[sokel]

I was talking to a neighbour last night as I am going to be looking after his chickens while he is on holiday.
He feeds a layers mash and swears by it saying he does not get as good a result egg wise and has a lot of waste when he has uses pellets
I have always used pellets and its got me thinking is there any difference ?
do you all use pellets or mash and have you found any difference if you have tried both ?

[Mammyshaz]

I haven't really looked into the ingredients of mash to pellet, but thought they would be of the same balance. I thought mash was better in some situations to help relieve boredom with the mash taking longer to consume.
I use pellets.  There is never any waste with our pellets, they peck up what they want, the rest stay in the feeder.  Never used mash due to reasons I've mentioned, as ours have large run and forage for insects and worms ,or veg to peck to keep them entertained.

May be completely wrong here with my thoughts so will be reading this thread with interest 

[Hermit]

I use pellets as they are cleaner to me. The ducks get mash as I find it satisfies them more somehow and they can gobble it down quicker! Depends on what type of feeder you prefer as well.

[in the hills]

Use pellets.


Mine waste mash. Flick it everywhere  . Feel this would attract vermin. Read somewhere that pellets were better for the hens as they more closely resembled food that the hens would find naturally in terms of size and that this was better for the crop/digestive system than eating what is effectively a powder. Not sure if there is any truth in this. As for better egg laying I would have thought they contained the same ingredients .... but never checked.


Think in the past people used to moisten the mash and mix in kitchen scraps. Of course, can't do this now 

[Hermit]

I never use mash dry, I always make a porridge out of it for the ducks. To me it was made for using this way.

[Castle Farm]

Never use pellets or mash, just a mix of corns and as the nights draw in cod-liver oil and greens/free range.

Been feeding my birds (about 350) on corn since I found out what crap they put in it that supplies the eggs and poultry meat from my birds.

Millions of birds all over the world have never seen let alone eaten pellets/mash and I see no evidence to back up the bulls**t put out by feed companies, such as your birds need a protien level of such and such to stay alive.

Commercial type feeds were developed to save on labour and time spent looking after the birds. Prior to the invention of bagged feed and all this rubbish like tonics and tum tum charcoal the birds did as well and if not better.

Practically every poultry magazine carries page after page of rubbish they say your birds need.
Chickens eat grain and bugs and seed/grasses and have done for a number of years before the mills come up with a chemically inhanced poultry feed.

[Eve]

"a mix of corns and as the nights draw in cod-liver oil"
I'd like to hear more about that, Castlefarm. What ratio's of corn or cereals exactly - have you found a certain mix to work best for layers and do you feed a different mix to meat birds?

[Victorian Farmer]

I'm with castle farm i to think its crap I'm naw making bruised barley with kippled maze and i can do that from hour own stock

[Castle Farm]

There was a thred that ran and ran on PP under commercial feed and a number of people went over to a 'natural diet'.

Some praised it. Some said the eggs were smaller, some were scared of trying it.

The birds will eat corn before they will eat pellets if given a choice. Corn feed takes more digesting than pellets and this produces more acids to break them down.

More acid in the gut means a more hostile inviroment for cocci and worms.

On a corn diet you must feed greens which contain protiens and supply grit.

All details are on my web site under feeding.

I wouldn't recommend this if I didn't use it myself. Processed food contains lots of additives you don't know about, as they are in there.

There is no need to worry about what age the birds are. I feed it to all mine from young growers onwards.

I have had chicks hatch outside and they have never been fed chick crumbs and grow away on a natural diet.

I imagine there will be a few who will decry this way of feeding, but bet your life they have never tried it.

[deepinthewoods]

i feed mixed grain too, no layers pellets.

[Bionic]

I am one of those who changed over recently from pellets to mixed grain having followed the previous thread. Apart from anything else the pellets have to be kept away from the food for my other animals so felt it would be easier to feed just grain.
Mine free range all day. The eggs are the same size as they were previously too.
Sally

[MikeM]

we also recently moved over to mixed corn (after a similar discussion we had on here), noticed no drop in quantity or quality of the eggs. ours free range all day tho (sometimes a little too free range, but that's another story).

[tobytoby]

I stopped buying mash as it was full of dust and TBH i am sure it is the sweepings from the mill floor. I have changed to pellets with kibbled maize/corn (which is french), apparently no one grows it to a standard in Scotland. The hens prefer the corn, so i was thinking of going over to purely corn only, as they free range all day anyway.
I can buy wheat & barley - would you suggest i mix in corn and feed all three? Someone told me that wheat is a good "heating" food for winter, but what would the ratio be??

[Castle Farm]

I feed 3 wheat. I cut maize and 1 rolled barley.

Onto the wheat i just trickle enough CLO to make the wheat glisten when I mix it.
The Cut maize goes in next and is again mixed to coat that and then I add the barley (rolled).

If Iv'e put slightly to much CLO in the rolled barley takes up the rest.

You must remember that this is a low protien diet, (well lower than the feed companies say you need), but I hatch hundreds of perfectly fit chicks on it.

While the birds are out on FR they get grass tips (high in protien).
Clover is a high protien as are all insects and grubs.
Seed of whatever they can find also helps.

Birds in my breeding pens get greens broght in.

As winter comes I have growing lots of perpetual spinach and other stuff to feed them.

If you only have a few birds it's simple to give them added protien, just read the lables on the tins.

Peas. Beans are two good feed suppliments.

[Eve]

That's very interesting, thankyou, I'll look up the other thread and website.