Permies Poll: Mash, Crumble, Pellet or Whole Grain Feed

I am currently trying to figure out what works better.

I feel that crumble lasts longer but it feels like more goes to waste?

I don't see much pellet loss, but the chooks seem to eat it faster?

Timothy Norton wrote:I feel that crumble lasts longer but it feels like more goes to waste?

Lasts longer?  Not sure how to interpret that.

-Generally chicken feed is sold by weight.  So, crumbles won't feed more or less than pellets.
-If you are talking about how long they will last without losing nutritional value or "going bad", then if anything crumbles have more surface area to oxidize and would go quicker.  Much like how storing whole bean coffee retains flavor longer than ground coffee.

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As for your original question about crumbles vs. pellets, I use crumbles only for chicks.  When they are large enough, they switch permanently to pellets.  That said, it is a preference.  There isn't enough reason to mandate one or the other for adult chickens if the feed is fresh.

It sounds crazy, I know.

I fill the same sized gravity feeder with either feeder or crumble, and it seems I refill it more frequently when it is pellets. I don't see pellets on the ground or scratched around, but when I do crumble it seems there is more spillage but I don't have the refill the feeder as much.

Maybe the flock scavenges more with crumble available? I'm at a loss. Once I finish this bag of crumble that I'm watching I'll try pellet again and see if I can compare the time it lasts.

I'm with Cujo.

I use crumble for chicks, simply because of the size. I use pellets for adults because I believe there is less waste. I also tend to simply spread it on the ground, and I feel like the adult chickens can grab a pellet much easier than crumbs.

Timothy Norton wrote:I fill the same sized gravity feeder with either feeder or crumble, and it seems I refill it more frequently when it is pellets. I don't see pellets on the ground or scratched around, but when I do crumble it seems there is more spillage but I don't have the refill the feeder as much.

I'm not 100% certain, but my guess is that you aren't actually loading the same amount of feed.  Pellets are larger and so there is more air space in your feeder.  I believe if you loaded X pounds of crumbles vs X pounds of pellets into the feeder that they would feed your chickens as long.

Cujo Liva wrote: I'm not 100% certain, but my guess is that you aren't actually loading the same amount of feed.  Pellets are larger and so there is more air space in your feeder.  I believe if you loaded X pounds of crumbles vs X pounds of pellets into the feeder that they would feed your chickens as long.

Yeah, that makes terribly obvious sense now that you have spelt that out to me. I feel embarrassed haha! Thank you

I feed crumble to everyone, but the chicks get dry chick crumble.
I add water to a bagged layer feed crumble for the older birds and let it sit for a day.

Different feed, different birds, different techniques. I use the crumble for the adult birds because it does soak up the water better. I have used pellet, but I seem to get more actual feed as crumble. The pellets take up more space, and they weigh out the same, but there is more dust and powder in the bag than I see with crumble.

In my climate, during the summer, it only takes an every other day soak to get the fermentation going enough that the feed smells like weak beer. The soaking helps the birds to get the water they need during the hot times, and the wet feed is easier for me to feed in the winter, though it doesn't get to that "extra flavor" point when it's cold.

I have tested it multiple times to see what the birds prefer - wet versus dry, one day fermented versus two, crumble versus pellet.
My adult birds really have a marked preference for the every other day "soaked" feed. I add enough water to the feed to cover it by a good inch or two, and it soaks up the water. Basically, it doubles in weight/volume with the soaking.

I added mash to the choices as it was another option I was not aware of!

We moved a few years back and left our chicken house with our daughter.

She fell in love with chickens .... (same with most animals).

She feeds fermented feed so I guess that would be whole grains.

I really like the sprouts or microgreens for chickens.

Timothy Norton wrote:It sounds crazy, I know.

I fill the same sized gravity feeder with either feeder or crumble, and it seems I refill it more frequently when it is pellets. I don't see pellets on the ground or scratched around, but when I do crumble it seems there is more spillage but I don't have the refill the feeder as much.

Maybe the flock scavenges more with crumble available? I'm at a loss. Once I finish this bag of crumble that I'm watching I'll try pellet again and see if I can compare the time it lasts.

I would love to know what you discover. very interesting!

I voted for my pigeons because essentially they can eat the same feed. Grain because there is waste, and all the waste sprouts which I like. In the spring, these new shoots are a delicacy for pigeons and wildlife alike, and it's fun to watch everyone! There is still plenty that survived the buffet to grow into mature plants.

For baby chicks, I use the crumbled stuff from the store. After 8 weeks, I put them on pellets but they didn't seem to have much of an appetite for them, preferring to forage.
In the winter, like now, I give them all kinds of whole grain plus treats like mealworms and kitchen waste, old bread, food that is past the due date. They do seem to waste a lot of pellets but they clean leftovers.
There is still some waste with whole grains, but not as much as with pellets or crumbles. I shovel wasted grains, pellets/ litter in a pail and toss it outside, even though it is freezing, right before we get snow [so we don't invite wild birds that could give them avian flu!] since there is some whole grains in there, I suspect I will have a well seeded field come spring!
They will go out of their run and scratch whenever there's a nice day, but they like to stay inside their run, which is covered.

I do both mash and whole grains for my chickens!

Each morning I toss in to them a half-scoop of "scratch grains" which are blend of some organic barley I purchased from a local farmer with an organic wide-variety mix of grains from the local Tractor Supply.

Tractor Supply also carries an organic layer mash  which I put in a rubber feed pan and cover with hot water (as it's currently winter and the birds seem to like a warm porridge).

I was getting a mix from New Country Organics but the shipping cost more than the price of the bag so financially I couldn't make that work.

They tend to prefer the scratch grains, immediately going for that even if there's left over mash in their bowls. They often fail to get them all though, and anything not eaten gets mixed in with their deep bedding and begins to sprout - even in (our relatively mild) winter. So they do also get some of those when I turn the bedding at least every week.
The only downside to the way I feed scratch, and the chickens not clearing them up, is that the squirrels have recognized it's an easy meal. We have two which will wait until the birds' attention is elsewhere then come in and have a feast.
I'm working up my nerve to attempt the catch/prepare a wild squirrel bb

I echo Dana in the video - the mash needs a good stir when mixed with water as it won't otherwise absorb it properly, leaving dry powdery bits throughout the bowl, which my chooks definitely avoid.

I'm extra lucky to have local options which also contain no soy as that is an allergen for multiple folks in my community.

I stick to the mash a local feed mill makes.  It’s soy free and non-gmo, and has flax seed.

They waste it of course.  I have a rubber tub that catches a lot of the wasted feed.  If I mix some water into the wasted feed, and something in (like some millet or other seeds or large grains of sand of contrasting color) that elicits a peck response they eat a lot of the waste.  I let the chickens out for the day, after they’ve laid most of the eggs for the day.  The chicken door is open so they can come in for the late eggs.

I put them in for the night, so they are not able to play food games during the day time.

Until a few years ago we kept a little more than 200 hens. We fed a fermented whole grain mix...no corn, no soy. Grain was purchased from a farm in our area. Sometimes individual grain and sometimes a layer mix of whole grains.  They really loved it. It was very difficult to feed in the winter as we are in Alaska and the feed would often freeze into a block in the dish before they managed to eat it all.

We are off grid and coops were well ventilated and insulated but no heat. All food and water was outside in the run not in the coops.   If we ever decide to have chickens again, we will likely use the whole grain again and ferment it for three days as we did back then. More digestible, more pre and pro biotics. And it swells the feed up and they eat less than when it is dry but still get good nutrition because of the easier digestion.

Anne Miller wrote:We moved a few years back and left our chicken house with our daughter.

She fell in love with chickens .... (same with most animals).

She feeds fermented feed so I guess that would be whole grains.

I like the sprouts or microgreens for chickens.

I have been using sprouted grains for years.  I have a 4 bucket system, soak the grains (barley, black oil sunflower seeds, cracked corn) with a bit of cider vinegar, drain the next day and put back in the bucket strirring once a day.  When it gets to the fourth day, a lot of the grains are sprouted and that's what I give them along with some kitchen waste (fruit peels, etc).  

I do give them a small amount of commercial pellets to which I add oyster chips and gravel/grit.

I found the waste from pellets and crumbles was pretty high and the mice were prolific.
I build a feeder out of a large trash can with 4 inch pvc pipes.
No more waste and the mice population went down a lot.

I do like to do a mash in the summer.  The hens prefer it to the other.  I have soaked all the different feeds I have used over the years and it definately goes further when soaked into a mash.

This winter I switched from pellets and crumbles to Harvest Blend layer feed.  
https://www.murdochs.com/products/livestock-wildlife/chickens/chicken-feed-treats/laying-hen-feed/nutrena-naturewise-harvest-blend-textured-layer-chicken-feed/

It was on sale at Murdochs here in Helena MT and I grabbed a few bags.  Ladies seem to like it and egg production has increased, which is in part to the longer days I am sure.

We always ran what we called ground grain.  It was equivalent to what this is calling coarse mash.  If the grain was even semi freshly ground this was the chickens preferred answer to such an extent that feeders with pellets or whole grain were completely ignored.  In our world mash was ground grain and water.  We started the chicks with chick starter always.(2 bags for usually about 35 to 40 chicks)  First bag fed pure.  Second bag was gradually mixed with more and more ground grain.  It steadily transitioned from say 90% chick starter and 10% ground grain to 10% chick starter and 90% ground grain.   The ground grain was a mixture of barley and corn.  To reduce protein some whole oats was mixed in as well when needed.  The chick starter and ground grain got us up to when Kochia started growing and then the young birds got handfuls of it too till they were old enough to be let out to graze for the afternoon.

Some comments here.  Sprouts should be added to the poll list although they probably should never ever be the primary feed as there is energy and therefore food value lost in the act of sprouting.  The reason to do some of it though because it changes the available nutrients.

In the winter, my spoiled pigeons get lots of food grade yellow peas: they are going for the same price as feed grade, but are closer and tax free, and although field peas are cheaper, they take at least a day to digest, while yellow peas take a few hours (evidenced by disection of previous birds killed by irresponsible dog owners)
They also get redstone with crushed oyster shells and washed crushed chicken eggshells.
Occasional sunflower seeds, whole corn, and a cheap chicken whole grain mix which is high in wheat and crushed corn. Which I presume is the whole grains we're taking about.

I think whole grains are the best since any milled grains will have long since oxidized and lost much of their nutrients. They may be a bit less digestible but when taking into account the added cost (energy) of milled grains it is negligible. If you buy bulk organic grains and mix your own tmr vs the few organic chicken feeds around, it's no contest.

Nate Davis wrote:I think whole grains are the best since any milled grains will have long since oxidized and lost much of their nutrients. They may be a bit less digestible but when taking into account the added cost (energy) of milled grains it is negligible. If you buy bulk organic grains and mix your own tmr vs the few organic chicken feeds around, it's no contest.

I would argue that is a matter of how coarse the grind is and storage conditions.  Stored in barrels in the hot sun the ground grain smelled rancid by the end of the summer.  Stored in the granary at the north end of the building with concrete floor and walls to 3 feet and 2 layer wood the rest of the way up, in a bigger bin, the ground grain still smelled good 2 years later.  The grain stayed far cooler as that building was cool even on hot days and being in a single bigger bin meant less oxygen exposure and coarser grind means less oxygen exposure.

Last vote in apple poll was on February 28, 2025

My girls get fermented grains once a day and a scoop of organic soy free egg laying pellets. I used to fill the feeder up with pellets so if something happened like I was sick, or what ever they always had food. I had to stop because the rats (assuming they are rats by the size of the hole they kept digging into the coop) were out of control. So now they get one days feed so there's nothing left at night.  They also get what we don't eat in the garden (buggy stuff, bitter, or just extra) They also dig for bugs in the chicken yard.
It always amazes me when people say I have to feed my chickens crumbles because they won't eat pellets, or they ask me how I got them to eat pellets.(I work for a co-op). Chickens won't starve themselves. They may protest a day or so, but they will eat that you feed them.  Sometimes in the winter I will feed scratch, sometimes meal worms. I also change up the grains I ferment depending on the season, and just to add something new.  My theory is that chickens are scavengers by nature. I just can't free-range them anymore, so I feel they are healthier and happier when provided verity. There's no science behind it, it's just what makes sense to me.