all these feeds!!! are they really necessary??

[zoo357]

Effie, thanks for starting this post. Having different ages of hens/chicks (and being a new chicken owner) that is great that I can switch them all to one feed. Will save some on the pocketbook.
Thanks everyone for the info!!

 

[effie]

Well, to tell you the truth I am still in a quandry-I fully intended to go get my feedbags and read the ingredients today--too many irons in the fire--what is in the layer crumbles that the young ones shouldn't have???? Are there hormones or anything like that--everyone talks about the amount of protein in the feed--the way I look at it is if they free range all day we have no idea what they are eating anyway...I am keeping medicated food away from the grown hens though.....this is all a learning curve that I intend to figure out...

and if I can feed them all the same flockfeed will the hens still lay like they did and if so what makes it so different from the layer crumbles....I am goin to the feed store tommorrow to see what I can find.

 

[KimberlyJ]

I've kept all the tags from all the food I have fed in the last year.....IF I RECALL correctly since I'm too lazy to get up....The Layer feed has too much calcium for the youngsters. That's why flock raiser with free choice oyster shells meets both a layers need for calcium and a non layers non need for it. Did I make any sense here? Hope that helps. Mine prefer the flock raiser as the pellet size is just a bit smaller than layer pellets. My chickens aren't really big...

 

[effie]

Thanks-yes, you made perfect sense. I seperated them today to feed them and will until the feed I have has run out--with the growing girls it won't take long-when they decide they are hungry it is like a bunch of piranhas---LOL and today watching them get some worms was hilarious when one got one and the rest chased her around for it. I have figured out chickens are very nibby-they always have to see what the other one has.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Chicken Keep-away, Now you have it--Now I do!, Catch me if you can!! LoL wait until you see them with snakes, frogs, and mice!!

 

[lambeke1]

Hi All. Effie I don't mean to walk all over your post, but I ,too have questions. I'm getting my first chicks ever in one week so I don't have to worry about age difference, etc. I am starting them out on non-med, 20% protien feed from TSC. Once this sack is gone and I move them to the big pen, I like the idea about the flock feed and calcium seperate (which I did not know about) but I also see people talking about grit and/or scratch. Whats that, are they the same thing, what ALL do I need to feed them and how often?

 

[bird_brain_scientist]

On a related question, is there any problem with just feeding the babies chick starter until they are old enough to eat layer ration?

I purchased 50lbs of starter for my 4 birds and need to use it up!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

What is the age of the chicks you are getting? I am going to assume day olds. Whether you feed medicated or not has alot to do with where you are located and how prevalent coccidia is in the soil where you live. Coccidia (the parasite is coccidia, the disease coccidiosis) is a parasite that causes an infestation in animals called coccidiosis. Left unchecked it can overwhelm a young chicks body and kill quickly via the diarrhea it causes. The parasite tends to thrive in warm, moist soil conditions. Here in SW Arkansas that's exactly the type of climate we have and unmedicated chick starter is next to impossible to find. In dry, cooler climates you might be hard pressed to find medicated starter.

The typical medication in chick starter (amprolium) is NOT an antibiotic as is commonly believed, but rather a coccidistat. It aids in the prevention of an overwhelming infestation of coccidia while giving the chicks own immune system time to build an immunity to it.

If I am brooding chicks artificially (in a brooder) I most definitely use medicated starter, because the chicks only exposure to coccidia is in our soil when they go outside, which is of course loaded with it.

If I am letting mama brood them in the coop, I don't feed medicated starter. The chicks will be slowly exposed to coccidia through the droppings of the mama hen and the other chickens; in effect doing basically the same thing as a medicated chick starter. Mom and the other chickens having already gained an immunity to it.

I hope the above is clearer than mud.

As for protein % of chick starter, I *think* 18% is typical for starter, but I don't think 20% is out of line.

Grit? It's not necessary for chicks, IF the only thing you are giving them is their chick starter. Grit, in chick size, becomes necessary once you start offering foods that require "grinding" in order for the chick to digest them. Think of grit as the chick's teeth. I don't even use it because all of my chickens, from the week olds on up are outside free ranging all day and find their own little pebbles to ingest as grit. It's stored in their gizzard and the strong muscular action of the gizzard uses the grit to grind up the food.

Scratch? Scratch is the chickens form of candy. They love it, but it's totally unnecessary and (in the case of corn) not all that healthy for them. Around here we have several forms of scratch available - Scratch: If I ask for that at the feed store what they will give me looks like corn meal. Basically it is. It's ground corn. The only thing I've found it to be good for is to mix with warm water or yogurt on a cold winters evening to offer the chickens before they go to bed. Helps warm them from the inside out. Chops: This is chopped up dried corn. My chickens will hurt you for some chops. Low protein, high fat. And lastly, Scratch grains: This is a combination of chopped corn and some other grains like oats and some seeds. Chickens like that too. For the last year or so I have chosen to feed something called Black Rooster instead. While similiar to gamebird feed, BR is a unique form of gamebird feed that combines feed pellets with grains, some corn and black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS, which incidently chickens also adore). It's high protein, great for condition of feathers and weight of adult birds and low fat. Still, if your chickens never saw a bit of scratch in their lives, they could live long happy lives and never know what they were missing.

Hope this helps.

ETA: Your chicks WILL NOT NEED calcium, until they are of laying age. There is just enough calcium in chick starter/grower for growing bones; not enough to hurt their kidneys.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Not a bit. Just don't let it get wet or moldy and it will be fine. I keep all my feed in rubbermaid totes.

Before I started feeding a flockraiser, I used chick starter/grower right on up to point of lay because seperate grower is not available around here.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Not a bit. Just don't let it get wet or moldy and it will be fine. I keep all my feed in rubbermaid totes.

Before I started feeding a flockraiser, I used chick starter/grower right on up to point of lay because seperate grower is not available around here.

Me too. I found a 5 gallon bucket of Layena I had put up when I moved my 2nd set of pullets in with the bigger girls and everybody went on FlockRaiser. I eventually tossed it out to the bunnies this winter when I was chickenless for awhile. They and the wild birds enjoyed it, lol