Best feed for Orpingtons & Australorps?

[DawnSuiter]

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But then elsewhere in their site, they DO recommend it http://poultry.purinamills.com/NUTRITIONMANAGEMENT/HealthNutrition/default.aspx
again with the confusion really.

BUT my chickens don't LIKE Layena.. I bought it before when the flock raiser wasn't available, so that is how I ended up with what I have, they like it and it works for everyone. Purina game bird & turkey starters are 30%+ protein, so I still feel that 28% is good. I want fast growth & full feathers on my chickens... why wouldn't that be a good thing?

added:
a human should consume approximately 15% protein in a day... we don't lay eggs or grow feathers, so 20% standard protein for laying hens seems like a good idea. I still wonder why the higher protein would be a bad thing?

 

[siroiszoo]

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To make commercial feed, the ingrenidents are ground and mixed. Water is added and they are heat extruded into pellets. This is regardless of the particular type pf feed: starter, grower, layer, etc. Pellets are then ground to make mash or crumbles. Pellets can be an of a number of sizes; mash varies from powdery to about the consistency of corn meal; crumbles can also vary in size.

The heat extrusion prevents many of the molds that can be present in raw grain.

Wow! Very informative. Thank You.

 

[siroiszoo]

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Flock raiser is fine for laying hens as long as they have oyster shells or other calcium sources available. The intent of flock raiser is for providing a single feed for a variety of poultry/waterfowl as well as different aged birds.

that makes sense plus it should be remembered that while it's probably not the best thing to do, I'm already mixing the layer crumbles with the scratch grains. So I would probably do the same with the flock raiser; mix it with the layer & the scratch. I simply can't get my older birds to eat layer by itself nor much oyster shell. And I can't free-range them because of the hawk problem. Of course, I guess a really, really hungry bird would eventually eat whatever the only source of available food would be..... really hate to go there, though

 

[siroiszoo]

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I wondered that at first, but I noticed that it was commented on by a person who raises silkies. From that view point, it made since to me because a silkie and an orpington are as far apart on the chicken size scale as can be.

But what do I know? I don't even know what I should be feeding my opringtons

 

[siroiszoo]

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Man! I didn't know metabolisms varied like that. I'm learning SOOOO much! As I go through these messages, I get more & more informed!

Thanks!