Feeding BOSS to chicks

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robdog

robdog

Chirping
Apr 21, 2016
194
15
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Moreno Valley, California
Is grinding up sunflower seeds and giving it to fresh chicks a good idea as chick starter? They are high in protein. Thinking about grinding them up along with regular scratch from the feed store at around a 50/50 ratio and then putting it feeder for around the first 3-4 weeks and then just give them regular scratch from there.
 
Starter feed contains all the necessary nutrition for a balanced diet - its also the appropriate grain size to enable the chicks to absorb the nutrition. You'd have more of a guarantee of healthy chicks using it.

CT
 
CTKen, if I'm trying to fatten up the smallest of my chickens, who is 14 weeks old now, would it be good to add BOSS into her diet? She is picked on by the rooster, and consequently the other hens, and I think her size has something to do with it. She is also very sweet, so she doesn't fight back. I think if I could get her to grow faster it would help. I gave her mash, using her starter feed, this morning. Have not checked to see if she ate any of it this morning. She was hanging out in the coop alone again. It's her safe space. And yes, my coop and run are big enough for the number of chickens I have. In fact, much larger than they need, but they all love it.
 
Grub Digger said:
They are referring to black oil sunflower seeds. I wasn't sure how to respond to nutritional questions about them, but I did find this article on BOSS.

http://articles.extension.org/pages/70235/using-sunflower-seed-in-organic-poultry-diet
Click to expand...
Thank you Grub Digger. That was a good article. Apparently BOSS will not do what I was hoping for. She did eat a little mash this morning, made of her regular grower food. Hopefully I can get her to do that every day. She is always the last one out of the coop, so it's easy to give her something and not the others.
 
Maybe adding vitamin supplements / electrolytes to her drinking water make perk her up and sharpen her appetite.
 
I started with boss for my bunch of seven when they were about that age (14 weeks, not the chicks from the OP). I based it on what I read about the extra protein and oils being good for them while growing feathers. Mine absolutely love them--I do a ferment using their grower, now switching to layer pellets, and mix in boss and some scratch grains. They pick out all the boss first before finishing the rest.

The article was very interesting, but didn't talk of feeding whole seeds. I don't see the need to make meal from them first.
 
Electrolytes supplies energy, not growth. If I want to bulk up a bird I raise the protein. Try feeding the smallest one higher protein. BOSS will be about 16% protein so no difference between that and the feed they are already getting, which at that age should be 16%. I feed BOSS for feather sheen on my show birds starting at around 18 weeks.
 

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