newbie with some cornish x feed ?s

[dustyw]

I should be recieving my order of cornish x on tuesday. Do I need to start with a chick starter or my local rural king has meat bird crumbles that is 21% protein? If I go with chick starter, does it have to medicated? What kind of losses am I risking if its not medicated? When do I want to switch from chick starter to something else if I do start with chick starter? I aam sure these questions have been asked plenty of times, but I just spent an 1 1/2 hours using the search feature and still have this question to answer. thanks in advance for any help

 

[CARS]

Quote:
That is because everyone does everything differently.

When I buy chicks from the store, I feed them exactly what they have been feeding them for the first few weeks. I then switch the feed to my feed mill's blend. Protein depends on what the majority of my flock is. Right now, I still have my 2 dozen laying hens but since I have 80 Cornish X's, the hens are eating the higher protein just because I don't want to keep different feeds on hand.

I don't use medicated feed after the chick starter. I don't like to medicate just for the sake of medicating. Like sipping Nyquil to avoid the flu... doesn't make sense does it?

I also brood different breeds together, so to simplify they all eat the same feed. This spring I had turkey poults and Cornish X's in the brooder for 4 weeks. Last year I had layers and Cornish X's in the brooder for the first few weeks.

When I had quail last year everyone told me I needed 28% feed. I didn't want to carry different feeds, so they got 16% layer feed. I still got an egg a day from them and they dressed out at a good weight.

My thinking is to keep it simple. I buy my feed 1/2 ton at a time and is stored in a feed bin. I don't want have different bags of feed laying all over the barn.

 

[CARS]

Oh, I forgot to add that if your chicks are vaccinated from the hatchery, you don't want to use medicated feed.

 

[dustyw]

thanks for the reply CARS. I did not get them vaccinated at the hatchery. I am thinking I will just feed 1 bag of medicated chick starter and thats it.

 

[SteveH]

I've seen no medicated feed available except those with a cocci preventative . I believe many people think medicated means it contains an antibiotic . I can't ever remember how to spell the entire word , but " cocci " are parasitic protozoa that can wreak havoc in the digestive system and all of the so called medicated feeds I've seen in stores actually just have amprolium to kill cocci . I do keep a packet of water soluable antibiotics just in case I need to get on top of an infection . I started useing medicated just because that was all that was available when I went to a lower protein ; but they were going outside where I've found several dead starlings every year so ........ [ There are a couple strains of cocci that can jump from wild birds to chickens through contaminated feces ]