Newbie question

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GTHC

GTHC

Hatching
Mar 21, 2016
6
0
7
Shreveport, La
I'm new to raising chickens
I started my coop with 2 hens , 1 rooster and 12 chicks that I got from a neighbor.
I added 4 additional hens when the chicks were about a month old.
Everyone seems to be getting along fine, and all of them spend about 5 days a week out free ranging.
I have noticed that the hens however have been gobbling up the chick feed, and the chicks will eat from the large feeder that has laying pellets, scratch, etc. in it.
Is this a problem?
The chicks were hatched on March 7th
 
Hi and welcome to BYC. Your current situation is far from ideal. I'd suggest putting general flock / growers food in all feeding stations and offering free (i.e. in a separate container, not mixed into the growers food) choice oyster shell. The layers will hopefully eat the some oyster shell to give them the calcium that they need, whilst the chicks are roo will ignore it. As they are free ranging, the chicks will have grit in their crops, and be ok with eating flock / growers food. I would suggest finishing your chick feed before switching to growers food.

Good luck

CT
 
I do have oyster shell in a stand alone station and as u stated the roo and chicks don't mess with it. I was concerned that the layers would put on too much weight eating so much chick starter
 
Chick starter and growers / general flock food are basically the same in terms of nutrition, its just that the crumbles are ground finer for chicks. Your layers are unlikely to add weight - its a feeding approach that many BYC members use.

Cheers
CT
 
I'd be more concerned with chicks eating lay feed - young chicks and roosters should not eat layer feed, the extra calcium can affect their kidneys.
 

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