Starting Fresh

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pawpaw55

Hatching
Jun 17, 2015
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Hey ya'll, I'm literally who you would refer to as pawpaw"Farmer Brown". With two grandsons to my credit I certainly love to put they're "hand-to-plow" so to speak from time to time. Now to the point. I've had laying hens before but they were from a neighbor who was tired of them so my wife purchased them and we were off to our first start. Lots of eggs at first but they were getting old and production dropped to nothing and we gave them away. Back in April, I started getting educated and started fresh, building a Brooder cage with all the bells and whistles except one thing. The correct heat source. I had ordered 20 Pearl White Leghorns and lost all but 3. The hatchery informed me the heat source was the problem but they were good to me and sent me another 13 and I still lost an additional 4. Now I have a thriving dozen who are about 9 weeks old. I want them to be the strong and productive as do anyone else would who care about their birds. What is your input about continuing to add the vitamin supplements to their water daily versus every couple days or twice a week? Also I still have them on "Starter Grower"and at what age should I start them on the Layer feed? I have more questions but I'll save them for later. Sincerely, Pawpaw
 



I love the leghorn! I always have to have one or two in my small back yard flock. I personally, don't give them the vitamins after the very first water change if they are all drinking and eating well! And, I am one that only gives the medicated food for a month only. I find they get runny poo, and mine have seemed just fine all these yrs. I hatch. So, they do get the vitamins and medicated food at first..but not as long as others. Someone else will give you what works for them too. Have fun getting all of those eggs! They are great egg layers! And friendly. Here is one of my favorite photos of one of my leghorns peeking into the kitchen window...along with a sexlink another great layer!
 
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The Learning Center is a great start , and answers questions you didn't even know you have yet.
 
Welcome to BYC!

You and those grandkids must be enjoying the chickens, always fun to share a hobby with the kiddos.

We give our girls a monthly dose of vitamin water (we do that for our rabbits and goats too). As for when to switch to the layer feed, you can wait until they are of an age to lay...you don't want to do it too soon as layer feed is calcium-heavy and that's not good for the birds still growing. Just as an example of when they can begin laying, the girls in our mixed flock began between 18-21 weeks of age. We have several breeds but no leghorns, I would guess they are about the same (someone may need to correct me on that).

Good luck to you with your flock, have fun with them!
 

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