can 3 month old hens eat the same as laying hens?

[Tamidon]

I'm adding new hens to my coop. Before this I had a friend who had a spare coop for raising the pullets separate from the laying hens that we both could use, but she moved. I've never added hens that were this young. I really cant figure out how to feed them different feed, so will layer feed hurt them?

 

[Fred's Hens]

You don't feed them differently, simply put.

Feed them a feed they all can eat, which is any kind of feed except layer. Give them Grower/Starter/Raiser, etc, anything.

Offer the hens shells on the side. The young won't pick at them much. Layer is merely regular feed with the calcium of shells, actually calcium carbonate, already ground into the feed. That much calcium content is fine for a layer dumping an egg every day, but is not recommended for younger, non laying birds. Simple as pie.

 

[BellevueOmlet]

I agree. Layer feed is bad for chickens under 20 weeks so if that is what you feed the full grown hens, feed the non medicated non layer feed to all chickens.

 

[Tamidon]

Yeah, that is the plan I'm going to go with. I'll just make sure to keep the tuna can of oyster shell full