The View From the Farm - Latest comments on Hooray for Scratch Feed!

In response to: Hooray for Scratch Feed!

Roy [Visitor] — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:46:28 +0000

We feed a scratch mix of cracked corn, whole wheat, grain sorghum, and proso millet. They come running when I start to spread it in the coop. It is a good way to bring in the stragglers at night and they calm down and are easy to count that way too. The grain sorghum, also called milo adds a lot of orange color to the yokes, but they have found that it makes red specks in the meat, so you have to discontinue feeding it a couple weeks before slaughter.

In response to: Hooray for Scratch Feed!

Robert [Member] — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:51:52 +0000

My chickens don't seem to have any trouble with whole corn. It's a traditional chicken feed. But maybe there's giant-kernel corn out there that's too big for chickens.

I prefer whole grains because they last forever, while cracked grains (especially cracked corn) get moldy pretty quickly. Adult chickens will be delighted to receive supplements of wheat, oats, or barley. It's just that corn is usually cheaper.

Unless I could get ground that had been cracked very coarsely, I wouldn't feed it in the grass. Too wasteful, and wasted feed attracts rodents and giant flocks of tiny birds that I'd just as soon kept away. If other whole grains are expensive, feed them in smaller quantities, and feed cracked corn in a feeder.

In response to: Hooray for Scratch Feed!

Joe [Visitor] — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:36:03 +0000

Hello Robert. I've tried feeding whole corn before and my chickens just don't seem to like it. They will eventually eat it, but they seem to have a hard time getting the whole kernels down. An old farmer that lives near says he's had chickens choke (and die) on whole kernels, so I went back to cracked corn. There does seem to be some waste - I'm wondering if I should go back to whole corn?