Do you feed mash or pellets or crumble?

[Scotty from BI]

I am ordering some chicks in the mail for mid October. They will be heavy breed layers not meat birds. I will be brooding them in the outdoor coop and want to feed them the best food available. I am considering Scratch and Peck starter which is a mash (larger unprocessed assorted grains mixed with powdered nutrients). It has about 20% protein. The other feed I am considering is Modesto Mills starter which is crumble and has non GMO organic corn in it and about 22% protein. The S&P Mash looks more natural but from what I hear the dominant birds will peck out the most desirable grains and less of the less tasty ones and the other birds are left with, well leftovers. In both cases they are not getting the balance of nutrients that Modesto Mills or any feed in crumbles or pellet offer. The S&P looks more like chicken feed than the crumble and seems more desireable. But if the crumble is as good or better I will go with it. Can anyone share their experience or knowledge on the mash vs crumble for chicks or even for any age layer chicken? Both companies have excellent reputations for quality ingredients in their organic chicken feed. Thanks

 

[JaeG]

I have a kibbled grains layers mash I feed my girls. They don't like pelleted chicken feed (unless I ferment it). Dry or fermented they seem to eat all of the kibbled mash. Make sure you alway have more than one feeding station so that lower ranking birds get a fair share of the food.

 

[chickens really]

Yes to your question....Dominant Birds always get first pick...I feed crumbles...

 

[Scotty from BI]

I have a kibbled grains layers mash I feed my girls. They don't like pelleted chicken feed (unless I ferment it). Dry or fermented they seem to eat all of the kibbled mash. Make sure you alway have more than one feeding station so that lower ranking birds get a fair share of the food.

I'm speculating here, but the pecking order is not one leader and (in my flock of 18 chickens), 17 subordinate chickens. I think it is a most dominant, followed by other dominant down to the lowest of the flock. Which could make it hard to have enough feeding stations to allow all birds to have a full and balanced selection of mash grains.

Or am I wrong. It seems like a lot of people love serving Scratch and Peck mash, which looks really healthy.

 

[Scotty from BI]

The biggest problem as I see it is that to get the chickens to eat all the mash evenly and also to get them to eat the fines, which contain the proteins and other important nutrients, it becomes necessary to add water or some other liquid which to me translates to mess and and waste or not cleaned and removed every single day will become moldy or worse and attract bad critters and un-edible bugs.

I have heard of many who feed the Scratch and Peck or other mash feeds dry. How does that work for you if you do. Or do your clean the remaining or residual feed from the feeder every day? Or is there a great feeder that allows you to refeed uneaten grains the next day? Trying to learn and want my new flock to be able to eat the whole grains but I don't quite understand how to make it work. Thanks

 

[anatess]

My chickens (silkies and modern game) are on non-medicated chick starter. They're almost a year old now and I will be feeding them the chick starter for their entire lives because that's what the farm where I got my chickens from told me to do. Something about they need that high protein. I put oyster shells in the coop too.

I'm a chicken newbie and just follow instructions... hope I followed the correct one!

 

[lazy gardener]

Scotty, I've found, and I'm sure that many will agree with me: Feeding moist weed drastically cuts down on the amount of waste. This would hold true, whether you ferment your feed or not.

 

[JaeG]

I'm speculating here, but the pecking order is not one leader and (in my flock of 18 chickens), 17 subordinate chickens. I think it is a most dominant, followed by other dominant down to the lowest of the flock. Which could make it hard to have enough feeding stations to allow all birds to have a full and balanced selection of mash grains.

Or am I wrong. It seems like a lot of people love serving Scratch and Peck mash, which looks really healthy.

The dominant birds will tend to rush to the first filled food bowl first, then they are pretty oblivious to you slipping the others another bowl or two. I'm lucky to have a very docile flock so I have very few issues introducing birds and I have my very docile Houdan keeping everyone in line - you make trouble she will set you straight but then peace is restored and life quietly goes on. All I know is when I add their fermented mash they all just tuck in and eat. Feeding twice a day rather than having a feeder in the run all the time allows me to see that everyone is eating too.

 

[Scotty from BI]

Thanks everyone. Have decided on starter crumbles and then pellets. Just feels like everyone will get a fair ration of everything in equal proportion. Mash looks better but delivery seems flawed.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I use crumble.... fed as a soaked mash as a treat or when I want to get extra hydration in them (especially useful with chicks, put a little water on feed and it magically becomes very desirable)