To Scratch or not to Scratch???

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Wow.....are you guys knowledgable or what!!!! Thank you sooo much for the information. My gals aren't getting more than a handful a piece all day; so I am going to go ahead and keep up the scratch. I will be growing Kale for them in the garden and I also treat them to mealworms. Your responses really eased my mind. We love singing the chickie song, rattling the can, seeing them run and then work so hard "scratching" up the seeds. I am feeding (I think) a good scratch, it has corn, milo, alfalfa and a rare sunflower seed. But it appears more milo than corn.....so I'm gonna keep it up! Thanks again....Oh and my egg production is anywhere from 9-12 eggs a day. But they also give me a lot of entertainment, so I guess I'll keep 'em!
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If you are getting it from a feed mill/ store and it is a premixed that they buy already mixed up it could be a mix of Crack Corn, Milo, Wheat and Clipped Oats or Crack Corn, Milo and Wheat.

Chris
 
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That's funny because I have always read to feed cracked corn or scratch (mainly corn) before bed in the winter. The additional carbs are supposed to help warm them up on cold nights.

I have a problem with certain girls forming a coup and heading for the pine tree instead of their nice and cozy chicken coop!! I like to toss scratch right when they are eating a settling in for the night to get them all inside where it is safe. They do have a preference though, I bought scratch from Agway, just corn and wheat, and they would NOT touch the corn. It just laid on the ground. The Agway guy looked at me like I was nuts when I told him. However they gobble up the Tractor Supply scratch which added a millet looking grain, which they pick out first. After some sprouted I think it is red broom corn, or sorghum, so this year I am growing some just for the girls.

I don't think this little bit of scratch each day messes up their eating. They eat layer all grain pellets and whatever I toss that day and what they can find in the yard and garden. I get good eggs with solid color and strong shells.

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I posted this in another similar topic thread and felt compelled to share it here as well.....

"It's also why folks say it makes your chickens "hot". Not hot like over heated, but it gives them energy. I think people misunderstand the term "hot" when in reference to feedstuffs. Corn and other carbohydrates are considered energy producing or "hot" grains.

And honestly folks, look at the ingredients in your feed and look at the ingredients in your scratch. Sure, the "complete" feed has vitamins and minerals and what not, but how many of you feed a processed feed that has "grain by-products" listed? The scratch is whole or cracked grains that you can see what they are so how is that "bad". Seems to me that's backwards logic.

Do NOT send me hate mail on this.....

I know the protien should be at certain % depending on age and growth and production levels and generally speaking scratch grains do not contain the same levels of protien, but why so many people are "anti-scratch" I have yet to figure out. No, it shouldn't be the bird's only source of nutrition if it is not at appropriate levels of protien for growth and developement and production of the bird, but neither should potatos and bread be ours. Likening it to "candy" or potato chips is, IMO, a bit misleading.

Do birds lay as well on a cracked corn based scratch as they do on a "complete" ration - no they don't(first hand experience, here). Will they die of malnutrition? Probably not( I won't say definately, cause I've not seen every bird on it. I do know folks who only feed it though and their birds are by no means on death's door).

Fact is, before companies like Purina and Dupont and TSC spent millions of dollars in research on chicken nutrition, folks were feeding vegetable scraps and scratch grains to chickens and chickens were breeding and laying and growing on it. It hasn't been until recent years that there has been such focus on animal nutrition and feeding "complete" feeds. Horses used to eat oats and hay. Cows used to eat corn and hay. Chickens ate scratch and scraps and pigs ate what ever was slopped in the trough after dinner.

As I said before, I feed my birds a locally milled complete ration and throw in some scratch on the side. But in a pinch, I'd feed them just the scratch. Just like I'd feed my horses just plain oats if I had run out of the feed I have specially milled for them. IN fact, I did have one horse who ONLY ate oats twice a day with his hay and he was perfectly healthy. But that is a different story.

Point is, you can feed scratch grains to your birds, the chicken feeding police won't come and arrest you."

Scratch on Henny Penny!!!!
 
Point is, you can feed scratch grains to your birds, the chicken feeding police won't come and arrest you."

Scratch on Henny Penny!!!!

Wow....that was Fabulous!!! Thanks for all the great replies........We will scratch on!
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