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Suggested by Castle Farm and has already received replies after being put forward.

Feeding & the use of mash & pellets. Which do you think is better & why?

Feeding and the use of pellets and mash.

I use pellets for ease of use although there is always a lot of waste regardless of what type of feeder is used. I do give mash when its very cold but with 23 coops/runs, 2 sheds with 20 breeder cages and 18 breeder cages in plus 1 small shed, it takes up a lot of time and they tend to stand in the dishes to eat and then poop in it. Plus you can only leave mash down a couple of hours whereas with pellets you can just top up. It's essential to use a good brand of pellets - if you're breeding you need to use Breeder pellets, if you only have hens for egg laying then Layers is fine. I used to use Smallholder range but it got so expensive, I'm now on Fancy Fowl (which is for Breeder/Show birds) and whilst its only slightly cheaper I find the birds eat it more readily. It's a small fat pellet and contains ingredients specially for breeding birds including the cockerels (feeding Layers to cockerels has been known to cause them problems due to the higher calcium content). The birds seem to be plumper and their feathers better quality. I feed it to all the birds, from my tiny Serama to my larger Vorwerks. I'm also finding the fertility is a lot higher

I tried giving mash after a neighbour gave me a bag of it after giving up poultry. The hens seemed to like the change, but made a real mess and had great fun throwing it about the place! I've bought treadle feeders since then, and they only work with pellets, the hens prefer it anyway
I use the Smallholders range.

We use Garvo fancy chick mash, then they go onto Garvo chick pellets at about 5 weeks old, then onto either the Garvo hen grower, or the cockerel grower as they are separated at 10 weeks old, i also use their layers pellet. I prefere to use pellets on the older birds as they make a right mess with mash, it also blows out the feeders and smells sour if it's wet. Had brilliant results with their breeder pellets too!

JubesX

We use a generalised medicated chick crumb which we add seaweed, alfalfa, pre and pro biotics, garlic and lime flour to, then they go onto marrages poultry growers when they are about 5 weeks old,(yokohamas go onto growers mixed with quail feed) then onto a general layers or breeder pellet at 12 weeks old, the only mash we give is stuff we make ourselves from barly, wheat, maize, peas which we grind in an electric milling machine and add vits and minerals to suit the type of birds that we are feeding

Jay