Um Hi Jedgell,I stopped feeding crumbles for a while because I had a buff hen that would shovel them out of the feeder and they would get wasted. So I changed to pellets. She did the same with that, but the other hens would clean up the pellets better than the crumbles. She is gone now, and I have gone back to crumbles with no problems. I like the crumbles to mix flax seed better than the pellets because it stays more uniformly mixed. With the pellets, the flax tends to work it's way to the bottom of the feeder. If I end up with another feed shoveler, I'll have to go back to pellets.
By feed shoveler, is that what my hen does...She stands in the plate and throws food all over the place,then she scratches it out of the plate like she is looking for a specfic piece? Invariably she winds up pooping in it. But I worry too what she has walked thru prior to standing inthe plate that the other birds are now having to eat.