Turkey feed for chickens?

[coonriver]

I was wondering if a high protien turkey feed would be any good to feed to layers if i gave them some oyster shell also?i can get it from our local mill that supplies most of the turkey buildings around the state.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

The turkey feed will be a high cost way to create problems and not solve any.
They call it turkey feed, rather thabn chicken feed, for a reason.
Addition of oyster shell has no bearing on this circumstance.

 

[ralleia]

I feed my laying hens game bird feed most of the time rather than layer feed, partly because I feed them a lot of garden and kitchen scraps. The garden scraps are lower in protein than the feed, and that's one of the reason that we do it. The other reason is because the hens were looking pretty ratty, especially over winter with just the layer feed. On the game bird feed, they're full-feathered and vigorous--and they're burying us alive in eggs.

I think turkey feed is somewhere between layer rations and game bird feed in protein content. I don't see how it would do any harm--if you're also giving them greens, then the turkey rations may boost their health.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

It is not about adjusting the crude protein level to some simplistic number.

It is about the correct balance of amino acids in that crude protein percentage.

Besides turkey finisher as supplied to commercial growout houses will be way to high in fats for chicken layers.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Last year, I had a chicken that "accidentally" was hatched under a turkey and I fed it 30% turkey feed. There were no problems with him eating the turkey feed. He was bit larger than the average chicken his age but a beauty. When people stop by my farm, he is the one that they always want to buy because he is so big. He IS the big rooster that I have and one of the youngest.


I posted a pic of him. Not a good pic but you can sorta tell his size. He was 10 months old when I took this pic.

 

[pkw]

I feed turkey grow crumbles to my 6 weeks and older chicks and it hasn't been hurting them. Sometimes I switch off to grow mash.