Page 5 - chook book Essential 2

Pellets-Are They Good For Your Chickens?

In the poultry community, it has always been a well debated subject on what type of feed is best
to be feeding the humble chicken, Pellets or Mash? While of lot of opinion is based on personal
preference, there are certainly advantages to feeding your birds a pelleted feed.

So What’s the Advantage

Despite the two products being made to the same specifications, there are advantages to using
a pelleted feed. These are:

Less wastage
Because chickens are the way they are, the love to scratch around in their feed and generally
make a bit of a mess. This can lead them to flicking feed onto the ground,
(even from a suspended feeder). In this instance, a mash feed can be spread out on the ground
separating the grains (coarser particles) from the protein and vitamins (finer particles). Because
chickens have a very sensitive beak and generally feed by feel, more often than not the coarser
particles will be eaten, and the essential protein, vitamins and minerals are left to rot on the ground.
This results in the birds receiving an unbalanced ration.

With a pelleted feed, each and every pellet contains the same proportion of grains, protein,
vitamins and minerals – this means that even if the pellet is dispersed from the feeder – because
of its size, the chicken will eventually eat it and in doing so will receive a completely balanced diet
with every pellet consumed. It also means a cleaner environment for the birds to live in.
Better digestion
Many studies have shown that chickens can metabolize a pelleted ration more efficiently – this
means quicker digestion that can better convert the energy yielded from the ration. This improves
things such as FCR (Feed Conversion Ratio) which means better growth rates and more eggs for
less feed consumed.
Cleaner Feed
Pelleting is a relatively simple process, whereby the feed is conditioned under high pressured steam,
and then put through a die to form the pellet – this can offer greater bacteriological quality and
lowers the risk of pathogens such as salmonella being present in the feed. It also can eliminate
any infestation such as weevils and grain beetles that may be present in the grains without having
to use any phostoxin chemicals and thus maintain its clean organic status.