Organic feed options

[KittyKat]

We have been feeding our chickens Marriage's organic pellets and corn for almost as long as we had them. We started the ex-battery hens on crumb as per recommendation, but turned out that they were more interested in food than what form it came in, and I've used the Marriage Flubenvet medicated pellets this year as it seems like the least stressful time to medicate them when we're away on holiday and they're not being let out anyway (we have friends chicken sit in exchange for eggs).

Back to the point, I would like to use organic starter crumb and grower pellets, but I'm having trouble finding some. Does anyone have recommendations? Price is important, but quality more so.

Marriage claim that they have organic starter and grower ranges, but I've never seen these for sale: http://www.marriagefeeds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Organic.pdf

I've already had a few chicken keepers pull faces at me over wanting to feed organic, so I might as well get it out there that it's not for better tasting eggs or healthier chickens (they mostly eat stuff they find in the garden anyway), but to support more sustainable farming practices.

 

[valeriebutterley]

I think Allen and Page "smallholder" range are about as organic as you can buy from a food retailer, also a lot of people swear by "fancy feed" that mine are on at the moment, and certainly seem to be thriving, feeders always empty or nearly so at night.
Marriages can be obtained directly from them, also Mole Valley farmers supply with a reasonable carriage charge, they sent me my last lot of Flubenvet pellets.
My layers are also heavily into sprouts, Savoy cabbage, pointy cabbage, lettuce, even apples and pears that are to my taste have been a day too long in the fruit bowl!

 

[KittyKat]

The Smallholder range is not organic according to Allan and Page, but it's the only one that I have used so far for chick crumb.

I also started off using Fancy Feed non-organic grower pellets and later moved to the Marriage non-organic grower pellets as they were cheaper and similar on paper to the Fancy Feed. I found that the chicks were more eager to have the Marriage grower pellets.

Allan and Page do have an organic range which is sold under "The Organic Feed Company" name. I talked to the Allan and Page representative at the Norfolk Show about it earlier this year and it seems like a nice feed. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive in comparison to Marriage organic pellets.

There's more info about the two Allan and Page ranges available at http://www.allenandpage.com/Feeding-Other-Animals/

For now, I have requested an account with Marriage because it appears that one needs an account to view the products in the online shop and have had a look at Mole Valley Farmers who produce their own organic chick starter crumb ( http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/products/mvf-chick-crumbs-organic-20kg ), but only offer The Organic Feed Company grower pellets which are £20 per 20 kg.

 

[KittyKat]

On a slightly wider subject than chickens, does anyone also know of organic feed for ducks, turkeys and quail?

 

[KittyKat]

So far, the cheapest grower pellets that I can find *delivered* are the Organic Feed Company straight from the Allan & Page shop: http://www.animalfeedstore.com/The-Organic-Feed-Company/Default.aspx

I have emailed a few other sellers/mills to verify the delivery costs and will update here when I hear something back.

 

[KittyKat]

I am now buying directly from Allan and Page, as it turns out that the mill is 10 miles away and it makes more sense for me to buy 2 months worth of food rather than pay for delivery on each bag (the use by date is 100 days from production and given that I'm buying straight from the mill, it's as fresh as can be). I haven't found any other alternatives at this point, but will update the thread if I do.