I’ll start by saying I’ve never been a fan of mash because it always seemed messy and wasteful, so I’ve stuck with pellets for years. This past winter, though, I really wanted to try the Winter Blend, so I decided to give it a shot. To my surprise, it went really well—and I realized the key difference this time is that I’m using an enclosed feeder from RentACoop, which virtually eliminates waste.
The Winter Blend worked out so well that I decided to try the Summer Blend, and I’ve now gone through multiple bags. I pair it with Gallo Pro as scratch—it’s full of grains my chickens love but also has a more complete nutritional profile, which helps it stretch further despite being a bit more expensive on its own.
My chickens love it, there’s no wasted mash on the ground, and I’m consistently getting beautiful eggs from all of my hens.
The only minor issue I’ve run into is that sometimes the feed settles unevenly and doesn’t drop down on its own, so I have to give the feeder a little bump to get things moving. But that’s a small tradeoff for how well this setup has worked overall.
If you’ve been hesitant to try mash for the same reasons I used to avoid it, I’d definitely recommend getting an enclosed feeder and giving it a try—you might be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
