switching from crumbles to pellets

[ibpboo]

You can add hot water to the crumbles and turn it into a mash. You can use it on very cold cold mornings if you like.

Its to warm them up. I give my horse hot mash made out of bran on very cold mornings, after a very chilly night.

oops typos

 

[the simple life]

Thats exactly it, I pour hot water into the crumbles, sometimes I add scratch or cracked corn to keep them warm too, if I have rolled oats, quick oats I throw that in too.
If its really bitter cold I will give it to them before they go to roost at night other times they get it in the morning.
Cracked corn and the scratch which contains cracked corn helps to raise their body temperatures and keep them warm. You should not give them much if any cracked corn in the warm weather.
Its great for keeping them warm in winter though and it makes a nice mash and the crumbles are like the consistency of oatmeal.

 

[the simple life]

Quote:
They are 6 months old and should be laying soon. They don't seam to be spilling the crumble much. I guess I'll leave it be for now, but I was pondering.....

Dove

If your hens are 6 months old they should already be on layer food, be it pellets or crumbles. If they are doing well on the starter crumbles or grower you should switch to layer crumbles, they need it for them to be able to lay sufficiently. If they don't have enough calcium their shells will be soft or the eggs will be shell less.

 

[Morning Dove]

Quote:
They are 6 months old and should be laying soon. They don't seam to be spilling the crumble much. I guess I'll leave it be for now, but I was pondering.....

Dove

If your hens are 6 months old they should already be on layer food, be it pellets or crumbles. If they are doing well on the starter crumbles or grower you should switch to layer crumbles, they need it for them to be able to lay sufficiently. If they don't have enough calcium their shells will be soft or the eggs will be shell less.

Oh, yes, they are on layer, and I also save my egg shells for them, after washing and crunching them up.

Dove

 

[Sunny Side Up]

You can make hot mash from pellets too, the same way as with crumbles, just pour hot water over them & they'll soften up as nice as crumbles.

I too prefer pellets to crumbles for the same reason, there's less waste. It's easier for them to pick up the pellets from the ground, with crumbles they will leave the smaller bits behind.

I've heard that some folks' chickens will "refuse" to eat pellets. I would imagine that if pellets were all that were available, eventually even the fussiest chicken would change her little mind.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Amen! I feed quality feed to all my animals. An animal will not starve itself to death if quality feed is available to them. I don't know about y'all, but I cannot afford to have finicky animals and to be running back and forth to buy them different feeds. They may turn their noses up at it at first, but believe me when they get hungry they will eat.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Switching from a crumble to a pellet is easy!!!!!!!!

Dump in a bag of pelleted feed on top of the crumbles in the feeder!!!!!!! Far too often we anthropomorphise and attibute human preferences to our livestock. If the chickens don't "like" the pellet they will quickly develop a preference when they become hungry.

Jim

 

[cajunlizz]

You can switch straight ( COLD TURKEY ) to laying pellets ....


I am starting to ask myself , WHAT do we all think Our parents did when they raised chickens . they fed them , gave them plenty of water , and a place to lay and sleep . END OF STORY . We ( chicken lovers today ) spend hours of our waking time worrying AS MUCH about our chickens then we did about our children when they were small ...

My parents raised about 200 head of chickens , several Pigs , pasture full of cattle , and NONE of them died from hunger , or died from the cold . LOL

 

[Aitchs]

OK. I use crumbles, pellets , mash & cracked corn but I keep hearing about 'scratch'.
What is scratch. Will my feed store have it? Thanks

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
You're already feeding it - cracked corn.
The kind I get is called scratch grains. It's the cracked corn with some oats and a few seeds mixed in.