Chicks @ eight weeks

[ktown55]

Hello everyone, well, We did it yesterday, and put the eight week olds out in there (New ) coop..I'm glad there out side now, But we miss hearing them in the back room... What i'd like to know is, At this time is it ok to go ahead and feed them scrach/with chick grit and take them off the chick starter feed?? I just put one doz.
eggs in the bator here a few days ago, and i thought i would just hold on to the chick starter feed for them,seeing that i just bought the new bag about a week ago...I know that maybe i should of went a better way about putting them outside, because it stayed around 65-70 degrees in the back room, and it's cold outside,But I did put a heat lamp out there with them and some straw....They were just getting to BIG to keep inside anymore....But getting back to what i'd like to know, over all would it be safe to feed them the same as i feed they others chickens?...Thanks everyone.......Mitch,

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll give you a link that discusses chicken feed. Lot's of good info.

Oregon State Feeding Chickens
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/pnw/pnw477/#anchor1132074

Instead of layer, I'd switch them to grower. The layer has extra calcium in it that they don't need. It could actually hurt them. Not absolutely that it will, but it can cause internal organ damage.

The starter you have will lose some vitamins and such in storage. If you keep it in an airtight container, that will help but freezing it would be better. As long as you don't let it get too hot where it really loses vitamins, I think it will be OK for the ones you have in the incubator, but I would not store it for months without freezing it. Also, you can feed it to your current chicks and get new starter later. It won't hurt them to eat starter a while longer. Feeding it now and getting more later is what I would do.

Good luck!!!