meat crumble for hens and chicks?

[dreamdoc]

I'm integrating my 10 week old chicks with my layer hens and could not find all flock/grower crumble anywhere. The feed store said I could feed meat bird crumble (22%protein) to all with oyster shells on the side for layer hens. This seems like alot of protein for chicks. Are they correct (now that I have a 50 lb bag)?

 

[RatchetRev]

If it was me I would feed it for now and keep checking for the right bag and as soon as you get that mix it feed that

 

[sylviethecochin]

Using pellets might be an option for you. I usually am feeding pellets by ten weeks.

Excess protein generally just gets passed through the system, from what I understand. Makes the poop stink, but I couldn't find any real downsides but possible increased egg size, at a very high protein level. (I spent quite a while researching.)

One study did find a problem in cattle... but cattle aren't birds. One study in humans found that it (meat-derived protein) sometimes causes kidney problems, if the person is already susceptible to them. Again, mammalian system.

 

[dreamdoc]

Using pellets might be an option for you. I usually am feeding pellets by ten weeks.

Excess protein generally just gets passed through the system, from what I understand. Makes the poop stink, but I couldn't find any real downsides but possible increased egg size, at a very high protein level. (I spent quite a while researching.)

One study did find a problem in cattle... but cattle aren't birds. One study in humans found that it (meat-derived protein) sometimes causes kidney problems, if the person is already susceptible to them. Again, mammalian system.

Thanks for info. I'll keep looking for grower