Help! What do I feed my mixed flock??!

[Mother of Chaos]

Have you tried them on both, so that you know that they will eat both equally? I've tried a mix, and they're eating my brand of chick feed and ignoring the flock feed. (I bought it in hopes of using it in a dry feeder, supplementing fermented food and general foraging.)

 

[Debbie292d]

Does anyone see a problem with the mix of layer and chick starter? That is 18% protein and less calcium that they need, so OS/ES on the side.
Next summer, I may make the ratio 40% layer/60% chick starter. The oldest hens will turn 3 next summer and youngest 1. Of course OS/ES on the side.

I am thinking of this because of the cost, but want to take care of the chickens. They have appeared to do well/healthy for the past 2+ yrs on it, and laying well. The All Flock cost is more than the 20% chick starter.

Comments on why you think it's okay and why you think it's not. I can take constructive criticism. I also know that flocks do well with different feeds. Always learning.

I would not be feeding my show-quality silkies anything I didn't think would be great for them to grow well, look good, and help prevent the vitamin deficiencies they are known for getting.

I started on Dumor crumbles from TSC for the adults and chick starter for the chicks on up to laying age. They kept running out, so once I got the 20% Flock Maker from Chewy, I just stuck with that. It is nice not having to drive to town as it's delivered to our back door. Any difference? It's been over a year, and nothing has changed that I can tell. As for the oyster shell, I always had that out anyway. Now it seems to be getting eaten a little bit more.

So it's one feed for the baby chicks, the adults, and the ducks. I'll get a splayed leg chick on occasion, but in two days that's fixed, and most recently a double-disjointed chick, over two weeks to fix that one. But that's out of over 500 silkie chicks hatched this year alone.

I checked Chewy for prices and 50# Kalmbach's chick crumbles vs. 50# Flock Maker was $1 difference. They're probably the same exact thing.

 

[FrostRanger]

I do feed the kalmbach flock maker as well, only I get the pellets, it works very well for my flock of 7

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I just don't see the point of mixing layer with all-flock tbh. It just increses the calcium which you don't need since you're offering OS, and reduces the protein. The chickens are the ones, the only ones, who know how much calcium they need, and when. Feeding calcium when they don't need it can cause harm to their organs, possibly even leading to early death. Why risk it?

 

[Escher Menagerie]

Does anyone see a problem with the mix of layer and chick starter? That is 18% protein and less calcium that they need, so OS/ES on the side.
Next summer, I may make the ratio 40% layer/60% chick starter. The oldest hens will turn 3 next summer and youngest 1. Of course OS/ES on the side.

I am thinking of this because of the cost, but want to take care of the chickens. They have appeared to do well/healthy for the past 2+ yrs on it, and laying well. The All Flock cost is more than the 20% chick starter.

Comments on why you think it's okay and why you think it's not. I can take constructive criticism. I also know that flocks do well with different feeds. Always learning.

I would also like answers to this question. I've had chickens for 15 years and never had a predator get inside my run until last week. My run is divided and I had three 16-week-old chickens separated from the rest of the flock but within visual. I looked out the door to see what one of the dogs was playing with and noticed a carcass laying on my patio. I went out to check and did a headcount in the adult Coop and there were nine instead of eight. My cream leg bar chick had managed to find her way in there. I went out and went around to where the three young chicks should be and one was still there. Perfectly fine. Sitting next to the gate into the run for older chickens and found a young possum eating chick feed in the young chicks Coop. I put the other young chick in with the adults as they're 16 weeks old and pretty much the same size. My question is can they all eat regular layer feed or do I need to try to mix some chick starter in with it? I feed eggshells back to the chickens and in 15 years have never had any chickens eat any of the oyster shell or grit that I leave on the side so I don't put it out anymore. Any advice would be great! Don't want these young chicks to suffer from eating an extra 2 to 3 weeks of layer feed when they're not laying yet. But also don't want my adults to stop laying because they don't have enough calcium by eating chick starter. I still don't know how the dogs got the carcass onto the patio. There's no evidence of anything being able to get into my run but there's not much I can do about it now that it's dead.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Does anyone see a problem with the mix of layer and chick starter? That is 18% protein and less calcium that they need, so OS/ES on the side.
Next summer, I may make the ratio 40% layer/60% chick starter. The oldest hens will turn 3 next summer and youngest 1. Of course OS/ES on the side.

I am thinking of this because of the cost, but want to take care of the chickens. They have appeared to do well/healthy for the past 2+ yrs on it, and laying well. The All Flock cost is more than the 20% chick starter.

Comments on why you think it's okay and why you think it's not. I can take constructive criticism. I also know that flocks do well with different feeds. Always learning.

I feed a mix but it's because I serve both fermented feed and dry feed. Primarily they're supposed to eat FF (especially in the winter when they're not laying), but it's too hard to figure out exactly how much of it they'll eat in a given day so by having dry feed on the side it eliminates the issue with wasted feed.

For ferment I use 20.5% starter - because it's a mash they'll waste the fines and otherwise make a mess of it if served dry.

For dry feed I prefer a pelleted feed for less mess, and it happens that my hens really only like the layer pellets I get. I tried grower pellets for several months and that was a mess, they simply hated it. I do switch to a hatch-to-hen crumble when I have chicks but its too messy for my liking for full time use.

 

[FrostRanger]

I would also like answers to this question. I've had chickens for 15 years and never had a predator get inside my run until last week. My run is divided and I had three 16-week-old chickens separated from the rest of the flock but within visual I looked out the door to see what one of the dogs was playing with and noticed a carcass laying on my patio. I went out to check and did a headcount in the adult Coop and there were nine instead of eight. My cream leg bar chick had managed to find her way in there. It went out and went around to where the three young chicks should be and one was still there. Perfectly fine. Sitting next to the gate into the run for older chickens and found a young possum eating chick feed in the young chicks Coop I put the other young chick in with the adults as they're 16 weeks old and pretty much the same size. My question is can they all eat regular layer feed or do I need to try to mix some chick starter in with it? I feed eggshells back to the chickens and in 15 years. Have never had any chickens. Eat any of the oyster shell or grit that I leave on the side so I don't put it out anymore. Any advice would be great! Don't want these young chicks to suffer from eating an extra 2 to 3 weeks of layer feed when they're not laying yet. But also don't want my adults to stop laying because they don't have enough calcium by eating chick starter.

I would feed everyone chick starter and provide oyster shell on the side, of they don't like crushed, you can try flaked, some birds like that better. Layer feed has too much calcium and too little protein for chicks

 

[rosemarythyme]

My question is can they all eat regular layer feed or do I need to try to mix some chick starter in with it?

Personally until the young ones start laying the entire group would be on starter or all flock. While yours are pretty close to the "cut off" on many layer feed instructions, it's possible some won't start laying until several weeks past the 18 week mark so I'd want them to continue to receive extra protein and less calcium until then.

That said, if your bag of starter is already close to empty and you really prefer feeding layer, the damage done from feeding layer at this point is more minimal since the young birds are in their teens already.

 

[C Siena]

Have you tried them on both, so that you know that they will eat both equally? I've tried a mix, and they're eating my brand of chick feed and ignoring the flock feed. (I bought it in hopes of using it in a dry feeder, supplementing fermented food and general foraging.)

They were eating both and anything wet.
Mostly chick starter for the past several weeks, due to young ones.

When I noticed a few weak/thin shell eggs, I added ES to the OS as they were not eating much OS. I put layer in one coop with only layers, overnight (all consumed the next morning) and the larger coop, containing the young ones, I put layer in the hanging feeder. The young ones could not reach to get the food.

Once they could reach it, I put starter. It did help with the thin shells.
There are 3 feed bowls that the layers go to immediately in the morning. I put layer in those and they are eaten promptly. When they are finished, I put the starter in them.

It doesn't take any more time, nor do I have to watch. I clean the boards in each coop, the layer pellets are finished. All containers then have only starter.

The younger ones are 15 & 18 weeks, so in a month, I'll probably do the mix as almost all will be laying. They have been laying well with good shells for 2 yrs on layer. Now, (a month) they will have 18% protein, 2% calcium.

 

[Yardmom]

I frequently tell flock owners to feed all flock. It is nutritionally better than most layer feeds, but my birds still get layer feed quite often because there is quite a cost difference when feeding 70 birds. Personally I don't mix. If I have both I feed each one in different feeders.