How young is too young to feed greens? Somebody please answer!

[chiknlittle]

I have 2 1/2 week old Jumbo Cornish X Rock males that are loosing their little minds in the brooder. We didn't expect them to get so big so fast, and so we got lazy and haven't completly finished the run yet. We're hoping to get that done this weekend so they can be moved out of the basement kiddie pool brooder. I'm wondering how young is too young to start feeding them greens. I have some rinsed remants of lettuce leafs that I used in my husbands salad that I thought would occupy them. I know these are okay to feed, but is it okay to feed to chicks that young?

 

[hcammack]

they would need some grit do you have chick grit ?
Henry

 

[chiknlittle]

Because I didn't know any better, they've been on grit since day 4, and are now on their 2nd bag. They've also eaten through 50 lbs of starter and are working on the second bag. Is that normal?

 

[basicliving]

I started feeding mine lettuce out of the garden when they were 2 weeks old. I cut the pieces up very small for them. They loved them!

 

[Lea71]

Quote:
OMG!!! How many chickens do you have? My nine girls are 6 wks and haven't even finished the first 50 lb. bag, almost though. Gotta go to the mill and pick up more.

And I've given mine leafy greens since week one....I'm treat guilty!!

 

[chiknlittle]

Um, was 27 too ambitious to start out with? Well, I ordered 25 males, MMM sent 26, and there is always that free dunno with every order. I knew that I wanted meat birds and egg layers, but I didn't like that they got to choose what the breeds would be. I didn't have the coop space to order them all at the same time, so I thought I'd order the meat birds first. They'll be 3 weeks old on Saturday and they have most of their feathers so I think they should go outside. The egg layers are coming at the end of July. I'm splitting that order with a friend (I'll still wind up with around 20 of them), but they should grow slower and the coop should be empty by the time they need to use it. I think that one he is actually a she too, so that may be one that I allow to live along with the free one who is just too pretty to die.

I just gave them some lettuce and they thumbed their little noses up at it. Well, all except for one who grabbed up a really green piece and made a mad dash for safely!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I introduce my ducks to greens from an early age (several days old).

Like with any new food, if your chicks didn't grow up eating greens, it will take them a while to figure out that they might like it. They'll catch on.

 

[BayCityBabe]

My 6 week olds love the Romaine from my garden (the holey pieces that don't make it into a salad) and they prefer to crowd around and nibble off of a leaf held by DD or me. If we shred it or throw a pile in the run, it's not so exciting.

 

[chiknlittle]

That makes sense. I think the stuff I tossed them may have blended in too well with the litter, so next time I'll try tossing in a whole leaf and see how that goes. (Sorry but I've got to save some for us humans!)

With BYC's help I think I've done a good job of figuring out chick care. They're stable, growing and happy, and now I'm looking at fun stuff for them because they're getting to be rowdy little boys. Another thought...eating onions can affect how eggs taste, but is there anything that will affect how the meat tastes?

 

[digitS']

Quote:
First of all, lettuce is one of the ealiest things my chicks enjoy from the garden. I don't think 3 weeks is at all too early. BayCityBabe has the right idea - the chicks will be better able to rip the lettuce into bite-sized pieces if you hold it rather than grabbing a whole leaf (& running, or not

).

Secondly, I think that they probably shouldn't be going thru that much feed so quickly. I haven't had the Jumbo's so could be wrong here.

On the Missouri State Extension webpage, there is info on the feed requirements of broilers, including "Cumulative feed consumption." By 3 weeks, males should have eaten 770 grams of feed. That's 1.7 pounds . . . 27 x 1.7 = 45.9 pounds.

Are they wasting it? I hope they aren't half-way thru that second 50 pound bag .

Steve