unfertile eggs

[Hamiam]

My roosters do quite well on layer feed. I fed all-flock for about six months, then caught Chester (My rooster at the time) picking oyster shell out of the container, and then I compared prices and said, "heck with it."

I wouldn’t want to take the chance of loosing a rooster to kidney disease. Even the hens will have periods of not laying (example: while molting or broody) and they won’t need the higher calcium levels found in layer feed. Just recently there was a member on BYC that lost an expensive & loved Roo due to not knowing that layer feed was not good for him.

 

[Mimi13]

My roosters do quite well on layer feed. I fed all-flock for about six months, then caught Chester (My rooster at the time) picking oyster shell out of the container, and then I compared prices and said, "heck with it."

Well that’s good to know.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I wouldn’t want to take the chance of loosing a rooster to kidney disease. Even the hens will have periods of not laying (example: while molting or broody) and they won’t need the higher calcium levels found in layer feed. Just recently there was a member on BYC that lost an expensive & loved Roo due to not knowing that layer feed was not good for him.

I suspect that such deaths result from a genetic predisposition to kidney disease. I have a lot of chickens, have had a lot of chickens, and I have never had any rooster die from anything but an axe to the neck. (Except Squeaker. And he'd never been on layer feed at any point in his life.) My father has a nine year old rooster who still runs around attacking people, and he doesn't get anything but layer feed and corn.

Also, it would cost me $169 extra a year to feed my only mixed-breed rooster who lives with the layer flock. A cold-hearted assessment perhaps, but I was raised on a farm.

EDT: I've had more roosters with the flock, up to four at one point, but right now, I only have Gordon.