feeding question... different ages?

[ashylove]

so i am getting 2 hens that are laying, and 10 10wk old chicks... i know they need different food, but if they are in the coop/pen together, then how do i give them the different stuff??? or should i havee them separated until the chicks are older?

 

[gritsar]

You might look into getting some Purina flock raiser. There may be other companies that sell a flock raiser as well. It can be fed to all ages and other fowl as well. Then you would only need to offer oyster shell seperately for your laying hens.
You are going to want to keep them seperate for awhile anyhow, until your little ones are big enough to defend themselves against the hens.

 

[MammaHen]

I have laying hens as well as 16 week old pullets. I put the pullets with the laying hens at about 10 weeks and although they got a bit hen pecked the first coupe of days , they soon learnt the pecking order and behaved accordingly. I put both growers mash and layers pellets out in different feeders. My guess is that their bodies will naturally tell them what they need and they'll eat what they need. Had no trouble so far but maybe I'm wrong and I'm happy for someone to point me in the right direction! Good Luck.