What's that in scratch?

[Ole rooster]

I've been feeding a scratch I get locally. It $15 for a fifty lbs bag. I say it's local. I have to drive about 20 miles to get it. Anyway, I ran way low and bought a 25 lb bag of Purina scratch at a local farm store. I was dumbfounded at what was in it compared to the mill stuff. It is just about all corn. The other has all kinds of different seed in it. The millet in the mill stuff the chickens really pick out.
Is Purina just saving money or do they really think corn is all that's needed? It nearly seems as thought they are just lazy and don't care.

 

[Clay Mudd]

Is Purina just saving money or do they really think corn is all that's needed? It nearly seems as thought they are just lazy and don't care.

I'll go with "All of the above."

Corn is generally cheaper than other grains, so there's that.
On the other hand, scratch doesn't need to be any particular grain, at least the way most people use it.

"Lazy and don't care" might be a topic for another thread -- I haven't had enough coffee for Purina-bashing yet.

 

[Chris09]

I've been feeding a scratch I get locally. It $15 for a fifty lbs bag. I say it's local. I have to drive about 20 miles to get it. Anyway, I ran way low and bought a 25 lb bag of Purina scratch at a local farm store. I was dumbfounded at what was in it compared to the mill stuff. It is just about all corn. The other has all kinds of different seed in it. The millet in the mill stuff the chickens really pick out.
Is Purina just saving money or do they really think corn is all that's needed? It nearly seems as thought they are just lazy and don't care.

For the most part "Scratch Grain" is just a high energy mix of Corn, Oats, Wheat, and Millet and used to promote scratching when pitched on the ground. (others use scratch grain as a treat)
Some feed mills may have a little different mix (if they mix there own) also some mills will sell a cheep bird seed as a scratch grain.

I use a Pigeon Grain mix as a scratch that is 14% protein and contains Yellow corn, Red Milo, Austrian Peas, Whole Wheat, Canada Peas, White Kafir, Maple Peas, Popcorn, Vetch, Buckwheat, Oat Groats, Rice, Hemp Seed and Hulled Sunflower Seeds.

Chris

 

[Ole rooster]

Pigeon Grain mix sounds good. This Purina stuff, at least with mine, is corn in corn out. Just entirely to much corn for my liking. Where would I find the Pigeon mix?

 

[theoldchick]

I like the pigeon scratch grain idea.

 

[OkChickens]

Are you just feeding them scratch? Chicken scratch is only about 10% protein and not a complete feed. 16% Layer Pellets is a much healthier diet for chickens to consume. It offers more than corn and a few seeds.

Nate

 

[Ole rooster]

My chicks are eating right along with the big girls. They all run together. I do manage to get the chicks to a place to eat the medicated starter/grower, but outside they eat everything.

I was wondering if the protein content of the Pigeon Grain was to high for the chicks? They are 8 weeks now.

 

[KBlue]

scratch is a generic term for a mix of grains. Purina put all that corn in there because it is cheap. Our birds would eat everything except the corn, so it always was wasted.

From then on, we always looked at the corn content before buying. The lower, the better.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It should tell you on the label what is in it, so there is no reason to be surprised when you open the bag.

Lots of people think that chickens are supposed to live on corn. So I'm going to guess that Purina puts a lot of corn into their scratch because that is what their customers want. If their customers complained about the corn, Purina would put something else in there. Their entire reason to exist is to sell lots of feed and they can't sell feed that the customers don't want.

Scratch around here has always been about 1/2 cracked corn. Usually, it has whole wheat, sometimes it has cracked barley, or whole oats. I've seen milo in scratch in another part of the country. I've never seen millet in scratch, or BOSS, but just because I've never seen it doesn't mean that it isn't in scratch someplace in the country.

 

[Chris09]

I get my Pigeon Grain at my mill.
As for the protein amount, You can get Pigeon Grain from 13 to 21 percent protein and all would be fine to feed as a scratch to chickens.

Chris