How long should poults stay on starter?

[Lotsapaints]

I'm very lucky to have a local feed mill close and they make good food the starter is 28% and I've mixed it with chick starter 20% for now because I have the chicks in with them until the weekend. They make a grower that is 23% and I feed that to my meat birds mixed with chick starter when they get 4 weeks. I need to feed my turkeys good as I want to butcher them in Nov and Dec. I have MW's and BR's and I hope soon to have Auburns so do they need to stay on the starter for 8 weeks or can I mix it at ?. I cannot believe how much the BR have grown they are twice the size of the MW only 5 days difference in age and they want to fly around pretty cute as long as they don't get out where they shouldn't be.....

 

[longranger]

In my relatively limited experience the high protein starter is really beneficial though about 8 weeks. The turkeys grow faster and feather up faster than on a lower protein ration. I have not noticed negative effects caused by the feed on chickens raised with the turkeys. The biggest negative for me is the high cost of the 28 or 30% protein feed. A few chickens looked like they might get angel wing at 2 weeks but that rapidly resolved without changing the chickens feed.

 

[Lotsapaints]

There's only 1.35 difference in cost per 50# so I'll keep them in the higher protein. How much do you pay? Mine is 16.90 for 50# costs like Horse feed can't eat my horses either

 

[longranger]

My starter is $18.50 for 50#. OUCH!!! Just a thought but I am surprised the BYC community has not gone to regional mills and gotten private label feed to reduce costs. Most of us do not have anywhere near the feed needs to do it ourselves and many of us would have to have the feed in bags as a little silo just does not make the CC&Rs in most non-rural neighborhoods. Maybe an idea for BYCs future.

 

[ccrawf]

I always raised them on the same feed. Cant' remember when I switched, and don't think it really matters in the end.
I raised a flock of BR last year, and I had forgotten, but you are right. They fly every where.

Mine always came back at night. Some times I had to shoo them off the roof, or wait for them to come down. They never went up in the trees around the yard, always the roof or the deck. As they got older, they flew less and less. Think it has to do with they get heavier, too.
Hope this helps.
Clay