Mark bought a flock block on a whim the last time he
was at the feed store. The flock block seems to be a new way of
feeding pastured poultry — the food is all glued together with
molasses, so the chickens peck off a bit at a time as they need it.
The chickens adored
their treat, and their normal feed consumption went way down.
However, I’m not all that impressed by the product. First of all,
it costs twice as much per pound as traditional feed, and has only 8%
protein. (I’ve still got the cockerels on 20% protein, although
many people would have switched them to 13% by now.) I don’t know
if it’s a coincidence, but our cockerels stopped their relentless
growing while nibbling on the flock block and have held a pretty steady
size for the last couple of weeks.
I think that the flock
block’s real purpose is to prevent boredom and the resulting feather
pecking. You all know where I stand on that — our automatic chicken waterer is the best solution I’ve
seen for giving chickens something to do.
Has anyone else tried
the flock block? What did you think?
Hey there, Thanks for your review of the Flock Block as we just found it in our local sale flyer & want to give it a try. We have Royal Palm Turkeys & several types of chickens. Will post our review of said Flock Block later.
I’ll look forward to seeing how your experiences compare to ours!
I’ve been using FlockBlock as a supplement for my pastured chickens, and I love it. I like that it doesn’t get spread all over the pasture and wasted or pooped on, and it’s a blessing when I’m busy or tired and need to be able to feed the birdies for three days running without dragging myself out to the pasture twice daily. But I’m more of a backyard flock kinda gal, only about an acre or so of pasture, so I’m not obsessing about super-duper egg production and the perfect mix of nutrients.
Melissa — Glad to hear the Flock Block has been so useful. I see your point about how the block could be handy if you aren’t going to be able to head out to the pasture for a few days but want to make sure your chickens have food that won’t be ruined by rain.