We Compared 6 Layer Feeds on Protein, Calcium and Waste

Why Purina Layena Crumbles wins this category

Consistency, which is a genuinely undervalued property in feed. A large mill running a fixed formulation produces a bag in March that is nutritionally the same as the bag in September. Smaller mills using whatever grain is available locally do not always manage that, and flocks notice: a formulation change shows up as a dip in laying about two weeks later.

Sixteen percent protein with added calcium is the standard laying ration, and it is standard because it works.

Living with Purina Layena Crumbles

Crumbles are the right choice for a mixed flock. A full-size pellet is a mouthful for a Sussex and a challenge for a bantam or a light Leghorn, and birds that find feed awkward eat less of it.

Availability matters more than it sounds. Running out of feed on a Sunday is a real problem, and this is stocked almost everywhere.

Where Purina Layena Crumbles falls short

Fines. Crumbles are pellets that have been broken, and breaking produces dust. That dust settles to the bottom of the bag and the bottom of the feeder, and birds pick around it rather than eating it. Over a fifty pound sack the loss is visible.

The fix is worth knowing: tip the fines into a bowl, add a little warm water to make a wet mash, and serve it as a morning treat. The birds eat it enthusiastically and nothing is wasted.

The ingredient objection is a matter of preference rather than nutrition. This contains corn and soy, which are the standard base of commercial poultry rations and which some keepers avoid on principle. If that is you, there are better choices in this comparison.

Why Purina Layena Pellets wins this category

Waste, and there are two mechanisms.

The first is fines: pellets are the intact form, so there is no dust for birds to pick around and none settling at the bottom of the feeder.

The second is more interesting. In a mash or a poorly bound crumble, hens will pick out the bits they like and leave the rest, which means the bird is not eating the balanced ration you paid for. A complete pellet makes that impossible. Every mouthful is the full formulation.

Living with Purina Layena Pellets

Pellets also behave better mechanically. They flow through port feeders without bridging, they do not cake at the port when the air is humid, and they can be scooped without a cloud of dust.

The ration itself is identical to the crumble version, so if you have a flock doing well on Layena there is nothing to adjust nutritionally when you switch form.

Where Purina Layena Pellets falls short

Size. A full-size layer pellet is a comfortable mouthful for a standard hen and a large one for a bantam or a light Leghorn. Small birds manage, and they work harder at it and eat less over a day.

In a mixed flock that difference compounds. The larger birds eat efficiently and the small ones eat less than they should, and over a season it shows in condition and in laying.

Pullets coming off grower crumbles also take a few days to adjust, and it is worth watching that they are actually eating rather than assuming it.

Why Manna Pro All Flock wins this category

Because layer feed is genuinely bad for anything that is not a laying hen, and a lot of people do not know it. Layer rations carry around four percent calcium to build eggshells. Roosters, ducks and pullets that have not started laying have no use for that calcium, and sustained excess is associated with kidney damage.

An all-flock ration drops the calcium to a normal maintenance level and raises the protein, which suits everything in a mixed yard.

Living with Manna Pro All Flock

Eighteen percent protein is the other half of the logic. Growing pullets need more protein than an adult layer, and adults rebuilding feathers during autumn moult need it too. A single ration at 18 percent serves the whole yard reasonably.

The included probiotics are most useful at the moments flocks are stressed: introducing new birds, moving house, or the week after a predator scare.

Where Manna Pro All Flock falls short

The oyster shell requirement is not optional and it is the thing people forget. Laying hens on all-flock feed must have free-choice crushed oyster shell in a separate small dish, which they will self-regulate accurately. Without it, shells thin out within a few weeks, and thin shells break in the nest, which is how egg eating starts.

Bag size is the other criticism. Eight pounds is a top-up quantity, not a way to feed a flock, and the cost per pound at that size is high. Buy the largest bag your storage allows.

If your flock is only laying hens, this is the wrong choice anyway. A proper layer ration with calcium built in is simpler and cheaper.

Why New Country Organics wins this category

Because organic and soy-free together is a genuinely scarce combination. Plenty of feeds are organic and use organic soy as the protein base. Plenty are soy-free and conventional. Doing both means sourcing organic peas, alfalfa or fishmeal for the protein, and that is expensive and difficult, which is why so few mills offer it.

If either is a requirement for you, the field of options is small and this is at the top of it.

Living with New Country Organics

Seventeen percent protein is slightly above the standard sixteen, and that margin is useful in two situations: during the autumn moult, when birds are rebuilding feathers out of protein, and in winter when energy demand rises.

Mash form has one real advantage, which is transparency. You can see the actual ingredients rather than a uniform brown pellet, and grain quality is visible.

Where New Country Organics falls short

Cost, and it is roughly double conventional feed per pound. That is the honest price of organic certification plus soy-free sourcing, and for a flock of six hens it is a meaningful annual difference.

The nutritional criticism is more important. Mash allows selective feeding. Hens sort through it, eat the grains they like and leave the finer fraction, which is exactly where the vitamin and mineral supplementation sits. The bird then does not receive the balanced ration on the label.

The fix is to feed it as a wet mash, mixing with a little water so nothing can be picked out. That works well and it is a daily job rather than filling a hopper once a week.

Twenty-five pound bags also mean ordering twice as often as with a 50 lb sack.

Why Scratch and Peck wins this category

Transparency, and for a lot of keepers that is the whole point of keeping chickens rather than buying eggs. A pellet is a uniform brown cylinder that could contain anything. A whole grain mash lets you see wheat, peas, oats and the rest, and judge the quality yourself.

The non-GMO Project verification is worth distinguishing from vaguer claims. It is an audited certification with a supply chain behind it, not a marketing adjective.

Living with Scratch and Peck

Birds engage with whole grain differently. They sort, scratch and pick, which is closer to natural foraging behaviour and keeps a confined flock occupied in a way that pellets do not. In a run where boredom leads to feather picking, that is a genuine benefit.

At 40 lb the bag size keeps the cost per pound sensible for a premium feed, unlike the 25 lb organic sacks.

Where Scratch and Peck falls short

Two related problems, and both are about how the bird actually processes it.

Selective feeding is the first. A mash of visibly different grains is an invitation for a hen to eat her favourites and leave the rest, and what gets left is usually the fine supplement fraction carrying the vitamins and minerals. Feeding as a wet mash prevents it and turns feeding into a daily job.

Grit is the second, and it is a hard requirement rather than a suggestion. Chickens have no teeth and grind whole grain in the gizzard using swallowed stones. A flock with no access to soil or without free-choice insoluble grit will pass whole grain undigested, which wastes the feed and can cause an impacted crop.

If you free range on soil, that is usually covered. If your birds live on a hard-floored run, buy grit.

Why Manna Pro Layer Pellets wins this category

Because feed is perishable and people forget it. The vitamins in a compound ration degrade over time, faster in heat and humidity, and most guidance suggests using feed within a couple of months of the mill date.

Three hens eat about three quarters of a pound a day, so a 50 lb sack takes them more than two months, and the last of that sack is nutritionally weaker than the first. An 8 lb bag is roughly a month, which is the right pace.

Living with Manna Pro Layer Pellets

Storage is genuinely easier. A small bag fits in a sealed bucket or bin on a shelf, where a 50 lb sack in a garage is a rodent invitation and a slug of floor space.

Pellet rather than crumble is the right call at this size, because it means fewer fines settling in the bottom of a small feeder where they represent a bigger proportion of the total.

Where Manna Pro Layer Pellets falls short

Cost per pound, and the gap is large. Buying feed in 8 lb bags is several times more expensive per pound than buying a 50 lb sack, in the same way that buying any staple in single portions is.

That only makes sense below about four birds. At five or six hens a 50 lb sack is finished inside two months anyway, so the freshness argument disappears and you are simply paying more.

The formulation itself is the conventional standard: corn and soy based, not organic. That is fine and it is not a premium product in any respect except the packaging.