Feed question

[schmism]

I did search but found nothing that precisely addressed my question. (so ill ask)

1) Do you feed your nuggets (er meeties) chick starter grower (if you do how long do you feed it) Or do you start right out of the shell with meet bird feed?
2) Anyone else just feed pre-bagged meet bird feed?

I see lots of discussion about various feed types and prices. mostly concerning haveing a local feed mill mill some for you in quantity.

But im just starting my first batch of 28 nuggets (2.5 weeks old atm) and really dont want to have to fool with a local mill for my first batch. Instead im getting bagged feed from the local farm n home store at $9/40lb bag. Nutrena brand Nature wise meet bird feed. (buy 20 get one free)

My research leads me to a cost of 20lbs of feed per bird over its life. so thats 2 birds per bag or $4.50 in feed cost per bird.

 

[dadof4]

I was wondering if what you are feeding is medicated or not?

I feed a turkey starter that is 30% protein from day 1 untill day done.

 

[mike67909]

the broiler feed is probably sufficient to feed from hatch to market. It should say on the bag what is recommended for that brand. As long as it has 20-24% protein i think is usually the concensus for broilers.

i am feeding kalambach NON MEDICATED chick starter/grower all natural poultry feed its has 21% protein. I am fedding this all the way through harvest.

 

[schmije]

schmism's DW here. The package says that it's from hatch to maturity. We're just used to changing the feed for layers, so we wanted to be sure that we're doing the right thing for our Nuggets.

 

[mike67909]

Just make sure its not medicated, if it is then you want to change to a non medicated feed a week or two before processing.

 

[schmism]

the meat bird feed we have is non-medicated, but the chick starter we currently have them on is. but we dumped the last of that in the feeder yesterday so they will have all that eaten up by today and then its on to the meat bird feed.

 

[jaku]

Just broiler feed. It isn't worth it to switch feeds, and complicates the whole process.