Layer and Grower Feed

[KassieEspi]

Hello Everyone!


I am having a small situation about how I should feed my chickens. I have four hens total, three that have NOT started laying and one recently STARTED five days ago.


The three who have not started laying yet are still on grower feed crumbles, which has about 18% protein, and are all at different stages of development (roughly 2–3 weeks behind each other). But the one who has started laying is still eating out of the grower feed crumbles, and refuses to eat the layer feed pellets I bought. I’m afraid that if I leave the layer feed out, the non-laying hens will get into it and have complications. And I feel like my laying hen doesn’t get enough calcium.


My question is:

• Is it okay for me to continue to allow her to eat the grower feed and add some type of calcium supplement on the side for her while the other three mature?
• Or should I feed her separately and monitor her while she eats, and slowly mix grower and layer feed together and increase the amount of layer feed until there is no more grower feed? Or should I get layer feed crumbles instead of pellets?

If you could please help me decide on why to do, it’d appreciate it so much! Thank you!

 

[PirateGirl]

They can all safely eat the grower. Just provide a small bowl of oyster shell on the side. The one that is laying will eat some and the others might nibble as they are closer to laying themselves. Due to the way chickens metabolize calcium, even if you choose to switch them to layer feed, it's a good idea to keep some oyster shell available for them at all times (the bigger particles are good for them and stay in their system longer). Even if one of your little ones eats some layer pellets, short term, it will not cause ill effects. Don't worry! You won't poison your chickens! Good luck. It's exciting once one lays an egg!

 

[CannedMonster]

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Some chickens don't like to eat the pellet variety, I would switch to crumbles.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

^^ Mine don’t like crumbles and make a huge mess with it, total waste of money.

I have 4 older hens on layer feed. Three teenagers on chick starter and a hen and chicks on chick starter. I’m going to switch over to grower since I’m going to have such a wide range of ages.

 

[CannedMonster]

^^ Mine don’t like crumbles and make a huge mess with it, total waste of money.

I have 4 older hens on layer feed. Three teenagers on chick starter and a hen and chicks on chick starter. I’m going to switch over to grower since I’m going to have such a wide range of ages.

You can stick with starter for all of them unless it’s medicated.
There’s barely any difference between starter and grower.
Only protein, I think, and I want all my birds on at least 18-20% just because they seem more satisfied with it.

 

[ARpullet]

Try feeding the pellets on the ground.

 

[KassieEspi]

They can all safely eat the grower. Just provide a small bowl of oyster shell on the side. The one that is laying will eat some and the others might nibble as they are closer to laying themselves. Due to the way chickens metabolize calcium, even if you choose to switch them to layer feed, it's a good idea to keep some oyster shell available for them at all times (the bigger particles are good for them and stay in their system longer). Even if one of your little ones eats some layer pellets, short term, it will not cause ill effects. Don't worry! You won't poison your chickens! Good luck. It's exciting once one lays an egg!

Thank you so much for the information! I recently bought a bag of oyster shells for my hens. The very first day, they spilled it all over the floor, luckily it was only a cup full of oyster shells. Slowly but surely, I have seen a decrease in the amount of shells on the floor, so I think it’s working! I’ve placed a new container of oyster shells where they can freely get as much as they want!

 

[KassieEspi]

@ChooksNQuilts
@Shamo Hybrid
@ChirpyChicks1
@ARpullet

Thank you for all of your input! They haven’t seem to be leaning off the grower feed but I’ll be sure to buy a small bag of layer crumbles over pellets next time I go to the store! But until then, I’m going to try and finish the bag of pellets I have so it doesn’t go to waste I appreciate all of your help with information and techniques!