- Jun 14, 2012
- 36
- 2
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Hi all,
I have 5 hens who are about 9 months old and 4 guineas almost a year old. I recently introduced 6 new chicks (6wo) to my coop and they have been segregated about 10 days now. I periodically let the peeps out of their in-coop enclosure to learn to interact with the other birds but I notice that when I open their space up, my other birds - particularly the guineas - want to eat the chick starter instead of their own food when they are in the coop together. The adults free-range 12 hours a day but have full coop and run access all day should they want to go inside. They don't seem to be bothering the peeps much
but I'm wondering if their eating the chick starter is problematic? And since the advice I was given on chick starter is to feed it until they lay their first egg, how do I manage that with other birds on layer crumble until the peeps reach maturity (prob. another 4 months or so) since they will ultimately all be together all the time here in the near future?
I have 5 hens who are about 9 months old and 4 guineas almost a year old. I recently introduced 6 new chicks (6wo) to my coop and they have been segregated about 10 days now. I periodically let the peeps out of their in-coop enclosure to learn to interact with the other birds but I notice that when I open their space up, my other birds - particularly the guineas - want to eat the chick starter instead of their own food when they are in the coop together. The adults free-range 12 hours a day but have full coop and run access all day should they want to go inside. They don't seem to be bothering the peeps much
but I'm wondering if their eating the chick starter is problematic? And since the advice I was given on chick starter is to feed it until they lay their first egg, how do I manage that with other birds on layer crumble until the peeps reach maturity (prob. another 4 months or so) since they will ultimately all be together all the time here in the near future?
