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- #11
Quote:
A couple of comments about "the friend up the road" advice:
1) If one looks up the criteria for "organic", if memory serves me correctly, a commercially produced feed would not qualify either.
2) Feeding chicks too much protein may cause other problems altogether. You don't want them growing too fast. Check out "The Chicken Health Handbook" and other threads on BYC.
3) "If they arrive healthy from the hatchery and you raise them healthy, they'll be just fine" is not necessarily true. The primary function of medicated chick starter is to prevent and control Coccidiosis. There are many other diseases that a chick may bring from a hatchery that have incubation periods where the disease would not show up for weeks to months. As for Coccidiosis, all chicks have it. The medicated feed simply keeps the levels down at an appropriate controllable level.
4) besides, if you want to sell organic eggs, you don't want to have to explain why there is medication in their feed!" This is a foolish statement. By the time a bird starts laying eggs, the chicks are long past being fed any medicated feed. No explanation would be necessary because you will have them on Layer Rations well before they begin laying.
To the OP, if you are going to put any of them on medicated feed, then I would recommend putting them all on medicated feed.
You can take them off of medicated feed and switch them over to non-medicated chick starter before 18 weeks. I would only do so if you will be moving them to a breeder that will greatly lessen the propensity that they will be eating their own feces. For example, once the chicks are able to fly out of my initial hatching brooder (a rubbermaid stock tank with wood shaving in the bottom), I move them to the outside brooder which has a screen bottom. And I would only do so then if you have not experienced any bloody stools or such. If you are seeing bloody stools, keep them on the medicated.
Try Rooster Booster for the stress but my recommendation is to separate them out until they are old enough were you can begin to introduce them all and let the final pecking order be established without risk of injury or death.
I hope that helps.
God Bless,
This helps tremendously. Thank you so much! The coccidiosis is what makes me nervous. I didnt realize they all pretty much always have it. I have not noticed real bloody stool but occasionally I see a red tint here and there which would make sense.
Do you know where I would aquire Rooster Booster?
And what are your thoughts on worming out of curiosity?
A couple of comments about "the friend up the road" advice:
1) If one looks up the criteria for "organic", if memory serves me correctly, a commercially produced feed would not qualify either.
2) Feeding chicks too much protein may cause other problems altogether. You don't want them growing too fast. Check out "The Chicken Health Handbook" and other threads on BYC.
3) "If they arrive healthy from the hatchery and you raise them healthy, they'll be just fine" is not necessarily true. The primary function of medicated chick starter is to prevent and control Coccidiosis. There are many other diseases that a chick may bring from a hatchery that have incubation periods where the disease would not show up for weeks to months. As for Coccidiosis, all chicks have it. The medicated feed simply keeps the levels down at an appropriate controllable level.
4) besides, if you want to sell organic eggs, you don't want to have to explain why there is medication in their feed!" This is a foolish statement. By the time a bird starts laying eggs, the chicks are long past being fed any medicated feed. No explanation would be necessary because you will have them on Layer Rations well before they begin laying.
To the OP, if you are going to put any of them on medicated feed, then I would recommend putting them all on medicated feed.
You can take them off of medicated feed and switch them over to non-medicated chick starter before 18 weeks. I would only do so if you will be moving them to a breeder that will greatly lessen the propensity that they will be eating their own feces. For example, once the chicks are able to fly out of my initial hatching brooder (a rubbermaid stock tank with wood shaving in the bottom), I move them to the outside brooder which has a screen bottom. And I would only do so then if you have not experienced any bloody stools or such. If you are seeing bloody stools, keep them on the medicated.
Try Rooster Booster for the stress but my recommendation is to separate them out until they are old enough were you can begin to introduce them all and let the final pecking order be established without risk of injury or death.
I hope that helps.
God Bless,
This helps tremendously. Thank you so much! The coccidiosis is what makes me nervous. I didnt realize they all pretty much always have it. I have not noticed real bloody stool but occasionally I see a red tint here and there which would make sense.
Do you know where I would aquire Rooster Booster?
And what are your thoughts on worming out of curiosity?
