I have 2 girls laying, 4 girls about 18 weeks and 1 girl 16 weeks old and 2 that 12 weeks old. They will all be put in their new coop tonight and all have access to the open feeder. Now, the question is...is it harmful to the non-layers to eat the laying feed? Is the Grower/Finisher not sufficient for the layers? They all free range for at least 3 hours a day and get left over veggies, table scraps, fruit etc...Could I offer only grower feed and supplement with oyster shells? What's in the layer crumbles that could hurt the youngins? Too much calcium?
We often mix ages in our flock. Ours free range for part of the day as yours do and we have never had a problem. We feed layer mash in open feeders and it is accessible to everyone. I imagine if the younger ones had access to ONLY laying feed there might be problems, but if they can supplement their diet with grass, bugs, etc. ours seem to do fine and are healthy and happy.
