- May 5, 2008
- 1
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Hi everyone,
I am new to the board and have raised chickens before but am new to "getting serious" about them, if you can call it that. We have decided we really love the chickens and are actually going to start raising more now. We currently have 6 hens, 1 rooster and 16 chicks hatched here by our hens (mix of RIR and partridge cochin banties) plus 12 chicks we just got in from the feed store (barred rocks ordered through Ideal Poultry) with 6 more expected to be in on the 15th (new hampshires and gold laced wyandottes). We have decided that we are going to let some continue to hatch and raise the chickens and if anyone comes along wanting to buy grown hens and rooster, we will sell them and raise more but not necessarily pushing it as a business at all...just a hobby as we love the little critters! In doing so, you of course get more roosters than you'd like so we have decided that we will also butcher our own broilers over time as well to keep the rooster poplulation down.
In mentioning that and having decided to butcher chickens as well, we would like to feed non-medicated feed to all of the chickens so that the ones we do butcher have no antibiotic residues and so forth, ever. We don't care to even deal with withdrawing them either as we want pure meat. But I have not been able to find broiler or even chick starter/grower feeds that were not medicated. My feed store, who sells Acco, mentioned their Sportsman's Choice Gamebird Starter/Growere which is non-medicated and is a 28% protein. Being that we can't tell them apart when they hatch, I would need to be able to feed the same feed to all chicks, including pullets we want to keep for egg laying. Currently I am feeding the Acco Chick Starter/Grower that is an 18% protein and just leanred that it is in fact medicated (when I thought it wasn't) and all of their show feeds/broiler feeds are all medicated. They have scratch grains which are non-medicated of course and a layer feed but those can't be fed to chicks.
Ultimately my question is, is it ok to feed Sportsman's Choice Gamebird Starter/Grower (28% protein) to all of my chicks as a non-medicated option? I ask because it says on the bag that it is "not intended for meat birds and turkeys". Is it safe to feed and would I be doing any harm to the cockerals or pullets by feeding it? I also wanted to ask because any chickens we have raised from Ideal have turned out thin where their breast bone is easily palpable. We have always kept chicks on the starter/grower (18%) until they start laying and then change to scratch grains and free range (they are turned out permanently usually by 4 months old at the most). Chick feed was always free choice and never empty but changed out regularly to avoid stale food and the scratch grain is fed twice a day even when they don't come eating because they seem to get enough from the pasture and bugs (they don't act hungry). They are laying fine and obviously hatching fine too, but are thin in my opinion (even before they start brooding).
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to cover my bases as far as what I have been doing so far so that certain answers are ruled out. We live on 6 acres and the chickens have access to all of it. Plus we have horses and pet potbellied pigs out here as well that contribute to the bugs for them to eat up.
Thanks in advance! I am so glad I found this board!
Brandi
I am new to the board and have raised chickens before but am new to "getting serious" about them, if you can call it that. We have decided we really love the chickens and are actually going to start raising more now. We currently have 6 hens, 1 rooster and 16 chicks hatched here by our hens (mix of RIR and partridge cochin banties) plus 12 chicks we just got in from the feed store (barred rocks ordered through Ideal Poultry) with 6 more expected to be in on the 15th (new hampshires and gold laced wyandottes). We have decided that we are going to let some continue to hatch and raise the chickens and if anyone comes along wanting to buy grown hens and rooster, we will sell them and raise more but not necessarily pushing it as a business at all...just a hobby as we love the little critters! In doing so, you of course get more roosters than you'd like so we have decided that we will also butcher our own broilers over time as well to keep the rooster poplulation down.
In mentioning that and having decided to butcher chickens as well, we would like to feed non-medicated feed to all of the chickens so that the ones we do butcher have no antibiotic residues and so forth, ever. We don't care to even deal with withdrawing them either as we want pure meat. But I have not been able to find broiler or even chick starter/grower feeds that were not medicated. My feed store, who sells Acco, mentioned their Sportsman's Choice Gamebird Starter/Growere which is non-medicated and is a 28% protein. Being that we can't tell them apart when they hatch, I would need to be able to feed the same feed to all chicks, including pullets we want to keep for egg laying. Currently I am feeding the Acco Chick Starter/Grower that is an 18% protein and just leanred that it is in fact medicated (when I thought it wasn't) and all of their show feeds/broiler feeds are all medicated. They have scratch grains which are non-medicated of course and a layer feed but those can't be fed to chicks.
Ultimately my question is, is it ok to feed Sportsman's Choice Gamebird Starter/Grower (28% protein) to all of my chicks as a non-medicated option? I ask because it says on the bag that it is "not intended for meat birds and turkeys". Is it safe to feed and would I be doing any harm to the cockerals or pullets by feeding it? I also wanted to ask because any chickens we have raised from Ideal have turned out thin where their breast bone is easily palpable. We have always kept chicks on the starter/grower (18%) until they start laying and then change to scratch grains and free range (they are turned out permanently usually by 4 months old at the most). Chick feed was always free choice and never empty but changed out regularly to avoid stale food and the scratch grain is fed twice a day even when they don't come eating because they seem to get enough from the pasture and bugs (they don't act hungry). They are laying fine and obviously hatching fine too, but are thin in my opinion (even before they start brooding).
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to cover my bases as far as what I have been doing so far so that certain answers are ruled out. We live on 6 acres and the chickens have access to all of it. Plus we have horses and pet potbellied pigs out here as well that contribute to the bugs for them to eat up.
Thanks in advance! I am so glad I found this board!
Brandi
