Chicken plucking feathers out of other chickens??

[azygous]

You will never get accurate information from feed store employees. That's one of the immutable laws of life.

Many of us old timers here on BYC gave up juggling layer and starter and grower for a mixed flock years ago and now just feed grower to everyone in the flock. The only "issues" it would raise is with your laying hens not having access to enough calcium. That's what oyster shell is for.

You make it available free choice for the layers, and they eat of it however much they need to satisfy their needs. I attach little tins on the walls at intervals around the run so they always have some handy when the calcium "urge" hits.

And while we're on the subject, grower is fine for new chicks, also. I was in the feed store last summer picking up a bag of starter for some new chicks I expected to hatch, and I decided to compare the labels of Flock Raiser and the chick starter. The ingredients were practically indentical, the only difference being the grower was a tad higher in protein. I've raised multiple sets of chicks on grower now with no problem.

It sure simplifies things, let me tell you.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I use layer for all mine also I may use occasional starter but love my grower for all much more

 

[DesertBird]

You will never get accurate information from feed store employees. That's one of the immutable laws of life.

Many of us old timers here on BYC gave up juggling layer and starter and grower for a mixed flock years ago and now just feed grower to everyone in the flock. The only "issues" it would raise is with your laying hens not having access to enough calcium. That's what oyster shell is for.

You make it available free choice for the layers, and they eat of it however much they need to satisfy their needs. I attach little tins on the walls at intervals around the run so they always have some handy when the calcium "urge" hits.

And while we're on the subject, grower is fine for new chicks, also. I was in the feed store last summer picking up a bag of starter for some new chicks I expected to hatch, and I decided to compare the labels of Flock Raiser and the chick starter. The ingredients were practically indentical, the only difference being the grower was a tad higher in protein. I've raised multiple sets of chicks on grower now with no problem.

It sure simplifies things, let me tell you.

Darn, and they seemed to actually know what they were talking about! lol I suppose they only care about the sales, or maybe they're just misinformed. I'll probably end up switching to full-time grower, in that case. Is there a specific brand that's better? The employee's at my feed store always recommend DuMOR, but I'm not sure if it's that good. My chickens seem to like it well enough, but I haven't experimented with different foods much. I currently have 6 should-be-laying hens (only 3 are laying) on layer feed, and 8 (including 3 roosters) still on grower, so I occasionally mix grower with the layer feed for our older 6, and they go crazy for the grower and ignore the layer; they only eat what they have to of the layer. Seems like my chickens don't like it, either.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Dumor is purina as a tractor supply brand they are not bad and almost all of what a chain farm store will carry

 

[AlaskaEE]

Follow-up question. Could this behavior have been caused by the hen's pre-first-egg stress? She laid her first egg this afternoon and has stopped pulling out other chickens' feathers, as far as I have seen. I watched her for hours (lazy Saturday afternoon!) and she was much calmer and sweet to the other chickens. Other variables: I fed the girls scrambled eggs and got them a flock block. The egg laying just seems likely since this behavior started yesterday and stopped today. Is this likely?

 

[pennyJo1960]

could be they may have had a bit too much protein with the daily meal worms
or has accepted the other birds being shut away for just a bit as you did

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I tried Dumor and my birds refused to eat it. If your birds like it than it's fine. Pullets can get aggressive around the point of lay. If she has calmed down it could have been hormonal. I still would feed either a grower or an All Flock, but as you can see there's no one right way to feed. You need to find what works good for you and your flock.

 

[AlaskaEE]

Thank you again, everyone! I will continue to keep a close eye on her. I'm very grateful for a community to help when I don't know what to do. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I buy a small mills mega layer from woods hay and grain in Idaho my BF drives me the 2 hours to pickup this up as our Del's is being closed by tractor supply this October I was sick to stomach they are closing they served a good number of small communities here

 

[DesertBird]

Follow-up question. Could this behavior have been caused by the hen's pre-first-egg stress? She laid her first egg this afternoon and has stopped pulling out other chickens' feathers, as far as I have seen. I watched her for hours (lazy Saturday afternoon!) and she was much calmer and sweet to the other chickens. Other variables: I fed the girls scrambled eggs and got them a flock block. The egg laying just seems likely since this behavior started yesterday and stopped today. Is this likely?

I'd say so, as my hens definitely are getting a bit more aggressive with each other and have done the occasional feather pluck and not eat. They seemed to have their pecking order set, and then they started laying/getting ready to, and it got all messed up and the one who was on the bottom ended up on the top for a while because of how aggressive she got to the other hens. lol She's back to the bottom 3 or 4 now. The hen that would pluck feathers stopped on her own, for me, but maybe that's because she did it to the dominant hen and got beat up, poor thing. She also started laying around that time, so I'm not sure which thing stopped her. I tried to separate her when it happened, but she threw a fit and cried the entire time she was separate so it didn't work out.

Dumor is purina as a tractor supply brand they are not bad and almost all of what a chain farm store will carry

Alrighty, good to know. I might stick to DuMOR, then, since they all seem to enjoy it well enough.

I tried Dumor and my birds refused to eat it. If your birds like it than it's fine. Pullets can get aggressive around the point of lay. If she has calmed down it could have been hormonal. I still would feed either a grower or an All Flock, but as you can see there's no one right way to feed. You need to find what works good for you and your flock.

Mine definitely enjoy the grower more; filled their two feeders separately today (one with grower, one with layer) and they all ran for the grower and ignored the layer. lol So I think I'll be putting them on grower. Is there any benefit to layer over grower?

Thank you again, everyone! I will continue to keep a close eye on her. I'm very grateful for a community to help when I don't know what to do. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

Good luck with her!