22% PROTEIN LAYER FEED

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi @

I just purchased a 50lb. bag of 22% protein laying pellets for all my chickens. They range from ages 16 weeks, 19 weeks and 23 weeks old. When this bag is gone I will be staying them on 16% laying pellets complete feed. With oyster shells on the side.

Hi William, this thread dates back to 2019. You might get more responses if you start a fresh thread. I would like to tell you, though, that a lot of us feed an all-flock formula since a steady diet of layer pellets is not good for non-laying birds due to the calcium in laying feed. (It can damage their organs.) By non-laying birds I mean males (I have a rooster and at least 3 cockerels), molting birds (yup, several of my older hens are molting), and birds too old or too young to be in production (out of 20 hens I'm only getting 7 to 10 eggs, and I also have about 18 pullets 8 weeks old). So I feed a low-calcium formula of all-flock and serve oyster shell for calcium in a separate vessel on the side for the layers to help themselves. The non-layers ignore it.

 

[nuthatched]

I just purchased a 50lb. bag of 22% protein laying pellets for all my chickens. They range from ages 16 weeks, 19 weeks and 23 weeks old. When this bag is gone I will be staying them on 16% laying pellets complete feed. With oyster shells on the side.

I would recommend staying on a higher protein feed, 16% is an archaic and lackluster formulation for modern birds.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I would recommend staying on a higher protein feed, 16% is an archaic and lackluster formulation for modern birds.

Good point! All-flock is usually about 20% protein.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I just purchased a 50lb. bag of 22% protein laying pellets for all my chickens. They range from ages 16 weeks, 19 weeks and 23 weeks old. When this bag is gone I will be staying them on 16% laying pellets complete feed. With oyster shells on the side.

Why not keep them on the 22%, if they like it?

There is nothing magic about layer feed. It’s just (generally) barely-minimum protein level feed with ~3.5-4.5g protein, again barely minimum.

Provide flaked oyster shells + crunched-up egg shells on the side along with your current feed. They’ll probably be healthier for it.