Feed & feather loss.

[Firefyter-Emt]

Ok, I could be way off base here, but my girls are in thier 9th week (give or take a few days) and have been in the run for two weeks, and less than month in the coop. First to the feather loss. I notice a lot of feathers in the run (soft, downt-type feathers), might be normal, but these are my first flock. I assume it is way too soon for molting, right?

Now, to my feed... I switched to a mash (If I have that right, kinda like a powder/flake compared to a pellet-like feed) I am feeding them the Blue Seal "Grower-Cal" feed now. The hard thing is that within a day of switching feed they went in the coop, and a "big girl feeder". The seem to not be eating as much of this feed, but I see zero waste too. When they were on the Dumor chick starter, they would use about 2 qts a day. They did make a mess in the dog crate, but the feeder was not hanging either. I hate to just assume that they are eating more than enough, but it seems too good to be true. I have maybe filled this feeder once so far. (The small metal feeders, 2 gallon maybe?) The birds do seem to be getting much bigger, but would say half of one of those metal feeders per week for six buff orps / BR's be normal?

 

[jenjscott]

The feather loss is normal at that age.

The feed thing can depend on how much run area? They won't eat as much feed when they have a lot of room to scratch and hunt. but I'm not sure on the amount. is that less than 2 gallons in a month?

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

I think they are using about a gallon a week, but would go thru that in 4 days with the Dumor brand, and they were much smaller too!

Not much left as far as freerange, they finished off the grass in the run in a couple of days.

The best I can think of is that the feed is "better" for them so it does not fly thru them, and there is pretty much no waste like I had with the Dumor and the other feeder. Just seems like so much less, why it is almost half as much, and the chickens are close to twice as big now!