Chicken food for different stages

[Ronithailand]

Hi,

I recently successfully introduced 2, 10 week old pullets (1 red sex link and 1 white leghorn) to my 20 week old flock of 2 pullets. (1 barred rock and 1 Rhode island red).

I was very happy that they all live now happily in one coop.

today my barred rock gave me her first egg (Happy day...) and now I have a problem I didn't foresee.

As they all eat together the same food, do I give them all the layers food, or wait until all my pullets lay before changing food.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Most people feed a Grower type or a feed such as All Flock or Flock Raiser when they have mixed ages in their flock, which is pretty common.

Just offer a calcium source, such as oyster shells on the side, Only those layers who need the extra calcium and only those who SHOULD have the extra calcium will pick at it.

 

[Ronithailand]

Thank you for your answer! it is a bit hard for me in Thailand to get a good source of [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]calcium.[/FONT]

what is I give the layers food to all my chickens? is it bad?

 

[nok13]

hi roni\
as u may have noticed, by handle here is nok (bird in thai) and i have a thai husband from korat... most thais dont bother much with feeding specifics: whatever u ate, they eat. u can go to any of the farm stores in the towns and find tons of stuff for chickens. all the shrimp with shells, egg shells, etc have calcium. also, if u are really interested, i am a moderator on the thiavisa forum aimed at expats families and mixe families like mine (even if we are in israel) and my sections are pets/vets and farming... inside the farming area, u will find many expats with 'farang' chickens as opposed to gai shon , which we are raising here in israel (the eggs came over in suitcases of thai workers, we received many of the chickens as payment from thai workers that owed hubby money or their visa finished so they gave us their chckens, now with 20 babies in my salon on kibbutz.. pics in the gallery)...
anyhow, there are quite a few guys there doing european chickens , if u need help, pm me (dont know how to here but will figure it out) and i can link u or direct u...

also, if u read thai or have thai friends that have gai shon (thai fighting chickens), ask them... trust me, they put more money in their chickens than in house or family... and the major gai shon farms are million baht operations with the best food, u just have to find out what they use.
where do u live exactly? issan? north? south?

 

[Ronithailand]

Hi Nok, ( dont know your real name)

I am from Israel as well and my wife is Thai.

I live right next to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport. It's actually a suburb of Bangkok.

I already found lots of stores with lots of Chicken staff and have no problem buying it. (BTW I am also an active member of Thai visa, mostly farming in Thailand section).

At the moment I am giving the chickens the non-layer pullet food and have extra oyster shells on the side

.

I was just wondering if I can give the layers food to chickens that don lay yet and if not why.

 

[donrae]

Layer feed has added calcium in the feed the birds can't pick out. A laying hen uses that extra calcium for the egg shells, a non laying hen doesn't and her body has to filter it out. My understanding is the extra calcium is hard on their kidneys. Everything's gotta go through the liver of the kidneys!

 

[Ronithailand]

Thank you very much for the information.

 

[nok13]

roni, hi i only read this after i answered your pm... so anyway, the layer fits older birds, i guess it is a bit too 'rich' for chicks; but franky, i would never go by name alone but actually check the percentage of any given mineral and protein available... same with goats.
what hemed l'chai sells as layer feed has 16% protein and chicks have 19% i will check later the rest of the ingredients. they only have the two kinds unlike the 'lulim' that have several kinds of pellets for the meat chickens, laying chickens etc...

btw, if u feed house food also, that always has an affect on the general vitamin /protein absorbtion rates which is why professional coops dont give house food, same with horses or goats... the exact amount of feed per kilo of bird times weight gain per week etc is the way most places develop feed plans. for private animals its just a headache.

keep in touch (i can send u my email if u want)..
bina