Switching Feeds

[3xhhheather]

@Psalm118 Would you *please please* post a pic of the Reedy Fork soy free (corn free?) feed?
I can't get them to email a pic, or put one on their website, and they flat out refuse to answer what percentage of peas/powder is in it.
I'm about ot have to start making my own feed. Sick of wasting money on bags of peas and dust.
Thank you!!

I can take a pic in the AM & post it, I don't feed it to my girls dry only as a mash. It's not a lot of peas, but the 'dust' is the mix so it's not just all whole pieces of grain/seed.

Adding to all that, I've been feeding it to my flock for a bit now and I love it. It ferments great, their yolks are a deep yellow and I've had zero issues with soft shells.

 

[PeepOverlord]

What brands of feed are you using @PeepOverlord?

- Since everyone switched to Mostly peas feed-
1. Not one single grain of any kind, from any feed has sprouted. Not a one. And it's still averaging 80 and sunny here.
Yet I still have grain [plants] growing all over the property from the old/good MileFour feed.
2. None of the wild birds or critters want anything to do with the hens feed anymore. Which isn't right. It's Fall, they should be snarfing it up 2x as much, not avoiding it.
3. My hens would rather go hungry than touch these pea feeds. Even fermented.

Recap: All feeds *claimed* to be Organic, Non GMO, No soy (I'm allergic), No corn.
Most all of these contain unlisted ingredients.
Latest expensive failures:
MileFour (I was their #1 fan up until they switched all their feeds to peas and dust), Scratch and Peck (NOT organic and had a large% of unlisted canola/rapeseed), New Country Organics (85% peas/corn. 15% oats, alfalfa and dust), Organic Chicken Feed (.com) mostly just peas, pea shells, and flyaway dust.
SmallPetSelect - mostly just peas, pea shells, and pea pellets.

Every brand I've tried in the past 2.5 months is just an expensive sack of inedible peas and dust/powder.
Average : 4lbs of edible feed in a 25lb bag, < 8lbs of edible feed in a 50lb bag.
I now have a few hundred pounds of untouched peas scattered everywhere, accumulated from the past 10 weeks, with 24/7 trail cams and wifi cams on them.

I'm waiting to hear back from Homestead Harvest with photos of their Current feed.
Reedy Fork refuses to email photos or put photos on their website.

 

[PeepOverlord]

I can take a pic in the AM & post it, I don't feed it to my girls dry only as a mash. It's not a lot of peas, but the 'dust' is the mix so it's not just all whole pieces of grain/seed.

Adding to all that, I've been feeding it to my flock for a bit now and I love it. It ferments great, their yolks are a deep yellow and I've had zero issues with soft shells.

@3xhhheather Yes please! I get that everyone uses Fertrell's Nutrition additives which is small fines. But from Fertrell: "12oz (less than a pound) per 25 lb bag". 3% by weight.
Not 35+% of the bag!
So manufacturer's claims of "all that dust/powder is the vitamin mix" - nope.

 

[3xhhheather]

@PeepOverlord I missed the part where you mentioned 'corn free', sorry about that! My pics are of the 'soy free' mix + sunflower seeds. I peeked at the Reedy Fork site and it looks like they replace the corn with barley & flaxseed for the 'soy free corn free' feed so I'm guessing it would look about the same mix wise (?) I definitely think it needs to be as a mash though, all of it's way to loose and crumbly.

 

[PeepOverlord]

@3xhhheather Thanks so much for the pics! Yes it's very crumbly, but it's not the dust/powder I've been seeing. Your feed doesn't have a LOT of corn in it, so when the hens toss that out it's not a big deal. Now if I could only get them to eat mash. Thanks again!

 

[Psalm118]

@Psalm118 Would you *please please* post a pic of the Reedy Fork soy free (corn free?) feed?
I can't get them to email a pic, or put one on their website, and they flat out refuse to answer what percentage of peas/powder is in it.
I'm about ot have to start making my own feed. Sick of wasting money on bags of peas and dust.
Thank you!!

Sure will when I get another bag.