Types of Chicken Feed

In order to have healthy chickens that produce healthy eggs, it's necessary to consider the types of chicken feed available to give your chickens. All feeds have their own benefits in that they provide various important nutrients to the chicken.

  1. Chicken Scratch

    • Chicken scratch is another name for a commercial blend of chicken feed. This mixture contains whole grains as well as corn that's cracked. However, this chicken feed is not well-rounded and is full of fat as well as low in protein. It is best to supplement this with other feed as well.

    Greens

    • Greens can refer to any green leaf such as lettuce, clippings from your lawn, weeds from the garden whether it's from your flower or vegetable garden. You can even give your chickens scraps from your table such as left-overs from your salad or other vegetables. If you're free-ranging your chickens, this refers to the grass and the pasture in which they graze.

    Soybeans

    • Soybeans are filled with proteins and are another type of chicken feed. It's best to boil the soybeans and soak them before giving them to the chickens. Adding oatmeal, milk and sunflower seeds make this mixture all the more nutritious.

    Pellets

    • Pellets is a kind of commercial chicken feed where the ingredients are all mashed together and then formed into pellets. Depending on the maker, these pellets can contain ground corn, rice bran, soybean meal and, in some cases, poultry feathers as well as other ingredients. There are organic pellet mixes available which do not include protein from chicken, but vegetarian sources.

    Mash

    • This is a general term for chicken feed of various ingredients that have been ground. The mash is not a powder. Ingredients contained in this are similar to the pellet chicken feed. This type of chicken feed is also available in organic varieties as well.