aliren
Chirping
Thank you for the information,Since you have more than one feeding station, keep grower feed in one station, layer feed in another station, and just oyster shell/lime/or food-grade calcium carbonate in a third feeding station. The pullets/hens will choose the most nutritious feed their body needs -- sometimes they go for the grower, or higher protein game feed, or sometimes just the layer feed and sometimes all. I have organic layer Scratch N Peck, organic 3-grain Scratch N Peck (3 grains only), oyster shell, calcium carbonate, and wild bird seed as a treat to scratch after in the dirt -- in addition to cut-up fresh greens/produce, mealworms, raw shelled sunflower seeds, etc, and I have female ages from 5 months to 5 yrs together (Silkies and Breda). They seem to eat the stuff their body needs at the time. When my hens are not laying eggs they never touch the oyster shell. But they start eating it extra when they go back to laying again. My breeder said she leaves out feed from grower up to layer feed out for her juveniles and they choose what they need. If you leave out just one type of feed like grower only then the layers would suffer nutrition and vice versa so having 2 or 3 types of feed out at different stations will ensure all bases covered for a mixed age flock. Hope this helps.
I hope your rescue of batteries goes well. The poor things are engineered to exhaust themselves laying so that after two years they are poor layers or in ill health My friend rescued 3 of them and all died before a year of having them poor things! They require additional chicken vitamin supplementation -- I recommend Rooster Booster granules added to wet feed or mixed into cooked organic brown rice. Since I have only 3 hens at the moment I've additionally been giving them one drop of children's no-iron Poly-Vi-Sol liquid vitamin drop on the side of their beak to lick up with their tongue -- 1 or 2x a week to ensure they are consuming some vitamins into their diet. I have a sneaky Silkie that will eat all her feed but leave all the Rooster Booster vitamin granules behind in the feed dish! She is one chicken I have to make sure gets Poly-Vi-Sol supplementation since I can see she is ignoring her chicken vitamins!