I very much agree with Percheron. It really doesn’t matter for a backyard flock. If you are raising them for show, just for meat, or something like that, a special feeding regime would be good, but for a typical backyard flock that will become a laying flock you can do a lot of different things and they will be fine. The only rule is to not feed them Layer when they are still growing. The extra calcium in Layer can harm a growing chick’s internal organs. If you check the percent calcium on all the other feeds it’s going to be about the same, pretty close to 1%. In Layer, calcium is about 4%.
A typical way to feed growing chicks that will become a backyard flock mostly for laying eggs is to start them off with a fairly high percent protein for the first few weeks, often around 20% though that can vary some. That helps them get off to a good start and helps them feather out faster. Then anywhere from 4 week to 8 weeks (longer if the bag of feed has not run out) you switch to something with lower protein, maybe around 16%. After they have that good start they don’t need the extra protein and the lower protein feed is generally a little less expensive. Why spend money for something they don’t need? A little extra protein won’t hurt them but they just don’t need it. A lot of people do continue to feed them a feed with about 20% protein until they start to lay or even later, but after they get past 4 weeks it’s just not really needed. Still, it does not hurt the chicks.
I like your question. It shows you are thinking. One of the things that makes this complicated for some people is that so many different things work. They just have too many options.
