I feel like this is going to be a stupid question but what percent of protein should layer feed be? I just bought new feed that is 18%...should i have bought 16%?
I think it only makes a difference if you don't care about the chooks. If you have 30,000 birds and worry only about the money then it makes a difference. For people who keep chooks at home it is best to realize that chickens can no more survive on one kind of food alone than we can. If birds are jailed in a dungeon, or a factory farm as they are called, then they'll be fed one thing. For everyone else, supplementing their diet with scraps and everything you can find or afford will provide the same thing that we all need, variety. The protein will take care of itself, chooks just work it out and peck at what they need. If they need calcium, they go the shell-grit or if there is no shell-grit, they go the eggs. Works the same for everything else in their diet and no two chooks will ever need the exact same diet. It varies from bird to bird and week to week as well as growth stages and so on. So it's like saying do you as a person require one kind of 'bread and water' prison food pellet with 16 or one food with 18, or a different approach to nutrition. well, that's my thoughts on the subject and no doubt there are bagged food sellers that will shriek in horror to think people won't but their products so much and will have healthier happier chooks as a result. They'll argue the point and mock the logic, reason and commonsense.
Sixteen percent protein will do fine if you don't give them extras that dilute it down bellow what they need. If you give a lot of other foods that are low in protein then a higher amount is necessary. In the growing seasons when there is a lot of protein out to be found, then it is not quite the concern, if you are free ranging.
