Single hen

[moomin]

I changed to Wiggly Wigglers Mash with Bokashi for my 2 big girls about six weeks ago and they love it, waiting for me to fill the feeders each morning and throwing themselves on them for a feeding frenzy!

 

However within a short while I found myself regreting it as it's messy and wasteful and costing a fortune as you can only get it online.

 

So 2 weeks ago I bought some pellets and started gradually mixing them in, now they are just on the pellets (not cheap ones either - Organic Feed Company's )

 

They ignore them, and if it wasn't for the fact that they get pellet porridge each day before I go to work I don't think they would eat anything! I'm sure they look at me in disgust each morning when there are just the pellets on offer!

 

My question is, do I give in and let them have the mash and put up with the waste/mess/expense, but have VERY Happy Girls, or do I persevere with the pellets?

 

Anyone's experiences/thoughts please?!

[Cooks]

I am no expert but I would personally just keep giving the pellets, they will eat them when they know your not offering anything else.

I feed pellets myself and have no problems, I use the smallholder range, which I find very reasonably priced.

[chickenanne]

If you can get mash from another, cheaper source, then maybe try that?

Otherwise, stick with the pelles, after all too much mess will only attract mice and worse, as well as the cost etc.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Maybe it's the bokashi bit they miss, get a bag of that & mix it in with the pellets, my lot love it.

 

I ran out of pellets for a day or two about 3 weeks ago & fed them mash with bokashi in their feeder (plus usual porridge for breakfast etc) & the healthy girls didn't eat any of it, the batties who were used to mash snaffled it happily. Once pellets were back on offer they ate as normal. I think it's a question of habit & routine, if it's broken it takes a while to make new habits & routines...sounds rather like me actually (not that I make a habit of munching on mash or pellets BTW!)!!!!

 

Sha x

[moomin]

Good thinking Sha, I've got some Bokashi that I normally give them each day in their porridge, I'll go and chuck some into the feeder now - maybe it will fool them into thinking it's mash!

[Cooks]

I mix brokashi in with my pellets too... I should have said that.

[moomin]

I've just mixed in some Bokashi and they've scooped all the pellets out over the floor to get to it! But at least if they eat the pellets off the floor that will be a start!

[Christian]

Hello Moomin

 

I can't remember how far away you are from me, but I have a local lady who can order anything in for me. I pick it up from her house every month. Mash, aubiose, pellets, mite powder etc.

 

PM me if you want the details.

[moomin]

Thanks Christian but I'm quite a way from you, it was about an hour when we came to the Hen Party I seem to remember (I don't drive so would have to rely on my chicken-hating husband belss him ).

 

I can get the Smallholders mash locally, which I believe is cheaper.

 

Do you give yours mash then? How do you get on with the mess? The mess and wastage is more of an issue than the expense really. If they ate it all and didn't leave the powdery stuff or spill it all over the place, then it would be worth the money to see their little happy faces! I worry about rats, and the spilt mash forms a gross damp crusty layer on the floor!

[Christian]

I had a feeling it was a trek (but there is always cake at my house )!

 

I did feed mine on mash but couldn't cope with the mess. The smell of damp mash will haunt me forever.

 

I started by mixing mash and pellets and gradually adding more and more pellets. No treats until I saw them eating the pellets.

 

Mine get a 'porridge bowl' with tinned sweetcorn in the late afternoon, so have to eat their pellets all day or they go hungry. It did take a couple of days until they tucked into their pellets.

[atsw]

As other have said, I think you just have to be tough with the girls on this one. Once they get a little hungry they will go in search of food, and if pellets are the only thing on offer, eventually they will eat them. After a few days they will get used to the new food regime and then you can spoil them again with treats in late afternoon.

 

Andrew

[moomin]

OK, thanks all for the sound advice (and thanks for the offer of cake Christian that sounds very tempting! )

 

Right, this is war! They are not even going to get their Pellet Porridge in the morning until I can see them eating the dry pellets. This weekend is an ideal opportunity as we are going away to Devon and they won't be getting it anyway

 

Thanks again for the help

[jomaxsmith]

I have read on here that the WW mash is very finely ground so the hens dig through it more to find the good bits, chucking the rest on the floor. I tried Marriages organic mash for a while and had the same problem - much more mess and wastage. I've gone back to Marriages standard mash and buy WW Bokashi separately to mix my own. They do chuck some on the floor, but nowhere near as much. I've also found that if I hang the grub slightly lower they chuck less out!

 

I tried mine on pellets and they didn't like them and since they seem happiest on mash I'm sticking with it.

 

Jo

[YickerAL]

Ours were very fussy about eating pellets. I think we spoiled them when they arrived (so they would like us!)

 

We decided to take the pellets, soak them for a bit in water, add some porridge and bokashi, and they loved it, BUT, it was a pain soaking the pellets and was costing a bit of money.

 

So, last week I managed to track down some mash from a supplier, and we tried a small amount (dry with nothing added), and they went crazy for it!

 

So now, they just have it dry, and love it. They throw it all over the patio and we were a bit shocked, but they will even eat it from the floor!

[Egluntyne]

I agree with the others. Make them go cold turkey for a few days and they will learn to eat their pellets.

 

You could always give the bokashi bran separately in the afternoon, as a treat. Mine love it. I once dropped a cupful onto the floor by accident. It was hoovered up before you could say 'Eglu'.

[Hen Watch]

Right, this is war! They are not even going to get their Pellet Porridge in the morning until I can see them eating the dry pellets.

 

I had a very similar "fussy eating" problem last year. Henny had crop problems and to get nutrition and water into her, I made "pellet porridge" with water and live yoghurt every day and gave to all the girls. Some weeks later when Henny back back to normal, I went back to pellets and they all refused to eat them. This went on for months.....!!!!! with me giving them dry pellets and pellet porridge too. Honestly, worse than fussy children

 

Eventually, as we were going on holiday and there was no way my chicken sitter was going to be making cordon bleu chicken meals, I got tough...... Well, tough ish. I bought a bag of mash and they got 1 grub of mash and 1 grub of pellets.

 

Then, the little madams did the same as yours. Would only eat the mash and flick it everywhere, the mess was awful. And only ate a few pellets.

 

But I cut out the mash (which they now only get ocassionally) and eventually they started eating pellets again. But it took months and months.

 

I do sometimes make them pellet porridge out of stale pellets to use them up maybe once a week, but if they go back to their old behaviour there will be trouble.

 

Good luck with your "cold turkey" approach.

[thewhitehouse]

Yes - I know what you mean! I feed WW mash with bokashi and loads of it ends up on the floor of the run where it stays until the dog hoovers it up! Its quite pricey (with p&p) and a lot of it goes to waste - they fling it out. I found that when I fed pellets with mash mixed in they did the same. Maybe I'll try going back to pellets with the bokashi as a treat in the afternoon. Its the bokashi they love.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Would it be any good putting a tray under the grubs to collect the flung stuff?

 

Bluebell used to fling pellets out when she was younger & we found putting a long plant pot tray under the grub saved the pellets from getting lost in the grass & they ate them from there later in the day.

 

We drilled a hole in opposite corners & pushed a 4-6in nail through the holes so they stuck into the ground & prevented the little minxes from spilling them back into the grass

 

Sha x

[moomin]

Thanks again all

 

The plan is to start 'Cold Turkey' this morning. No Pellet Porridge and no mash so that they eat the pellets. Already they are giving me the evils through the Kitchen window, don't think they've eaten anything at all yet and they are hungry!!

 

We are going away to Devon until tomorrow so I won't have to see their suffering and I feel awful, I hope I don't come back tomorrow to find them starved to death

 

Edited to add - it took me a full extra hour to clean the run out yesterday. The hour was spent s"Ooops, word censored!"ing a thick layer of dried crusty mash of the floor with a metal egg flipper thingy

[moomin]

Just to let you know we got back from Devon about 4pm this aft and the pellets had definitely gone down! That's all I left them so they didn't have any choice!

 

So the 'Cold Turkey' approach is definitely working, gave them a few mealworns this afternoon, ('cos I love 'em and the little girls were having a few so I felt guilty! )

 

But tomorrow it's back to pellets only and I'm going to sneak out of the back gate without looking at them so that they can't pull at my heart-strings!

[atsw]

Oh, well done, that's the spirit .

 

Andrew

[laurmurf]

We had a similar problem but eventually cracked it. I started by putting pellets in the food processor and grinding them down - at first to a near powder then gradually up to crumble then to chopped pellets. It was an easy transition then to full pellets.

 

Having said all that, now that I've 'discovered' the BHWT A&P Crumb there's no looking back! They definitely prefer it to pellets but it doesn't get thrown around like mash did.

[sparkysmum]

Moomin, have just read this thread. Could you keep us posted I would love to move my ladies onto pellets as just now they will only eat mash porrige in the mornings. We have had our ladies 9mths now and the smell of hot mash porrige with all their supplements is really beginning to make me feel ill I have tried the Smallholders ex batt crumb but they were having none of that . Like you I am hearily sick of the mess and am tempted to go cold turkey like you. Logically you know that no living thing will starve itself but emotionally it's not that easy. Would be good to hear how you get on Allisonx

[moomin]

Moomin, have just read this thread. Could you keep us posted I would love to move my ladies onto pellets as just now they will only eat mash porrige in the mornings. We have had our ladies 9mths now and the smell of hot mash porrige with all their supplements is really beginning to make me feel ill I have tried the Smallholders ex batt crumb but they were having none of that . Like you I am hearily sick of the mess and am tempted to go cold turkey like you. Logically you know that no living thing will starve itself but emotionally it's not that easy. Would be good to hear how you get on Allisonx

 

Hi Alison

 

I checked this afternoon when I got in from work. I had left them nothing but Pellets with a bit of Bokashi mixed in and they had definitely gone down. I left a small bowl of the mash for my son to give them as a treat when he got home from school. I've just locked them in for the night and feeling their crops they seemed full up...

 

All you can do is try, I feel your pain it's hurting my heart to leave them with just pellets in the morning, and no beloved mash or pellet porridge! But it seems to be working, and will be worth it 'cos when I was down on my hands and knees for an hour on Friday trying to s"Ooops, word censored!"e the 'mash crust' off the run floor I was cursing them

 

Or you could do as Laurmurf suggested and grind the pellets up a bit to begin with. That's what I've done for my bantam chicks to get them from crumb to growers pellets, chucked some in the food processor.

 

This BHWT food, can ordinary hens have it or is it just for ex-batts? If it doesn't get thrown about so much it might be worth a try?

 

Sorry that last question was directed at Laurmurf I know your's don't like it

[sparkysmum]

This is encouraging Moomin, good for you for trying . I've just bought another load of mash but I think I'll have a go with pellets next if I can pluck up the courage.