My dad says layer feed now! I say one more bag of grower!

[HudsonValleyGirl]

Ok I bought my chickens from a feed store in April. Feed store said they were born the second week of April. My dad says they should start Layer Pelets this week. I say Layer feed end of August. Who is right?

 

[hellafarms]

I would do the layer crumbles.

 

[emys]

If they are laying - he is right. If they are not, you should feed non-medicated grower.

 

[emys]

Ha ha. There you go - now its 2 against 2.

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

They are not laying yet. Right now they are on Purina Start and Grow Medicated. I have enough left for Monday. I think Monday, I will go and get a bag of Organic grower. Do that for a month and at the end of August I will start them on a layer feed. I wanted to start them off on a bag or organic food before they lay.

Is that a good thing to do?

I have raised chickens with my dad my whole life, but new to raising them on my own.

 

[emys]

Supporting organic growers is always a good thing to do if you can in my opinion, so that would be fine.

The important thing is to get them off medicated feed (which is what your Dad and the other poster are probably saying). At four months, they still have some growing to do, so I like to stick with a higher protein feed (like Flock Raiser or your organic grower) and begin to leave some supplemental oyster shell down at this stage in case you get lucky with an early layer.

(fixed typo)

 

[Cetawin]

When someone starts laying then switch to layer...keep them on grower until someone is laying.

 

[OrloffTom]

I posed the same question to the person at TSC. They suggested in getting a bag of layer and mixing in with my last bag of grower and then when they start laying just use layer.

 

[Jeeper1540]

i think i put mine on layer around age 10 weeks, but thats because they went i with the rest of the flock, who were laying. if they are by themselves, i would wait until around 15 weeks. and i would use crumble, not pellets. i dont think the pellets would be very good, and mine wouldnt eat them, so i feed them crumble which they eat fine.

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

Thanks. I will go and get organic grower. Thanks again