Garvo poulty feed

[Sue]

I have spent the last week trying to find a supplier of Garvo poultry feed! There is only one place in my area who has ever had it in stock and they only order it every 2 months and have nothing in at the moment! I have just managed to order the last bag from a website and their carriage charges are VERY high. If anyone knows of a good website where it can be purchased without high carriage costs I would be very grateful to hear about it.

 

[Marigold]

Try emailing Jonathan Sage, the UK manager. [email protected] I've found him very helpful. At least he would know people in your area wanted it, if you told him about your problems.

 

[bantiekeeper]

Hi Sue, I buy my Garvo pellets and Alfamix from Titmuss near Wheathamstead Herts. However they are only a few miles from me so I can go and collect. Agree carriage charges are a nightmare. Where are you? By the way my chooks love Garvo too! 17

 

[foxy]

Roughly where are you Sue? I order in huge amounts, and travel up and down the country if that helps at all.
Garvo has a 6 month sell by date so it worth stocking a few bags.

 

[chrismahon]

Garvo will store for 12 months if kept dry, dark and below 12 degrees centigrade. I've discussed a distributorship with them at length. They have 200 distributors in the UK so you should be able to find one.

 

[Philcott]

Garvo will store for 12 months if kept dry, dark and below 12 degrees centigrade. I've discussed a distributorship with them at length. They have 200 distributors in the UK so you should be able to find one.

*sigh* not if you live in Suffolk! The cost of diesel makes a 60 mile round trip to a dealer (if they've even got it) a thing of the past!Don't have a couple of thousand to set up as a dealer either!

 

[Marigold]

I paid £2.50 a bag for delivery on my first few orders, and then a dealer opened up 5 miles away, right on the road I travel every week to do my shopping. So it's actually now the cheapest feed I could buy, if you factor in the cost of driving several miles further to buy other brands. And he carries it to the car for me.
What a lucky lady I am!

 

[Sue]

You certainly are very lucky Marigold! I hate to say it, but I think it was you who (very kindly) suggested this food to me in the first place. So at least I know who to blame for me tearing my hair out this week!! Only joking. I really want to feed my few hens this food and have just ordered 1 large bag of Alfamix, 1 bag of pellets and a small bag of mixed corn from a website and paid £12 carriage!!!! I have been in contact with Jonathan Sage several times and he has been very helpful, but I'm afraid there is only so much he seems to be able to do. There are two retailers within 12 miles of me who stock some of their products but not all and not the Alfamix. They both said they could order it for me next time they order, but I wanted to start feeding it now as I am out of layers pellets and didn't want to have to buy another 20kg as then I would have too much left over. I know Titmuss sell it, but they haven't got any in stock. I was going to order it from their website as their carriage isn't too bad. By the way I'm in Devon and everyone seems to forget we exist down here I think! Still, hopefully it will be delivered tomorrow or Monday. I just hope they like it after all this! Why is it so difficult to get when they are advertising in all the poultry magazines?

 

[foxy]

Well Sue, I do travel down to Devon at least once a week if that's any good?

 

[Sue]

Do you come anywhere near Cullompton or Exeter Foxy? Where do you live anyway Foxy, I've just noticed you have 'South West' as your location.

 

[foxy]

Sue I live near Bristol, but come down to Exeter frequently for work. I buy bulk Garvo, a bit of everything really!

 

[Pony Girl]

Would you recommend the Alfamix or the Layers Mash?

 

[Marigold]

They are quite different from each other. The layers mash is made of the same stuff as the layers pellets, just not pelleted, (like all other brands.) My hens do well on the pellets. Alfamix is a mixture of grains, seeds, mini-pellets and cephalopods (sort of dried shrimpy things.) It's lovely and the hens go mad for it but it's quite a lot more expensive than the mash or pellets. I originally bought some by mistake for Alfachick, which as its name suggests is a high-protein mix of small seeds and grains and mini-pellets which I give to my quail (and would recommend for special chicks if I had any.) ATM I'm still giving the hens a daily warm mash of 50% pellets and 50% Alfamix, served damp and crumbly out of a deep bowl, and they all seem to love this. I can add ACV or CLO as well when I think it's a good idea. You could do this with mash of course, but i prefer the pellets as when they eat these dry out of the reserve feeder they have to take them as they come and not pick out the nicest bits and waste anything. And the pellets are easy to soak with about 30% of water to a given volume of feed.

 

[bantiekeeper]

As Marigold says the Alfamix is expensive, just under £15 for a 12kg bag round my way. I feed my dottes the 731 Garvo layers pellets ad-lib and they get a handful of the Alfamix to scratch around for in the morning. They love the stuff! A handful of corn late afternoon plus some greens completes the daily menu together with what they find free ranging for a couple of hours a day. :roll:

 

[Boo]

I also cannot find somewhere near me to buy it and with the alfastart and alfamix pluss rabbit food with postage on each its a dear do 02

 

[Marigold]

It is good feed, but I don't think it's like magic beans and personally I wouldn't want to pay vastly over the odds for it. I'm just lucky to have a supplier near home, otherwise mine would get something else!

 

[crazypianolady]

I have a supplier within reasonable distance so I tried it a couple of years ago. The hens loved it, but I didn't notice any difference in condition. So with it being a) imported and b) expensive I now feed Fancy Feeds range. The supplier is much closer and if anything's out of stock it arrives within a couple of days.