There are various kinds of chicken feed available for your flock. Two popular options include organic food and omega 3 fatty acid-containing feed.
Standard chicken feed typically provides protein, calcium, phosphorous and vitamins essential for their wellbeing, and comes in pellet form to make use simpler while reducing waste.
Contents
Pellets
Chicken feed comes in many varieties to support your flock as they mature into what you envision for them. Commercial feeds offer balanced nutritional support at every stage in their development and may contain added vitamins and minerals for optimal performance.
Pellets, formed of heated mash formed into small cylindrical shapes, are an easy and waste-reducing food option that comes in various sizes and varieties; such as organic layer pellets and egg laying pellets.
Your chickens can benefit from additional feed by receiving table scraps (veggies, fruit and stale bread), grass clippings and non-organic whole grains as supplements to their regular feed. Make sure to provide them with access to grit as this will aid with their digestion of fibrous foods; otherwise they cannot break them down in their crop and gizzard effectively preventing mineral absorption – and be sure to do it separately from their feed dish for best results.
Crumbles
Chickens at different life stages require different amounts of nutrients, which is why feed is sold both as pellets and crumbles. While both types can be consumed by all ages of chicks, starter feed for chicks often comes in crumble form to ensure it can be easily consumed and minimize waste.
Crumble varieties of chicken feed are coarser than mash but less compact than pellets, making them easier to handle and clean up after. Some flock owners also opt for crumble feed as a bridge between mash and pellets within their flock.
Both crumbles and pellets can be fermented successfully, though it is essential that you measure out each day’s ration at the appropriate time to avoid overfermenting it and ending up with mushy food for your flock. Therefore, we advise using a large glass container when fermenting chicken feed; one large enough to hold an entire day’s supply should do just fine.
Mash
Chickens need a nutritious diet in order to support their bodies and egg production, which can be easily prepared at home from scratch or with complete feed specially formulated for different flocks or ages of poultry. While making your own feed is one option, many chicken enthusiasts choose complete feed that has already been designed specifically to meet this need.
Mash chicken feed is composed of whole grains and natural ingredients that encourage your flock’s natural pecking instinct, along with grit to help the chickens digest their food more easily and increase calcium levels in their system.
Laying mash is a high calcium feed designed for egg laying hens to maximize egg production while still producing strong shells. As high calcium diets may damage young chickens’ kidneys, it’s wise to provide separate feeding areas for young and rooster birds. Crumble type chicken feed, similar in texture to oatmeal, serves as an intermediate step between laying mash and pellets for your flock.
Fermented Feed
Fermented feed for chickens provides nutritional benefits by being submerged in water for several days to enhance its nutritional value and introduce probiotics into its diet.
Fermenting has been proven to increase egg weight and shell thickness, enhance intestinal health, and act as an acid-resistant barrier against pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli.
Fermented feed can easily be made at home; just add water and stir. After covering in an airtight container or bucket for 2-5 days in warm weather, start the fermentation process by leaving out in warm conditions for 2-5 days – much like making kimchi or sauerkraut! When ready, your flock can simply collect their own wet mash without spillage from their feeder! Plus this method can be very cost-effective too.
