Chicken Feed PLEASE HELP!

[team_realtree]

Would standard earth worms substitute as a good source of protein if I skipped grower feed?

 

[Sillystunt]

Quote:
They

worms! Might have to cut them up

you would be surprised what they did up naturally on there own. i saw one of mine that tore up a palmetto bug(large flying cocaroach) thing never had a chance. they also catch flies in mid air!

 

[mamayolk-um]

hi I feed my chickens Layer, It comes in 50lb sacks. you can either get crumbles or pellets. I like the pellets because they don't seem to waste so much. But both are good. I also let mine out everyday for a while so they can eat grass. they also like scraps like small pieces of apple or lettuce or even watermellon. We used to feed scratch but my feed store said that is now all included in the Layer feed. There is also a feed for birds you plan to raise for food. Hope this helps, mama-yolkum from Wash. st.

 

[mtnhomechick]

For chicks get chick starter. It has amprolium which will keep them from getting cocci. After a couple months get the grower. Layer pellets when they start to lay.

 

[Judy]

OK, here is the speech.

Starter, grower and layer are nutritional formulas for feed, differing for each age.

Crumbles, mash and pellets are the form of the feed, meaning the coarseness, or size of the pieces.

Team_realtree gave the age groups for the nutritonal formulas.

Most find they can only get certain makeups of these combinations locally. I can get layer in pellets or crumbles, for example. But I cannot get starter separate from grower; they only sell a combined starter/grower formula around here, and only in crumbles. So I buy starter/grower, and when they start to lay, I switch to layer pellets. I choose the pellets over the crumbles because they waste less.

There are other formulas out there, though they are not available here, so I haven't researched them. For example, Purina makes a flock raiser. Some companies make a finisher, I assume for meat birds, but again, I have not researched this.

One caveat: if you have baby chicks growing up with a hen or group of hens, you must feed starter or starter/grower, not layer. Reason is that the chicks will be harmed by the extra calcium in layer. If there are laying hens in with the chicks, you just offer chick feed, or starter, to all of them, and offer oyster shell separately, so the hens have the calcium they need available. The mama raising the chicks doesn't need this, though, as she will not lay while setting or raising chicks.

Does that make it clearer?

Here is a website that REALLY gets into the specifics of feeding, if you are interested:

http://www.lionsgrip.com/pastured.html

 

[Judy]

BTW, I only feed starter/grower which has amprolium in it, as some other posters have suggested. Amprolium is a thiamiane blocker, so we are not talking about an antibiotic. What it does is control the growth of the cocci that the chicks are exposed to, on the theory that his will let the chicks build a natural immunity to cocci, which are in most all soils. It is not a guarantee that the chicks will not get sick from cocci, but it works for many, I gather just depending on the load in your soil. Usually it is only young chicks that get sick from cocci, as adults have built an immunity.

Some people have a problem with any medication. You can safely eat eggs layed by hens who eat feed with amprolium in it, or the bird, for that matter. I haven't read anything that indicates a real problem with amprolium. The dose is low. If your chicks get cocci, the best first treatment is a heavier dose of amprolium. What I do have a problem with, and will not feed, is any feed that has an antibiotic in it.

Just read an article that says about 70% of grocery store chickens are still fed a feed that contains arsenic, known to do bad stuff to people, no surprise. I don't think this feed additive is ordinarily available to backyard chicken keepers, though. It said that Tyson and one other company (Purdue???) no longer use the stuff.

 

[Judy]

Oh, on scratch.

Its formula varies widely. It is a treat, not a routine feed, though some feed it this way. Flocks fed scratch as a routine feed will not do as well as those fed regular feed. Not enough protein, among other things.

There is a widely held belief that scratch should not be fed in hot weather because it raises body temp. This has been demonstrated not to be true.

A really good thread on scratch:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=186904&p=2

 

[Judy]

Haha, just realized team_realtree is the op. What you posted in post #6 is a good guideline, still.

 

[Judy]

Goodness this is more complicated than I expected. I just now really read through every post.

Vaccinations: usually the one done by hatcheries is for Marek's disease, which has no bearing on feed. There is a vaccination against cocci available now from some hatcheries. It is advised to feed nonmedicated feed if you get this vaccination done, simply because the medicated (with amprolium) feed makes the vaccination a waste of money. I know nothing about the results of getting this vaccination. It is pretty new.

Grit: lots of conflicting info on this. Evidently some starter or grower feeds include grit. For many people, there is plenty of grit in the soil, and they will get all they need from foraging. What is sold as grit in TSC is broken up granite, which supposedly holds up better in the gizzard than softer types of stone/rock. Chickens do need to ingest some sort of hard particles to grind their grains and such in the gizzard; it is their version of teeth.

Earthworms: good protein, and they will eat them when they find them, just as they will eat crickets, maggots, flies, mosquitoes, etc. But earthworms do carry intestinal parasites. Most chickens have some intestinal parasites, but if the load gets too big, they will get sick from them.

 

[team_realtree]

thanks that answers all my questions and then some!