Well my wife and I placed an order for our first baby chicks this evening! We decided to go with 15 pullets, a brown egg layer assortment offered by Mt. Healthy Hatchery here in SW Ohio. They should be arriving in two weeks!....now I have to get started on building the coop and run (thank God I have some time before they'll be moving to the coop otherwise I might have to shovel some snow in order to begin construction). My question for all of you who are more exerpienced at this....do you recommond a medicated chick starter or just plain old chick starter? If medicated, for how long? What about vitamins? I think I've got he heat lamp thing down but I'm a little curious about the feed and vitamins...I want to make sure they are healthy. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Chris
I'm still fairly new, but have had three batches of chicks (chicken math!!) and have always fed them regular, non-medicaided feed. I go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach.
Here's a short little thread that has some discussion and explanation of medicated feed. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=448994 Good luck with your little fuzzy butts!
I live realy close to a animal sale barn (2 blocks away),so to be safe I get medicated.Some times they have chickens or other fowl escape.
Mt Healthy will give all shots needed, you still want them on a med. feed. I stay on a grower ( which is medicated) for 10 weeks. Most chick starters are med. About 20% protein is needed to get a good start. You can get an electro-lite packet at your feed supply. I use this till I know there eating and running around ( YOU'LL KNOW), usually a week. G
Brief update.... I received the confirmation email today from Mt. Healthy letting me know that the chicks will be shipped on the 23rd! They also had some tips for care of the chicks and they strongly recommended the medicated chick starter. Long story short, TSC had a 50 lb bag for $15...not bad. Says it can be fed to the chicks as sole food source for up to 18 weeks. So...my new question is how much feed should I expect 15 pullets to go through in a week (on average)? Is 50 lbs going to be too much for only 15 birds?...there is also a 5 lb option but it is much expensive?....still learning..any suggestions/guidance is very much appreaciated.
Quote:Get the 50# bag if you can keep it in an airtight container - I use rubbermaid totes. They'll go through it, believe me. Good luck with the chicks.
Where do you find the 20% protein starter? All the places I've checked out carry medicated chick starter but the protein content is only 18% including the feed from Purina. Is 18% still OK?
