What do you do with mash?

[Prairie Mary]

I have grower in crumbles and a good percentage of it is powder (what you call mash). I'm think the product has good ingredients, but I am pretty disappointed with the high percentage of powder.

So what the heck do you do with the mash to get the chickens to eat it? My chickens won't eat it and it just clogs up the feeder until I scoop it out. Call me crazy but I am sifting out the powder so the birds have something they can pick up and eat. What, pray tell, do you do to the mash to make them eat it? Make cookies? Lol!!

 

[Opa]

I put it in another pan with a little water to make a thick paste and the chickens eat it right up.

 

[oberhaslikid]

Quote:
This is what I do and they Love it.

 

[sheila3935]

In the winter I add warm water to it. Give them a hot breakfast. But I also cook them warm oatmeal in the winter.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Take this opportunity to mix in some good stuff like flax meal and extra vitamins or minerals. I have added rolled oats to it along with rolled barley and/or red pepper flakes for deworming and pour in a bit of wheat germ oil instead of water, mine has the extra Vit E so the Silkies really benefit from it.

 

[ID Pam]

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I am having the same problem. I feel the mash is of good quality. It is made especially for the local hatchery where I bought my chicks this spring and they are doing very well. But I find that lately there is a lot of waste. I am going to save it for winter and I will add it to a large pot of oatmeal and mix in some wheatgerm oil and feed it to them in the mornings as a warm up treat. I have pretty much switched them to all pellets now and I am also going to raise up the feeder significantly. My flock of 10 standards and 10 bantams run loose on about a half acre during the day, eating lots of grass and all the bugs they can find. They put themselves to bed at night and I lock them in their pen for safety. They don't seem to miss the mash at all and I am sure they will enjoy it in November.

Pam in ID

 

[~KH~]

Is eating a paste something chicks will do automatically or have to be exposed to a number of times before they take to it? I've tried giving mine some of the fine powder made into a thick paste, but they don't seem to have any idea what to do with it (they're just over 2 weeks old now). So I end up throwing it out at the end of the day. Will they eventually figure it out?

 

[Prairie Mary]

Thanks all! I was thinking along those lines (adding water). I have corn meal with weevils in it so I've been thinking about adding that. But it's corn so I probably shouldn't go too crazy with that.

@WestKnowAmy - thanks for the tips.

So how much red pepper flakes do you add for worming? I've never wormed my chickens and wonder if I should just do it once a year as a matter of course . . . or at that point am I messing with something that isn't broken?

I'm anxious to get the whole flock on layer pellets so I don't have to mess with all that powder.

Prairie Mary

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

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I do this too and mix in a handful of something tasty. Meal worms, BOSS, Oatmeal, etc.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

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I just had this crazy mental image -- serving warm mash and coffee to chickens.

That would be a morning to remember!