How do you keep momma from eating all the chick starter?

[ChrisisaGirl]

Last time we had babies Peepers would kick all the chick starter out of the dish and eat it all. Is it ok for Mom to eat chick starter for a while instead of her feed too?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yes it's fine. I feed non medicated starter to my bantam flock most of the year.

 

[MinniesMomma]

It seems that I always have some that need starter feed, so that's pretty much all I feed. You do want to make sure you have oyster shell available for the big girls though.

 

[centrarchid]

I have been mixing a flock raiser in with the chick starter. Both hens and chicks getting other than desired but chicks get their smaller bites needed at first.

A couple of my game hens with chicks are getting ready to come back into lay. Those are also getting layer pellets that do not seem as tasty to chicks.

 

[Folly's place]

Broody hens aren't laying eggs, or spending much time eating, and the all-flock feeds like Flock Raiser, or a chick starter, are better for them. They don't need a layer feed, rather something more balanced for their stage in life.
Mary

 

[centrarchid]

Broody hens aren't laying eggs, or spending much time eating, and the all-flock feeds like Flock Raiser, or a chick starter, are better for them. They don't need a layer feed, rather something more balanced for their stage in life.
Mary

When a broody hen is coming back into lay, she can make use of additional calcium. I have two tending chicks now that have come back into lay. They have laid either one or two eggs in the last two days.

 

[Folly's place]

I have oyster shell out there for any hen who needs/ wants it. My broody hens tend to come back into lay when the chicks are a few weeks old, at the earliest.
Mary

 

[centrarchid]

I have oyster shell out there for any hen who needs/ wants it. My broody hens tend to come back into lay when the chicks are a few weeks old, at the earliest.
Mary

Not everyone keeps chickens the same way. Sometimes, some people practice more containment. Containment means more management points, which means more feeders, more waterers and more labor. When everyone is in same pen or free-range, then a single higher protein feed supplemented with free-choice access to a calcium-rich non-feed is a good way to go. If one is running several broods that are better kept separated from each other and off the ground for some reason, then managing calcium supplementation through feed route only at feeder-filling table is the way to go. Then you have only two containers; feeder and waterer per pen / cage.

 

[ChrisisaGirl]

Momma has been put away with her baby away from everyone in an enclosed pen, so it;s just her and her baby but otherwise every one is all together young older boys girls

Not everyone keeps chickens the same way. Sometimes, some people practice more containment. Containment means more management points, which means more feeders, more waterers and more labor. When everyone is in same pen or free-range, then a single higher protein feed supplemented with free-choice access to a calcium-rich non-feed is a good way to go. If one is running several broods that are better kept separated from each other and off the ground for some reason, then managing calcium supplementation through feed route only at feeder-filling table is the way to go. Then you have only two containers; feeder and waterer per pen / cage.