- Feb 24, 2014
- 31
- 2
- 24
Hello from Oregon! For my birthday this month, I asked my husband for a coop with laying hens. I didn't want to wait for eggs, and I didn't want to spend the extra money and time on brooder equipment and feed. Then yesterday we went to the local grange and they were having a deal where you get 5 free chicks with a bag of feed. So now...
Five new babies! Hopefully all girls. We've got two Buff Orpingtons, Minerva and Brienne, Brienne has the darker red head. Two Austrolorps, Constantine(maybe) and Kerrigan. And Medusa our lone Favarolle.
The feed was advertised as chick starter, but when I got it home I saw that it was just all-purpose poultry feed. The pellets seemed large, so I ground them up a bit in my food processor. We're planning on going to the feed store tomorrow for chick crumbles. This is the feed I got. http://www.paybacknutrition.com/poultry.html It says "All Purpose Poultry is a complete maintenance feed for general use in most feeding situations. When fed to laying hens free choice oyster shells should also be provided. Provide chick sized grit and fresh, clean water at all times." Since they've been eating it all day, will I need to buy them grit tomorrow, even if I switch to crumbles?
Medusa. My current favorite, she's just so tiny and bright yellow <3
Minerva looking at me like, "Whatchu want?"
Fluffy butts!!
Our current setup. They seem to enjoy their little box. At what age will we need to have a cover to keep them from hopping out?
I love them already <3
Five new babies! Hopefully all girls. We've got two Buff Orpingtons, Minerva and Brienne, Brienne has the darker red head. Two Austrolorps, Constantine(maybe) and Kerrigan. And Medusa our lone Favarolle.
The feed was advertised as chick starter, but when I got it home I saw that it was just all-purpose poultry feed. The pellets seemed large, so I ground them up a bit in my food processor. We're planning on going to the feed store tomorrow for chick crumbles. This is the feed I got. http://www.paybacknutrition.com/poultry.html It says "All Purpose Poultry is a complete maintenance feed for general use in most feeding situations. When fed to laying hens free choice oyster shells should also be provided. Provide chick sized grit and fresh, clean water at all times." Since they've been eating it all day, will I need to buy them grit tomorrow, even if I switch to crumbles?
Medusa. My current favorite, she's just so tiny and bright yellow <3
Minerva looking at me like, "Whatchu want?"
Fluffy butts!!
Our current setup. They seem to enjoy their little box. At what age will we need to have a cover to keep them from hopping out?
I love them already <3
and Welcome To BYC! How adorable! I can see why you came home with them! I find I have to keep the lid on mine around 2-3 weeks (brooder is around 2 feet tall) or they will start jumping out of it. Chick feed can be medicated with (usually) Amprolium to help control coccidia, if you need it in your area. Otherwise with feeds, usually the main differences in all the feeds are the protein% and the Calcium%, the one you are feeding is 19%, their chick starter is 20% and the calcium% is identical. The main thing would seem to be the feed shape, and it sounds like the pellets are too big for the chicks to eat, so you could just keep grinding them up until the chicks are big enough to eat the pellets, or save that bag until they are older and get a bag of chick crumbles now.
