The food itself looks fine, but seeing a lot of threads that mention feed only stays good for around 6-8 months.

Does anyone else have experience or advice? Should that feed still be good to use since it hasn't been opened, or should I get another bag?

Thanks so much!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I wouldn’t use it. Can you return it? I could always smell when the feed went stale and the chickens seemed to waste a lot of it.

 

[Chicken Heel]

The nutritional value starts going south after about 90 days. I recommend buying some newer feed and mixing it together to use it up. There is a a lot of older feed in circulation.

 

[TheUrbanUndertaking]

Unfortunately, I won't be able to return it, but it would have been just short of a year past the manufacture date when I bought it. Wild!

I've been skulking around other threads and this seems to be a pretty common problem. Glad I have an answer on my first bag rather than feeding them something stale when they come home.

Thank you both for the advice!