Layer feed.?

[HighStreetCoop]

Quote:
Check on the SoCal loop and see if anyone has a chick that's roughly the age of yours (or maybe the feed store will have an extra bantam chick that's a little older?). Brooding one little chick by itself will be too stressful for it. That run is actually a little tight for even two chickens, but you might be ok if you're keeping smaller breeds and if they're let out to free range in the yard.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

..., but at the pet feed store the worker told me I could start layer feed after 6 weeks. The grower feed they have only comes in a big bag and he said that I can just skip grower feed and start layer. Is this true.? ...

That's why one doesn't get advice about chickens from pet or feed store employees. They know where the feed is in the store but most know little else.

What do I do if my roosters are with my hens how am I suppose to just make sure my hens get layer feed and not the roosters

You can't keep them from eating each other's feed. Just don't use layer if you have birds not actively building egg shells.

Oh okay :3 I am trying to think of snacks and stuff to feed my chickens as they get older. I also have another question, when you first let chicks out to sleep in the coop/run will they sleep in the run for a couple nights because they are confused.?

Chickens really don't need snacks. Table scraps are fine if not too much of the diet. Foraging is great.
If you lock them in the coop a few days, as creatures of habit, they'll return to where they've safely slept at dusk.

... I don't really have predators in my area I am worried about I just feel bad if they sleep outside the coop because they are expecting me

Everyone has predators.
There are many daytime predators but dusk brings out many more.
Hawks, owls, weasels, opossum, raccoon, bobcat, dogs, cats to name a few.

Thank you for your concern

I now know that I can not get layer feed, i will just get the bag of grower even if it is 50 pounds for two chickens.! It won't hurt my chickens to be on starter feed still while laying eggs will it.?

As long as the starter isn't medicated, it's fine. Just provide oyster shell by the time they're ready to lay.
If you only have 2 chickens and buy 50 lbs., freeze or refrigerate it to keep the nutrients from degrading. At the very least keep it in a cool place.X

No. It will not. When they start laying, just offer oyster shell on the side, free choice. People who keep roosters feed grower or "all flock" and never go to layer at all.

ETA: You might want to think about getting one more chick while they're still young enough for an easy integration. Two is a hard number because if one dies, then you have a lone chicken and they don't do well by themselves.

X2 on getting more.

Once they start laying eggs you'll want more than 0-2 a day.
If you think you don't have predators and the first one is taken, the lone chicken will need friends.

Oh okay, maybe I will pick one up when I go buy their starter feed but do you think I can keep three chickens in this run.?
the run is maybe six feet by two and half feet.
Also if I get another chick I will have to brood her separately because my girls are ready to move out this week.! If I get one at about three weeks can I just put her in there with the other girls.? I live in California and it has been in the high 80's

Chicks aren't that fragile. At those temps they'll be ready to go out at a couple weeks.

 

[SammileeChickie]

Check on the SoCal loop and see if anyone has a chick that's roughly the age of yours. Brooding one little chick by itself will be too stressful for it. That run is actually a little tight for even two chickens, but you might be ok if you're keeping smaller breeds and if they're let out to free range in the yard.

Really I went out to measure it and it's 6 feet by almost three feet.
Okay, maybe I will wait and see what happens after Easter on craigslist just read a post that reminded me about all the chicks just being forgotten after Easter.
What is the SoCal loop.?

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Quote:
6x3 = 18 sq feet. You want 10 sq feet of run per bird (assuming large fowl, but it looks like one yours is much smaller than the other so maybe it's a bantam?).

Here's the SoCal group thread. I bet you can find someone on there with an extra chick, LOL! There always seem to be plenty on the NorCal thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/161/california-southern

 

[SammileeChickie]

That's why one doesn't get advice about chickens from pet or feed store employees. They know where the feed is in the store but most know little else.


You can't keep them from eating each other's feed. Just don't use layer if you have birds not actively building egg shells.

Chickens really don't need snacks. Table scraps are fine if not too much of the diet. Foraging is great.
If you lock them in the coop a few days, as creatures of habit, they'll return to where they've safely slept at dusk.

Everyone has predators.
There are many daytime predators but dusk brings out many more.
Hawks, owls, weasels, opossum, raccoon, bobcat, dogs, cats to name a few.


As long as the starter isn't medicated, it's fine. Just provide oyster shell by the time they're ready to lay.
If you only have 2 chickens and buy 50 lbs., freeze or refrigerate it to keep the nutrients from degrading. At the very least keep it in a cool place.X

X2 on getting more.

Once they start laying eggs you'll want more than 0-2 a day.
If you think you don't have predators and the first one is taken, the lone chicken will need friends.

Chicks aren't that fragile. At those temps they'll be ready to go out at a couple weeks.

Okay well the only predator is my dogs. But we have been teaching them to stay away from the chickens house and they have. The only way they can get a chicken is if it accidently gets out when I open the door. My dogs are little so it is easy to control them.
But I don't think I have enough room for another chicken

I thought my run and coop was big enough for two but now people are telling me it's not and I feel bad. I looked up chicken runs for two chickens and they were much smaller than mine.!

Okay I will get the starter feed and supply them with oyster shells when they start laying.

 

[SammileeChickie]

6x3 = 18 sq feet. You want 10 sq feet of run per bird (assuming large fowl, but it looks like one yours is much smaller than the other so maybe it's a bantam?).

Here's the SoCal group thread. I bet you can find someone on there with an extra chick, LOL! There always seem to be plenty on the NorCal thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/161/california-southern

Thank you.!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

As for coop/run space, a lot has to do with the breeds.

As for predators, they're everywhere. There are a 100 times more raccoons per square mile in cities than there are in the wilderness.
What keeps feral dogs and cats at bay around your house?
I've had 6 major dog attacks from neighbor and feral dogs.
I'm in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest. Game cams have recently caught mountain lions in suburban backyards. There have been reports of bobcats and foxes aren't uncommon in the burbs.
Most people around here lose chickens to hawks during the day. A great horned owl sits in my trees till almost 10 AM. Coyotes and foxes pass through the yard midday. Neighbors have had weasel infiltrations.
My family has raised chickens around here for close to 150 years and we never had a mink problem until Walmart started building a store along a creek near my house. The mink arrived and killed $4,000 worth of my chickens last year.
What I'm trying to say is that you don't hang out in your yard at night with night vision glasses. The predators are afoot whether you know it or not.

As the expression goes, "if you build it, they will come".

 

[SammileeChickie]

As for coop/run space, a lot has to do with the breeds.


As for predators, they're everywhere. There are a 100 times more raccoons per square mile in cities than there are in the wilderness.
What keeps feral dogs and cats at bay around your house?
I've had 6 major dog attacks from neighbor and feral dogs.
I'm in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest. Game cams have recently caught mountain lions in suburban backyards. There have been reports of bobcats and foxes aren't uncommon in the burbs.
Most people around here lose chickens to hawks during the day. A great horned owl sits in my trees till almost 10 AM. Coyotes and foxes pass through the yard midday. Neighbors have had weasel infiltrations.
My family has raised chickens around here for close to 150 years and we never had a mink problem until Walmart started building a store along a creek near my house. The mink arrived and killed $4,000 worth of my chickens last year.
What I'm trying to say is that you don't hang out in your yard at night with night vision glasses. The predators are afoot whether you know it or not.

Well we don't live in the high deserts where mountain lions and coyotes are. We live like an hour away from L.A. So it's kind of city/suburban like. As for hawks I don't see them. My neighbors have tiny chihuahuas that live outdoors and they have never been picked up. My dogs keep cats out. And the only way another dog can get in is if someone throws them over the brick fence. I don't think there is minks around here. I have never heard of one besides in books :b and I think we have possums as I see them dead in the roads(rarely) but I have never seen one alive.
So the only threat are my own dogs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

OK, just consider yourself forewarned.
I've heard the story so many times - "we don't predators". Then the next post is, "help, a ******* got my chicken.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261440/the-worst-predator

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/5808/predators-and-pests-forum-please-read-here-first

Reminds me of when a comedian tells a joke that doesn't get a laugh and he/she taps the mike and says, "is this thing on"?

 

[SammileeChickie]

As for coop/run space, a lot has to do with the breeds.

As for predators, they're everywhere. There are a 100 times more raccoons per square mile in cities than there are in the wilderness.
What keeps feral dogs and cats at bay around your house?
I've had 6 major dog attacks from neighbor and feral dogs.
I'm in a large metropolitan area in the Midwest. Game cams have recently caught mountain lions in suburban backyards. There have been reports of bobcats and foxes aren't uncommon in the burbs.
Most people around here lose chickens to hawks during the day. A great horned owl sits in my trees till almost 10 AM. Coyotes and foxes pass through the yard midday. Neighbors have had weasel infiltrations.
My family has raised chickens around here for close to 150 years and we never had a mink problem until Walmart started building a store along a creek near my house. The mink arrived and killed $4,000 worth of my chickens last year.
What I'm trying to say is that you don't hang out in your yard at night with night vision glasses. The predators are afoot whether you know it or not.

As the expression goes, "if you build it, they will come".

I guess I don't really know what's out there at night but my backyard is not big and my dogs are constantly going in and out to use the restroom.
But my coop is secure. I have locks on the gate and bricks and boards around it so my dogs can't dig in it
But as for the size of my coop, some people say I cannot get a third one. And I do not want my chickens cramped I thought my run was a good size but I guess not.
My dad used to raise chickens with his family in Mexico and he built the coop and run and told me it's perfect for them.