Feeding teenage chickens...?

[Almost_There]

I have 44 egg laying chickens. Age range is 2-3 months old. Right now they are feeding on Purina Start and Grow.

I get this feed at Murdoch's which is too far away to make a cavalier trip to. However, we do have a feed store in town but they do not have Purina chicken feed. Layer 16 and 20% is what they have. I think 16% is more for layers and 20% for the awkward stage? My questions are:

What is the difference between all 3?
Would 20% be okay to feed them? (they are leghorns and sex-links so most of them should lay in a month-ish)

I'm just thinking about not wasting the extra gas to go to Murdoch's. Thanks.

 

[detali]

I would go ahead and feed them the layerfeed Making an extra long distance trip makes no sense to me either.

 

[Junkmanme]

The layer feed has more calcium than does the "Start and Grow" feed. This is to maintain calcium levels in hens producing eggs.

I have read that layer feed is NOT good for very young chicks because the increased calcium can adversely affect their "innards" (liver?).

However, at 3 months old, I doubt that layer feed would hurt them any. I have some about the same age. When I ran out of "Start and Grow", I fed them 22% Layer Feed for a while until I went to town the following week.

I have no reason to believe that it hurt them any at all. If anything, the extra protein and calcium just stimulated their increasingly rapid growth.

They seem to be healthy birds (Black Sex-Links).

-Junkmanme-