Scratch and Peck Feeds Whole Grain Starter Mash Chicken and Duck Feed - Corn-Free and Soy-Free - 20.5% Protein, Certified Organic and Non-GMO Project Verified Chicken Food - 50 lbs Bag

I’ve been using Scratch and Peck’s starter mash for about a month now, and It has truly been a life saver! I previously purchased other chick starter feed and sadly loss chicks from vitamin deficiency and others were not in great shape I switched to this feed and they all bounced back! What I like: ✅ Feed Quality: truly has everything a baby chick needs to survive and be healthy. I especially love that it is organic, non GMO, and is corn/ soy free! Chicks love it! ✅ Packaging: It arrived well-packaged, no damage and the bag is resealable. The only thing I would change but is easily added separately would be bugs. Chicks/ chickens do consume a large amount of insects and chicks specifically need high protein. I wish there was ground cricket or something added. I know a lot of people say it’s a “treat” but outside they will eat all the bugs they find. Use case: I feed dry but hear it is a really good product to ferment, and so far, no issues with performance or quality. I will use this product for future chicks. I’ll update this review if anything changes over time, but for now – I definitely recommend it if you need a reliable chick starter.

I've ordered Scratch & Peck feeds 3 or 4 times now and my chickens have gone crazy for it since day 1. You can definitely tell the difference in your flock when you give them a quality feed vs. the mass produced highly-processed crap they sell in most feed stores (the biggest difference that I've noticed is in the smell of their poop - much less potent when on this stuff). I love that you can actually see the grains in this feed, but the downside is that the chickens will pick out their favorites and leave the rest (at least that's been my case). There is some powder in this feed as well, which is more difficult for them to eat. You could add water to the powdery stuff and give it to them as a mash, but what I've been experimenting with recently is fermenting feed. I'm down to the last bit of the bag on their current feed, so much of my experimenting has been with the powder or bits that they "rejected", but you can ferment all the feed if you wish to do so (which I plan on doing with the next bag that I get). If you're not familiar with fermenting feed, here's a quick run-down: There are tons of benefits to fermenting - the process produces what are essentially probiotics (healthy bacteria) that promote digestive health. I've also read that the components of the feed are better utilized by the chickens' bodies after the feed is fermented - they don't have to eat as much to get the nutrients that they need (which saves you money, essentially, because it takes them longer to get through a bag of feed). Since fermentation produces a wet feed, they also don't require as much water. From the first day of offering this feed to them after it had fermented, I've noticed that their poop is well formed for the most part (not runny) and there is nearly no stink to it (yay!). Others have also reported healthier looking feathers and less illness (I haven't been fermenting long enough to see these benefits in my flock yet). The fermentation process is pretty simple - you just place some feed into a vessel/bucket, add a source of healthy bacteria (I use apple cider vinegar with "the mother"), and add enough water to cover the feed. You can also add other things to the mix that you would normally feed them (kitchen scraps, etc), though I haven't tried adding other components yet. Loosely cover the container (so gasses can escape & air can get it - you don't want to leave the container completely uncovered or it'll attract bugs... unless that's what you're going for, lol) and place the container in a location where it is somewhat warm and dark. After a day or two, you should notice the odor change to kind of a sour scent (if you've ever made sourdough bread or worked with a sourdough starter, it's along those same lines) and it'll get frothy - when this has occurred, it's ready to feed to the flock. If your birds are adults, it may take a day or two for them to "accept" it, though mine didn't really have an issue with it. There are tons more details about fermenting in the forum of the Backyard Chickens website - one of the threads on there is over 1000 pages long, lol (just search for fermented feed). From what I've seen, fermenting is definitely the way to go - it keeps the flock happy & healthy and it stretches the feed budget (win-win-win). This feed on it's own is great, but fermenting just takes it to the next level.

This is the best chicken feed on the market. The quality is excellent, and my chickens are always healthy and happy on it.

My girls love it. been through all 3 stages on this food. The best part is the over-spray when i miss the container or when the girls are messy start to grow. The hens love the sprouts too. yes its pricey, but you get what you pay for. i'd consider eating it in an emergency. lol it's clean and clear.

Sometimes I can't decide how many stars to give a product. I'm giving four because the quality of the feed is great. But as it is organic and there are no preservatives it is highly vulnerable to souring, losing nutrition quickly, getting moldy, etc.. The oils will go sour and you definitely don't want to feed that to your birds, and even if you've never seen a flour bug in your entire life, you will. Some some folks don't mind that, though, but you might. You do have to transfer it to an airtight or at the very least lockable container out of the sun and in a cool place to keep it fresh. If you had organic bread for more than a couple of weeks would you still eat it? So how long would you leave your expensive organic feed in an open container? I will follow that up with the bag because it is not airtight. It is double layer thick very heavy brown paper and sewn with the usual seam top and bottom. So you take off the top, right? Thinking all is well? I emptied the bag into my airtight container and happened to catch sunlight through the bottom of the bag. I've taken a picture to prove my point. This is great feed but don't leave it in the bag unless you're going to use it up quickly.

This stuff is great. Granted I'm only a couple days into it, but so far so good. I had intended on getting the chick starter locally. Then ran down the clock trying to find organic chick starter in LA... Because I have Prime I ordered Manna Pro Organic Chick Starter which is roughly $20 for 5 pounds and guaranteed to arrive within two days. It seem like a pricey but safe bet to be sure I'd have it when the little ones arrived. I'm new to this, I didn't know what to compare it to, seemed fine enough. The first ingredients were corn and soy, which I wasn't wild about, both for health and for environmental reasons. But the chicks ate it, they look healthy, good enough. Come time to order more food and I try the starter from Scratch and Peck. It arrived in four days. Which was awesome and unexpected. These little ladies get a pretty diverse snack diet and plenty of time outside in the hot California sun. I wouldn't say they are picky, but I would say they aren't suckers, they've tasted all sorts of stuff and they've shown their individual preferences even now at just under 4 weeks. They all went nuts on it. Bonanza style. Chicken party. Because they were so into it, I got curious and compared. Visually the Manna Pro looks like tiny torn up pieces of flimsy cardboard, left to bleach in the sun for a week. Scratch and Peck looks more like a packet of soup spices mixed with ground up Muesli. There looked to be a few pieces still too big for them, but when poking around their bedding later I didn't see any left; perhaps they became accustom. The Manna Pro didn't smell like much of anything, while this stuff smelled like foodstuffs – dry grass and a TINY hint of cooked fish. Then I looked for packing dates. When the Manna Pro shipped it was already nearly 3 months old. When the Scratch and Peck shipped it was a few days old. Even if the chicks liked it the same, if it cost just as much; that alone would cause me to only buy this ever again. Wait two extra days for it to arrive and get food that's three months fresher, seems like a fair deal. Okay, now packaging. Manna Pro, plastic ziplock back. Convenient but wasteful. Scratch and Peck, sturdy paper packaging filled to the brim, densely pressed, with ingredient list and product name sewed along one of the seams. If that kind of thing matters to you as well, you'll feel better about getting this. I put the feed into large mason jars for storage. Finally, cost. Manna Pro cardboard crumble = $4 per pound. Scratch and Peck tasty looking chick Muesli $1.60 per pound

My hens and I love this food. Whether dry or fermented, they gobble it down and are nice & healthy.

Our chickens love this feed! For anyone else interested in fermenting this feed to make it even more nutritious for your ladies and increase the quality of their eggs, it is extremely simple. Just add equal parts feed and water to a glass jar and shake it up a couple times throughout the day to keep it mixed. For the lid I use the white plastic Ball lids but you can use any standard lid, just let it vent a little here and there to keep it from getting too carbonated. After ~48 - 72 hrs it will be ready and look similar to what I have shown in the photo for this review. BONUS Tip! If you make your own milk Kefir at home, add ~1/4c of Kefir for every 4 cups of feed + 4 cups of water. This will help speed up the fermentation process, increase the probiotics and bioavailability of nutrients, and also prevent mold from growing on your fermented feed! I had issues with mold growing on top of the feed if I forgot to shake/stir it once per day, but our home made goat kefir completely eliminated the problem! Now we can leave our fermented feed on the counter for weeks and weeks without any issues of mold growing. Making goat or cow Kefir at home is also a very easy process. You can purchase high quality grains on Etsy and make sure to use a small amount of grains m (~0.5 - 1 tsp per 2-4 cups of milk) and unpasteurized milk which you can get from a local farmers market.