10 weeks old with layers

[waddles99]

You can keep your chickens together.  Starter or grower (18-22%) is fine for layers!  In fact many people feed this feed for the chickens whole lives. Don't feed layer to the chicks, the calcium is too high.  Starter/grower is fine.

I heard that if the protein is higher than 16%, the chickens egg shells get too hard and then they have laying problems.

 

[Dom'sHEns]

I feed an "All Flock" that contains 22% protein this way all growth stages are covered. I supplement he's that are laying extra calcium by providing them with a side dish elevated (out of reach of the peepers) of oyster shell that they pick from at their leisure. I never had a problem with his method. My laying hens get much more choice garden scraps then the peepers, which naturally lowers there protein intake.