I picked up a sack of chick starter at the local feed mill yesterday. I asked at the time if it's medicated or non and they said that they only sell medicated and that chicks in our area "need it". They assured me that it contains no antibiotics, only Amprolium as a coccidiostat. I wasn't thrilled but decided that I was OK with using it. Just now, I lifted the bag to bring it in the house and the tag on the bottom was visible. It has no Amprolium but it does have "Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate" in it! I did some reading and it seems what they've sold me is used for rapid growth in mass-produced, short-life broilers.
I'm picking up the chicks tomorrow morning so I guess I'll have to go into a feed store first and get a sack of "name brand" feed. And then I have to go back to the mill at some point and return the other feed since they made it clear they only have one type of chick starter. It's unopened and they flat out lied to me -- I just hope they aren't ugly about giving me my money back. The next nearest feed mill is 45 minutes away and not on the way to anything so I'll have to call them and ask a crapload of questions to see if it's worth the trip.
I'm picking up the chicks tomorrow morning so I guess I'll have to go into a feed store first and get a sack of "name brand" feed. And then I have to go back to the mill at some point and return the other feed since they made it clear they only have one type of chick starter. It's unopened and they flat out lied to me -- I just hope they aren't ugly about giving me my money back. The next nearest feed mill is 45 minutes away and not on the way to anything so I'll have to call them and ask a crapload of questions to see if it's worth the trip.
