Chicken feeds comes in different forms. These include whole grains, crushed grains or scratch, mash, pellets, crumble, and micro-pellet and grain mix.
The term mash refers to crushed grains that have been blended with protein meal, vitamins, minerals, and supplements to produce a mix powder.
After mash has gone through a process of being heated and compressed, pellets are actually the final product. Crumble is the term used for split and rolled pellets.
Micro pellet and grain mix are a combo of grains, protein, vitamins, minerals and added supplements that come in the form of minute pellets.
Sometimes amateur chicken keepers confuse grit with a form of feed, but it is not.
Grit is little stones that chickens store in an organ called the gizzard. This organ’s role is to grind up food by using muscle power along with the pebbles that have been stocked. In other words, these tiny stones act as the teeth in the chickens’ peculiar digestive scheme.
Some commercial feeds include grit, while others don’t. Always double-check and ask around before you leave the store.
Whenever you are preparing your own food though, or when your chickens are free-ranging in an area where you doubt they’ll find grit, it is of vital importance to provide it in a separate container.
Bonus: Fodder and fermented grains
Feeding backyard chickens with fodder or fermented grains has become popular over the past years because of its low-cost, easy-to-make, and nutritious nature. This is the sort of food you want to be giving your birds because it is alive, just like what they would eat in their natural environments.
Fodder is simply sprouted grain… be it wheat, barley, millet, amaranth, oats or almost any other grain. Many feed it to their birds when they have little to no access to weeds, grasses, and other fresh foods they may find while free ranging. Others use it as a year round healthy addition.
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