⠀ Feeding hens and roosters together?

[jfro]

I have 2 hens and 1 rooster that are almost ready to be transitioned from chick feed to regular feed. What is the best way to do this? Can I feed them all the same thing? It would be difficult to provide two different feeds as they are all housed together.

 

[Pork Pie]

Probably the best way to do it is to provide them all with growers food and then have crushed oyster shell as an option (i.e. in a separate food container) - that way, the girls will eat the oyster shell if they feel a need for calcium but your cockerel won't touch it. For now though, all your chickens are fine wth growers food and your pullets will only need the optional oyster shell once they begin to lay.

All the best
CT

 

[MorganC]

CT is correct.
A lot of people freak out about making sure that the females get different feed from the males or that the males waste the feed and they don't really need it....blah blah blah. There's really not much you can do to feed them different feeds. Not a big deal. You will just have a super healthy, nice looking rooster from eating 'female intended' feed. It certainly wont hurt the male at all!

 

[DrPatrickBiggs]

Ideally the males and females should be fed separately. They don't have the same nutritional requirements when they are adults. The biggest concern is going to be the extra calcium in laying hen fed is not needed by the rooster. If the rooster is eating laying hen feed, this can lead to kidney damage, failure and, ultimately, his death. You can continue to provide the grower feed to all the chickens and provide supplemental oyster shell for the ladies, but this is not going to provide you with a high level of egg production. You can try placing a feeder that is elevated higher for the rooster's feed. He will be bigger than your hens so only he should be able to reach it. This would allow to you offer two feeds to meet the requirements of both of your birds.

 

[jfro]

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Pgranville]

CT is correct.
A lot of people freak out about making sure that the females get different feed from the males or that the males waste the feed and they don't really need it....blah blah blah. There's really not much you can do to feed them different feeds. Not a big deal. You will just have a super healthy, nice looking rooster from eating 'female intended' feed. It certainly wont hurt the male at all!

Just read that feeding roosters layer feed can lead to kidney failure and eventually death. I would research further.

 

[FrostRanger]

Just read that feeding roosters layer feed can lead to kidney failure and eventually death. I would research further.

The thread is 9 years old, but yes, feeding roosters or any nonlaying bird layer feed is bad for them. That's why many of us feed all flock + oyster shell on the side

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just read that feeding roosters layer feed can lead to kidney failure and eventually death. I would research further.

There was a Canadian study about that a few years back but I do not have a link to it. Good luck on your research.

From what I've read it is possible that feeding males the amount of calcium in Layer feed can sometimes, possibly, occasionally lead to kidney problems. It's not that they eat one bite and fall over dead. It is a cumulative effect, they need to eat excess calcium over time for it to have an effect. Not all are damaged, few actually die, but some have issues so it is best to not feed them a lot of calcium.

In these studies they cut the chickens open at different ages to visually insect their internals. In some of the chickens they can see damage even of behaviors or health are not visually impacted.

These studies are based on the amount of calcium in Layer. If they get enough lower calcium food with the Layer (say they forage for a lot of their food) the calcium in Layer is less likely to hurt them.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Just read that feeding roosters layer feed can lead to kidney failure and eventually death. I would research further.

I recently linked a little bit of the literature.