Layer feed

[Marshmallow1234]

Can I feed layer feed to my hen who is around 4-5 months old but hasn’t started laying. I think she’s staring to call like the other two hens and sometimes lay in the nest herself but didn’t lay any eggs. The other 2 hens are laying already so I’m wondering if I can feed it to the younger hen? So I don’t have to buy another bag of different feed..

 

[NatJ]

Probably fine, especially because she's likely to start laying fairly soon.

The only special thing about layer feed is that it has more calcium than feeds for non-laying chickens.

If a chicken eats more calcium than they need, for an extended amount of time, it can cause problems. People argue about how much is too much, how long is too long, and how common the problems are.

An option that's fairly popular for mixed-age flocks:
Feed chick starter or grower, which is fine for chickens of all ages.
Just keep oyster shell available in a separate dish as a calcium source. Chickens are usually good at eating the right amount of oyster shell, so this is an easy way to deal with birds that need different amounts of calcium.

In your particular case, given what you've described, I would probably use layer feed for all of them at this time.

 

[Marshmallow1234]

Probably fine, especially because she's likely to start laying fairly soon.

The only special thing about layer feed is that it has more calcium than feeds for non-laying chickens.

If a chicken eats more calcium than they need, for an extended amount of time, it can cause problems. People argue about how much is too much, how long is too long, and how common the problems are.

An option that's fairly popular for mixed-age flocks:
Feed chick starter or grower, which is fine for chickens of all ages.
Just keep oyster shell available in a separate dish as a calcium source. Chickens are usually good at eating the right amount of oyster shell, so this is an easy way to deal with birds that need different amounts of calcium.

In your particular case, given what you've described, I would probably use layer feed for all of them at this time.

Yeah so I don’t have to buy another feed. And I mix it with some corn grits and oyster shells and I give them mealworms as treats. But they are so crazy when I get a bag of full worms I place it in a chair. And when I’m not looking the chickens would fly on the chair and dig in it and spill it so that the other chickens can eat it.