- Apr 22, 2013
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I have Life-Lyte tablets from manna pro http://www.mannapro.com/products/poultry/life-lytes-mega-tabs/, and pro-biotics from sav-a-chick http://www.savachick.com/product.php?p=132. How often, and when, should I use them? Is it OK to use both at the same time? I've been using the vitamin & electrolyte tablets when it's been around 80* or hotter, & plan on using them when winter hits & it gets really cold .... last winter it was 20 below quite often. I'd like to use the pro-biotics instead of the yogurt. Even though they like yogurt, from all of the reading I've done, dairy isn't really all that great to give chickens. I've never used pro-biotics before, at least for chickens, & I'm kind of clueless as to how often they should get it.
If some information on their lifestyle would help, here it goes:
There are 17 that are over a year old, 9 that are 4 months old, & 2 that are about 1 & 1/2 months old. All dark brahma's. They have 1 waterer that's 8 gallons. I often have to clean & re-fill that around every 5 days. They have 4 feeders that always have feed in them. 2 are 20 lb-ers, & the other 2 are 40 lb-ers. They are fed Southern States Layer & Breeder crumbles & pellets. I use to feed them Agway's Hearty Hen pellets, but they seem to prefer the Southern States more. Every night they get a mixture of black oil sunflower seed, sunflower meaties, & scratch. It's mostly because it makes it so much easier to get them in, but also because it's good protein. It's about 1/3 of each - so not much scratch. Between all of them, they probably get between 3 - 3.5 lbs of that. They also free range during the day, for about 12 hours, on a lot of acres (20-ish?). In the summer they often get fruit & some tomatoes. Though, I did have to tell the woman where I keep them, my horse, & work; to cut back on the amount of fruit they give them ..... even though the chickens like it, too much fruit is a bad thing & I had to treat a couple for sour crop. In the fall they'll get some left over veggies from my garden. In the winter, when it's really cold, I give them mealworm & sunflower heart cakes as well as mealworm suet pellets. Not a lot, only when it's really cold out. I think that's about it for the nutritional end of their care.
I just want to make sure that I don't over-do the vitamins/electrolytes & pro-biotics. Just like everything ..... too much is a bad thing & can do more harm than good!
If some information on their lifestyle would help, here it goes:
There are 17 that are over a year old, 9 that are 4 months old, & 2 that are about 1 & 1/2 months old. All dark brahma's. They have 1 waterer that's 8 gallons. I often have to clean & re-fill that around every 5 days. They have 4 feeders that always have feed in them. 2 are 20 lb-ers, & the other 2 are 40 lb-ers. They are fed Southern States Layer & Breeder crumbles & pellets. I use to feed them Agway's Hearty Hen pellets, but they seem to prefer the Southern States more. Every night they get a mixture of black oil sunflower seed, sunflower meaties, & scratch. It's mostly because it makes it so much easier to get them in, but also because it's good protein. It's about 1/3 of each - so not much scratch. Between all of them, they probably get between 3 - 3.5 lbs of that. They also free range during the day, for about 12 hours, on a lot of acres (20-ish?). In the summer they often get fruit & some tomatoes. Though, I did have to tell the woman where I keep them, my horse, & work; to cut back on the amount of fruit they give them ..... even though the chickens like it, too much fruit is a bad thing & I had to treat a couple for sour crop. In the fall they'll get some left over veggies from my garden. In the winter, when it's really cold, I give them mealworm & sunflower heart cakes as well as mealworm suet pellets. Not a lot, only when it's really cold out. I think that's about it for the nutritional end of their care.
I just want to make sure that I don't over-do the vitamins/electrolytes & pro-biotics. Just like everything ..... too much is a bad thing & can do more harm than good!
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