Pellets?

[woodmort]

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That's my point the "rules" are written for large uniform breed flocks not a backyard flock of 6 to 8 birds of different lineage. Frankly a lot of breeds just don't start production at 18 weeks--even my red sex-link comets went almost to 24 and I now have 26 20-week Black Stars that range from full red combs to no sign of maturity. Giving them free choice oyster shell at 19/20 weeks makes sense, going to layer doesn't and I won't until I'm sure all of them, plus my 5 EE pullets of the same age, are laying .

 

[gritsar]

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After filling all the feeders this evening, I am now out of grower food for my juveniles that will be 18 weeks old on Wednesday. When I buy feed tomorrow it will be layer feed, to mix in with what's left of the grower in their feeders. Most of the layer feed available around here is only 3 to 4% calcium anyhow and I couldn't agree more - a little calcium before the actual egg is not going to hurt a thing. They need to store up a bit anyways, so they don't have to rob it from their bodies.

It worked well for my adult birds and I'm not going to fix what isn't broken.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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The basic physiology is the same regardless and there are recommendations out there that say that the birds can benefit from extra calcium right before they start laying. Perhaps if you can't anticipate the start of lay it would be more appropriate to wait until first egg... As I said there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The hens in commercial flocks do not all start at the same time either. As I said, the first egg is generally around 18 weeks, but peak production (the point at which all of the birds are laying the most consistently) is around 27 weeks old. It would seem by the recommendation that the risk of depleting the birds that have started laying is probably worse than feeding extra calcium to those that haven't yet started.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
The basic physiology is the same regardless and there are recommendations out there that say that the birds can benefit from extra calcium right before they start laying. Perhaps if you can't anticipate the start of lay it would be more appropriate to wait until first egg... As I said there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The hens in commercial flocks do not all start at the same time either. As I said, the first egg is generally around 18 weeks, but peak production (the point at which all of the birds are laying the most consistently) is around 27 weeks old. It would seem by the recommendation that the risk of depleting the birds that have started laying is probably worse than feeding extra calcium to those that haven't yet started.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I've worked with a few commercial flocks in my checkered career, it is just that a backyard flock is a little different animal not only in size and composition but husbandry. For one thing the BYC owner wants to keep his/her birds a bit longer and is a little more concerned with health--lose 10 production birds out of 100 to kidney failure is not as bad as losing 1 out of 10 of your "pets" to the same thing. One or two commercial birds are dying all the time and, as long as there is no sign of disease, it is generally considered part of the cost of doing business. That being said, I'd 'skin my cat" by waiting on the layer for the birds to mature rather than going by the "book".

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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If we had those kind of losses we'd definitely be doing something wrong. You're just assuming that there are mortalities due to kidney failure. There aren't. I lost 75 birds out of 2500 last year, or 3%. I have notes on what each of them died from, various causes; prolapse, accidents, pile-ups, fighting, predators. It's rare for them to just drop dead of ailments, I may have had a dozen birds last year that actually died from sickness.

 

[woodmort]

True, we never analyzed why they died, if we found one dead bird here or there and it didn't look sick to us it went in the incinerator. For the BYCer each death, whether from pile up, predator or whatever is a tragedy--just read the disease and predator post--so no sense in adding to it.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

While we are a commercial operation here, it is just a ma and pa operation. We look after 2500 birds in a barn / on pasture right in our backyard, just as we did when we had fifteen in the backyard. It is a part of our everyday lives. We are out there first thing in the morning packing eggs, walking amongst the birds, checking feeding and watering equipment, adjusting ventilation, noting pasture conditions, etc. We are out there several more times each day checking on things, and pick up any remaining eggs in the evening. Just as people do here, we are out there at lights out every night making sure that every bird is cozy and on a roost and that the barn is secure. I'd hazard to say we spend more time with our flock than most BYCers, since when we go off to work, we head out to take care of our hens.

Losses here are expected, but I wouldn't say accepted. While we aren't heart-broken that a certain bird has died, every loss is troublesome. Every loss is analyzed for a possible cause and a possible correction. If we thought that we were losing any birds to the feeding program it would immediately be corrected, and not considered a "cost of doing business".

 

[Kittymomma]

If you have that much grower left I wouldn't worry about switching them until it's gone. Put some oyster shell out free choice (as another poster suggested) and call it good. Staying on the grower won't hurt them at all as long as they have another source of calcium. I feed my mixed age/species flock gamebird feed most of the year with freechoice oyster shell for the layers and haven't had any problems at all.

 

[shell25]

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Thankyou i think thats what im going to do they have a small bowl of mixed grit in their run, so i presume when they are ready for it they will start eating it, plus they free range aswell. Ill use my growers pellets first then introduce layers pellets.

Wow all the other information was starting to confuse me. Im a newbie, only had them 3 weeks but love this forum i have learnt loads of things and check it everyday for new things, lol.

Thanks Michelle

 

[TcherDawn]

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Why, were they laying? There is no good reason to feed layer to nonlaying pullets.

As far as the grower is concerned--once your chickens start to lay give them some oyster shell in an separate feeder and feed out the grower or gradually mix it with layer. The biggest difference between the two types of feed is the amount of calcium in the layer so by adding oyster shell you will take care of that--no sense in tossing good food but, by the same token, don't force layer food on prelaying birds it will cause health problems down the road. They need to get rid of the calcium by covering their eggs with it, not trying to filter it through their kidneys.

I keep hearing about how hard calcium is to filter through kidneys if they are not laying. What about roosters? They never lay eggs to get rid of calcium. Do they have kidney trouble or die earlier than hens? (I don't have roosters, knock wood, but the mental question always comes up when I read the calcium/kidney thing). Thanks. Dawn