by Lisa Steele, Poultry Brand Ambassador 
Before we moved to Maine five years ago, I had already heard rave reviews about Blue Seal from a friend who lives in New Hampshire. She had been feeding Blue Seal to her dog, goats, bunny and chickens for years, and I was excited to finally be able to try the line of poultry products. At that time, Blue Seal feed wasn’t available in Virginia where we were living, so I was feeding another well-known commercial brand. It was fine, but I always believed I could do better for my chickens. They never seemed terribly excited about mealtimes.
While driving to our new home in Maine for the very first time, I spotted a local general store with the big, blue “seal” sign outside. I immediately started feeding my chickens and ducks Blue Seal layer feed. I was so excited that I would finally be able to buy Blue Seal locally!
But then a strange thing happened. After a few weeks, I realized that I was hardly going through any feed at all – not nearly as much as I did before. Did my flock not like the new feed? They all seemed healthy and happy. They even resumed laying within days of us getting settled, which is pretty amazing because chickens love routines. A 900-mile trip (straight through for 16 hours) only to land in a new, strange place would have been more than enough incentive for them to stop laying. So I couldn’t figure out why they were eating less feed than ever.
It was a Blue Seal territory manager who told me what was going on. At a poultry workshop one day, he said that a chicken will only eat until its energy needs for the day are met. It wasn’t that my chickens didn’t like Blue Seal feed, it was just that they needed to eat less of it in order to get all the nutrients they needed! That’s what happens when you use a high-quality feed that has less fillers and better nutrition. I quickly realized I’d be saving even more money on feed because my flock needed to eat less of it.
In the five years since, they have been healthy – not a single health issue. No egg binding, no impacted crops. I don’t even put crushed eggshell out all the time any longer, and haven’t had any issues with soft-shelled eggs. I learned later that Blue Seal feed contains a proprietary ingredient called NutriVantage®. This supplement helps animals in times of stress – whether it be heat stress or even a predator attack. NutriVantage® has been proven to help chickens handle stress better.
But beyond the quality of the Blue Seal feed, I really like the people. From the corporate managers I’ve met over the years, to that first territory manager, to the individual store managers, in-store staff and warehouse workers – they always have time to answer questions with a quick smile. Better yet, they all seem to really care about my animals. Almost all of them even raise animals themselves – whether it be chickens or ducks, horses or goats, or at the very least cats or dogs!
I trust Blue Seal with my flock’s health and well-being. I’ve never – not once – heard of a recall for any of Blue Seal’s feeds, and not just their chicken feeds. That’s important to me.
It’s also important to me that Blue Seal is a local company. They started right here in New England, and continue to mill much of their grains here and in the Midwestern states where they sell their feed under the Kent brand name.
Blue Seal puts a lot of stock in their reputation. And I put a lot of stock in Blue Seal. I feel better knowing that I’m giving my girls Home Fresh feeds.
Lisa Steele is a 5th generation chicken keeper, author, DIYer and master gardener. Follow her blog at www.fresheggsdaily.com