Hello Angela,
I feel standard 16% protein layer feed, plus a handful or two of 30% or higher cat food daily to each group of breeders (4-6 birds per pen). I also add powdered vitamins to their water. At minimum, this has improved shell quality in the ones that were having issues, and certainly isn't hurting the breeds/colors that are naturally more hale and hearty.
I'm going to start using fermented feed, but just for my Bielefelders to start because they consume frightening amounts of feed. Many find that fermenting feed makes it more absorbable, and a friend reports drier poop (always a plus!).
Just my two cents' worth.
Hello, Mary. At the time I wrote the quoted post, I was fermenting a locally milled, non-GMO, 20% protein feed and offering granite grit and oyster shell free choice. I dug around on the internet, and found recommended rations for hens of different types and purposes, published ~ 1990. I was surprised to discover much higher recommendations for methionine in "meat-type" breeder hens than in egg-type breeders, and of course the recommendations for breeding hens were higher than for laying hens. My local feed, despite advertising itself as using fishmeal for protein, was woefully deficient in methionine, and I switched to Purina's Gamechick starter, the only premixed ration I could find with sufficient methionine. (The reformulated Flockraiser is sufficient.) I thought my flock was doing well with the first feed, but they positively bloomed when I switched to the gamechick formula.
Fast forward to autumn of 2014, I could not get any fertile eggs out of my Dorking hen, no matter which male I penned with her. I went to a local show hoping to find someone else who raised Dorkings, but found 2 juvenile pair of nice Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. The Wyandottes are doing nicely,(laying well, adding frame size and muscling,) on the gamechick starter, (30% crude protein,) though I am growing out their pullets on Flockraiser, (20% crude protein.)
The brooder certainly stinks more this year than last, but I am not sure I can attribute that to feeding dry crumbles. I also have more chicks, each with greater appetite, fed a different ration, so too many variables have changed to blame the smell on non-fermented feed. I am adding probiotic powder to their water, so they should still have good development of their gut mucosa. I
can attest that last year, the poop fell through the coated wire floor but this year, it tends to stick to the mesh, plugging up the holes. ick.
Best wishes,
Angela
