Can You Feed Adult Chickens Medicated Starter/Grower?

[LadyRed76]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures.47737/
I read the article,well skimmed it.
I been lucky my Non layers have been healthy.
I'm going to pull them off the layer.
Good thing today is Feed store day. Lol

 

[debid]

I feed my flock layer feed. I have two roosters and have not noticed any problems.
My Grandpa used to feed our chickens growing up chicken mash and at times Milo. They laid eggs everyday without layer feed.
So I wonder if I could pull them off layer and go with a mixed flock feed?

Mash is just the feed after grinding but without being pelletized. Mash is how I get my feed if I buy it at the mill. Cheaper and fresher, too. But, it may or may not have been "layer mash" (meaning with added calcium).

If you do go all-flock, just be sure to provide a calcium supplement free choice. IME, the layers will eat it, everyone else ignores it.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yea the rooster I've got now has been eating layer for a year.
I let them out of the run for a few hours a day during the week and almost all day during the weekend. So maybe he'll be fine.

My roo will be 4 years old this spring. Has been on layer all of his adult life, except when I'm raising chicks, then the entire flock goes on unmedicated starter or multi flock until the pullets get their cluck, then I switch back to layer. Other posters have commented that their roos live long lives on layer. IMO, its not such an issue for a non laying hen, if she will return to laying. The extra calcium can be laid down as bone to tie her over when she returns to laying.

I feed my flock layer feed. I have two roosters and have not noticed any problems.
My Grandpa used to feed our chickens growing up chicken mash and at times Milo. They laid eggs everyday without layer feed.
So I wonder if I could pull them off layer and go with a mixed flock feed?

What ever gives you the most comfort. There is nothing magical about layer as it pertains to a chicken's laying ability except for this: It has extra calcium. And it has the absolute minimum in terms of what studies have shown are essential nutrients to enable a hen to lay eggs, if Layer is the only nutrition that she is getting. I'm sure your Grandpa's birds got to free range, which would have made up any nutritional deficits.
If you use a multi flock, just offer a source of calcium free choice. They will self regulate their calcium intake. I often put OS and egg shells out for my flock, even though they are on layer.

 

[LadyRed76]

Awesome info!
Yes my Pa free ranged them.
I'm just concerned about my Roosters feet. I have seen hen,in the past,get gout and its no fun watching them walk.
So if Layer isn't going to effect him badly then I'll stay on it for my hens.
Bonus is my Too don't keep his head in the feed too much.
Wow...the extent we go for our Chickens. Lol
I knew Layer just had extra calcium for Hens,just not sure how much compared to non layer. I mean,how much is too much?
I get too scientific when it comes to stuff like that.
I'll be doing some searching.

 

[debid]

FWIW, I have 2 old hens with gout. One has just fat feet so far, the other has a visible limp. I haven't fed layer constantly and I can't be completely sure the layer is to blame, either. They do get some table scraps and tossing them fatty steak edges is a gout risk, too...

 

[LadyRed76]

Lol. I know right?
Could be"just the bird" could be table scraps.
I think I'll do my best to mock what my grandpa did. We had healthy birds,besides a few goutty hens, many birds lived Very old lives.
And my grandpa wasn't concerned with layer feed.
He fed them Milo and non layer mash,and free ranged them.

 

[MichelleNonCompliant]

The co-op and TSC are really my only options unless maybe I find something in Tennessee. I've seen starter and grower seperated and starter/grower together. I've looked at the tags and there isn't any difference between my starter/grower and grower.

Hey! My hena free-range, and if there's chick feed on the ground, they eat it. Along with pretty much anything else that don't eat them first! I live in Alabama also. Florence, actually.