New to Me Chickens...

[texasmomma]

TExasmamma If your feeding chicks and laying hens I'd go with the grower feed .

The feed store let me buy a 19% feed for everyone. I hope that's ok. I have them in separate coops right now.

Layer feed has extra calcium in it for the egg shells but is not good for chicks before 18-20 weeks, its hard on their kidneys. The grower feed is usually about 20% protein and is great for growing chicks and will also help your girls that are molting to grow back feathers faster.

I think they just have no feathers because of the picking.

I seem to always have some chicks growing out so I just feed everybody grower with oyster shell on the side.

What do you put the oyster shell in? They dump everything I put into the pen.

The layers that need it will eat it and the chicks will ignore it. This way I don't have to worry about who's eating what and it seems like I get a few more eggs with the girls on higher protein.



Also just so you know 4 year old hens are probably not going to lay very well if at all.

Well aware. I did not know how old they were when I agreed to take them. We did get one ancient looking egg today.

 

[DanEP]

The feed store let me buy a 19% feed for everyone. I hope that's ok. I have them in separate coops right now.
That's perfect will be an all round food for everyone.and the extra protein will help the girls that are missing feathers grow them back.


What do you put the oyster shell in? They dump everything I put into the pen.

I put the oyster shell in a small plastic bowl that I screwed to the coop wall so they can't knock it over.

Well if only one of your old girls is laying I hope it;s your favorite. I have had slw's and australorps. I like them both but the aussies are the better layers. They will lay younger and more often, I just lost one to a feral cat that was over 2 years old and still was laying 5-6 eggs a week.

 

[texasmomma]

Thanks Dan.

I was pretty happy that one of our older girls was laying. Not sure which one it was, though I can guess. Then again, I am super new at this, so I really don't' know.

I ended up putting the extra oyster shell in a small pan. So far, so good. I'm sure they will eventually dump it.

One of the little black australorps, my kids call her Splash, flew out of the top of the coop last night. I was trying to show her where to roost, and she just flew out. Had to run around the garden, chasing her, to get her back. Had to have been quite amusing to watch! She's the same one that finds a way to get her head through the chicken wire. When my dh has another day off, we're going to replace the chicken wire with hardware cloth.