Has anyone had experience using commercial chicken feed for baiting? I tried a quick search but didn't find much. I'm sure they are capable of eating anything. Also, would it work out of a electric throw feeder? Wonder if moisture could mess with it. I ask because my neighbor runs a poultry farm and I could get the feed cheap/ free. Thanks.

I have no experience with the commercial chicken feed, but at one time when I had tame ducks in our ponds and fed them hen scratch the deer loved it.

Turkeys and squirrels love chicken scratch, so I'm sure hogs will eat it too.

Interesting that you could get chicken feed for cheap or free. At best the cheap stuff I can find is comparable to deer corn in price and goes up to several times the cost for some brands. Get as much as you can! If you have any doubts on whether hogs will eat it, mix it 50/50 with deer corn to start with.

I have run cracked corn through my feeder. The feeder would over-distribute the cracked corn because the pieces were so small, more would come out when the plate spun. If the feed is pelletized, it won't over-distribute so much. The only other real concern I would have for the feeder is that it not be sticky or hydroscopic (swells with moisture as some pellets can do).

Thanks for the responses. If deer and squirrels like it that would be a plus. Ditto with 50/50 corn mix. I'll try that first and see how it works.

I talked to him today. He said he gets different size feed depending on how big the birds are. It is pelletized from what I can tell. So the moisture may be a concern. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

My buddy has chicken house that i help with. The feed id pelletized but fragile. Hogs will definitely eat it as the feed truck sometimes spills a little. Any kind of moisture it will gum up a feeder. Works well for catfish chum. The stuff we get has a definite smell to it . Might be good to put a scoop out for a attrackant.

Father in Law had poultry houses for 30 yrs.

The feed at any stage (for Broilers) will clump with very little moisture.

Also, I have dumped it in big piles at various sites before and the hogs would not touch it. It just sat there until mildewed and the rain and bacteria finally finished it off.

Your hogs would have to be very hungry to eat it by itself. Mixing it with corn might have some results.

Hogs love chicken scratch. Mix it with corn in a spin cast feeder for best results.

Hogs and deer LOVE chicken scratch. Learned this from a family that hunted for years in East Texas. I would put some piles on the ground mixed with either corn or protein pellets and they would scarf it up.

Scratch is seeds. Chicken feed is pelletized but the feed I've seen is almost crumbles and would not do well in a spin type feeder. I've fed scratch before and when you put it in a feeder with corn it will immediately find it;s way to the bottom. The slight vibration of the feeder motor vibrates enough to let the smaller stuff sift through the larger corn kernels and you get mostly scratch until it's gone and the corn is left.

If poured in a pile, I am sure they would eat it.