Mixing ages

[Annie S]

I have three girls that are 8 weeks old, fully feathered and I would like to put them outside with my big girl silkies (they are about 10-12 months old and all very sweet). My only concern is their food. The little girls are currently on starter and I know they should stay on it for a while. The big girls are on layer, which I have read is not really good for younger chicks because of the extra calcium. I have read that it would be better to feed them all starter feed and offer oyster shells for extra calcium to the big girls than to feed them all layer feed now. Has anyone else hadd any experience with this type of situation? I know that the ideal situation would be to keep them separate for a while longer, but they are getting pretty big and we really don't have another place to keep them. Anyy suggestions??

 

[mtngirl35]

I feed starter and oyster shell when I put new chicks in with my older girls. I hate the crumble. They make an awful mess and waste a lot of it. But the layer can damage the kidneys of the little ones. Too much calcium for them. Plus they need the extra protein in the starter. My little ones will be 18 weeks old next Friday and I hope they start laying soon so I can switch their feed. The run stays cleaner with the pellets.

 

[Annie S]

Thank you, that's what I was thinking about doing, I just wanted to be sure I was on the right track!

 

[aart]

I like to feed an 'all flock' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat and have calcium available at all times for the layers, oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

The higher protein chow offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.