How do you feed your chickens

[red star11]

Im getting day old chicks in a month or two and wanted to now exactly what to feed them from when they are a day old to when they are, well you know "dead". Thanks to anyone who takes the time to write

 

[Marlinchaser]

Assuming your getting layers, start them on chick starter available 24/7 till they start to lay at that time switch them over to layer pellets/crumbles or mash.

 

[sslavo91]

I'm fairly new at this too. When I go to the feed store, I just tell the guys what I have (baby chicks, laying hens, whatever), and they suggest to me what I need and tell me my choices. For the new babies, I knew I had a choice between medicated and non-medicated. Apparently, they can easily get sick, and medicated is the suggested way to go for the first few weeks. I think I've seen some posts here though that people go non-medicated. Trial and error, I suppose!

 

[bdp7150]

chick starter feed medicated all the time and i like to use quik chick you mix with water and grogel with a new batch of chicks give them the grogel as soon as you get them from post office. you can get these at randall burkey .com or macmurry hatchery.com

 

[gumpsgirl]

With my new chicks, I always brood them with paper towels on the bottom of the brooder and sprinkle the feed around for them to start off pecking at. I do that for the first 24 hours, then move the chick starter to a chick feeder. They catch onto the eating process very quickly!

 

[huntingmc]

You need chick starter to begin with. Then when they are big enough about 2 months you can gradually switch them over to the crumble or pellets.


make sure you change their water often. Don't put the water deep they some how manage to drown themselves. You can put a shallow dish with small stones in it and just let them drink between the stones. When you switch them over to regular feed you can get them a regular waterer.

 

[Rufflemyfeathers]

Mine eat chick starter, they get more on the floor I think than they eat..thinking of cleaning the pine shavings off the floor and rescooping the chick food off floor and put in there feeders again...such a waste otherwise.

 

[Barn Maid Ann]

Quote:
We bought our first chicks and pullets from the feed store. They were our advisors and we just did what they said. We fed medicated starter. Then this year we bought chicks from McM's and had them vax'd. McM's said the medicated feed would void the vax guarantee so we fed regular starter. One chick got sick at about 2 or 3 weeks. Limping, weak, and not eating. I got antibiotics from vet (did NOT want to lose this particular chick). And I hand fed for weeks. It lived but took months to get to normal size. The feed store people thought we were nuts for not feeding medicated feed. We continued with the regular because all the rest of the chicks were fine.
We feed the adults layer pellets. I think we switched to crumbles at about 6 or 8 weeks, then pellets. I buy scratch feed, too, as a treat for the adults. We throw that on the ground for them to peck around for. They come running for it.
If you have layers, you might want to offer oyster shell once they are laying. Also they will need grit if you feed anything in addition to their pellets. Unless they free range, in that case they will likely find their own grit.

 

[blueseal]

for the first 8 weeks you feed them chick starter then the next 8 weeks put them on grower mash . then layer feed.