mash or pellets?

[Jax]

As the title says really. What do you use or prefer mash or pellets?

[Suechooks]

Pellets every time! You can make a wet mash with pellets and the hens just chuck dry meal around and waste loads.

[frias]

Deffo pellets here. As Sue says they just chuck the mash around waste it.

[petal]

Pellets. Even if you make a wet mash with the 'mash' it gets mostly wasted as it doesn't keep- the waste!

[jps]

pellets for me also.

i have barrel feeders with the springs on the bottom in both my pens and so pellets work best for me.

[bearded bloke]

Pellets here also...... Because the nice man at the chook shop said they were the way to go

[Nicos]

Pellets too.

[chris]

Pellets here too

[Jax]

Well that seems pretty unanimous. Pellets seem the way to go Thanks guys

[Strawberry delight]

I'm going to be getting some ex-commercial ones (which were free range) and were fed on mash. Will they easily convert to pellets, as they seem to be the way to go!

[frias]

I started mine on mash as that was what they were used to and gradually introduced pellets until they were on pellets only. Having said that I have bought in pullets that had been used to mash and given them pellets straight away. Healthy chickens are unlikely to starve themselves but I thought ex-batts had been stressed enough so wanted to change gradually.

[Suechooks]

My current ex-batts seem totally unaware that the pellets in the hanging feeder are the same as the food I put in a dish! I've tried not giving them any in the dish and they just don't eat! They also definitely prefer it to look like mash as I wet pellets to prevent them scratching it everywhere! Oh - and they look at corn as if it might attack them! It's the first time I've had this problem with ex-batts so I'm hoping they get the idea soon as they'll be integrated with the other hybrids before long!

[polo]

My ex-batts were like that too Sue. They didn't recognise ANYTHING other than mash for quite a while, same with corn and grass! Their favourite thing seems to be trying to eat the blackbirds and squirrels now. I keep telling them they will never catch one but they continue to chase..

Oh, and getting them to recognise water was tricky as well. They must have had some sort of dripper system because they just didn't get it when in a dish.

[Suechooks]

Hmmmm! I've had several lots of ex-batts but these are the first who've taken this long (6 weeks or so) to get to grips with the feeder. Hey-ho! No worries I'll just go on spoiling them till they get the message! They need some more weight!

[Hilary B]

They might catch on faster if you put an experienced one in with them?