@Ridgerunner, I'm gonna hijack a bit here. Hope you don't mind
@jthornton. What say you regarding cutting protein as a pullet approaches puberty. The grower feed in my area is 15%, while starter is 20%. When I've asked about the logic of that, I'm told that the protein is cut b/c older youngsters (is that an oxymoron?) don't need as much protein, and by cutting the protein, it slows their sexual maturity to give their body size time to catch up before they start laying. This makes no sense to me. While I do understand that onset of puberty does occur at an earlier age with increased nutrition, the flip side is that limiting nutrition may not allow the body to achieve it's maximum potential size. What say you????
First, my opinion is just that, my opinion. In my opinion, if someone wants to cram a lot of protein downs their chickens throat, they can. Unless you get ridiculous most of our chickens can handle that quite well. I have some qualms about the hybrid layers since they are specialists but for the others I really don't think it hurts them, bantam or full sized fowl. If you want to go low on the protein again they can handle it as long as you don't get ridiculous. The eggs may not be quite as big but production should still be pretty good and the chickens themselves can still be really healthy.
I think that if you feed them a high protein diet during puberty they probably should stay on a high protein diet later, if they have a lower protein diet during puberty then feeding them a really high protein diet later would probably not be a good thing. Part of that is just what their metabolism gets used to but part of it is that they will grow bigger bodies if you feed them a high protein diet during puberty. They will need more nutrients to maintain those bigger bodies. Conversely the smaller bodies don't need a steady high protein later in life and it could cause some overfeeding problems. I like starting them off on a 20% Starter o they feather out faster, but I've had broody hens raise them on practically nothing but what they can forage. I don't know how high that protein was but I suspect not very high.
I think maturity in when they start to lay can make a difference. Some of the stuff I'm about to say will probably upset some people but I'll do it to make a point. Just from a physical and health perspective I think it would be better for a 13 year old girl to wait a few years to have a baby, even if she is a tall big girl. As you well know it's not unusual for a pullet to lay some pretty funky eggs when she first starts to lay. The pullet's internal egg making factory sometimes takes a while to get all the kinks worked out. If production is delayed a few weeks that system is more mature and is a lot less likely to need to work out kinks. The higher the protein in their diet the earlier they are likely to lay (though we know what it can be like waiting for one to start) and the bigger the eggs will probably be.
Maximum potential size, or maybe "genetic potential". I'll exaggerate a little to make a point. Sumo wrestlers have shown us how humans can achieve maximum genetic size potential. My wife gave natural birth to a 10-1/2 pound baby. She loves that boy dearly but readily admits the two that were around 8 pounds were a bit more enjoyable at that time. I wonder what her potential genetic maximum size of a baby would be if she had worked at it.
I consider my hens have reached their genetic potential when they lay reasonable sized eggs for their body size and those eggs hatch healthy chicks when the eggs are incubated. I think the chickens have reached a great genetic size when they can take part in flock activities, chase bugs and just have a lot of fun, plus they can jump down from a roost without damaging their legs because they are so big. I just don't consider big for the breed as a trait I try to a achieve although I do eat my chickens. I want a reasonable size but I go after that by breeding, not by feeding them a lot of protein. And I'm quite happy to wait a week or two for them to start laying. I think they are healthier plus they are more likely to start laying in a nest. I think their is some benefit if they don't start laying quite so early.
You asked for my opinion, well you got it. I do think that the differences we are talking about are pretty minor, not that significant. The vast majority of the time it just won't matter, they can easily handle either regimen as long as you don't get ridiculous either way. To a certain extend much like splitting frog hairs.
