What age do you you change their food?

[notsoangrybirds]

Hello,

My six chicks are a month old now and doing great. I was just wondering at what age do you make the transition from the starter/chick food to the adult food? I'd appreciate any opinions or personal experiences. Thanks.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

You can feed a maintainence formula and provide calcium free choice...them let them forage...I let Nature take care of it and not really worry so. I am going to try fermented feed all around and skip all the rest. The chickens seem to know what to eat, but then they get plenty of roaming too.

 

[jak2002003]

You guys have really got me thinking now.

The roosters do eat the oyster shell too.....and broken up egg shells, and the layers pellets. My half grown chicks will prefer to eat the layers pellets to their normal food, and some of the hens will try to steal the chick starter food!!! Chickens will eat anything and I don't think its true that they will naturally know what they are lacking and then eat that. They just consume whatever they can get hold of!

My flock are pets. I have 19 birds. Chicks at all ages, many roosters, adult laying hens. They all live free range. I have no run or pen for them. They roost under baskets at night. I live in Thailand and thats the normal thing here. You can just see the baskets in my photo.

I feed the whole flock the layers pellets fresh water. They find everything else like grit when they are free ranging. I make sure the young chicks get the chick starter by putting them and their mum under a basket. But I will let them out later to free range and they go and eat the layers pellets.

Think they are OK though, and had no problems with diet related health issues to far.

 

[jak2002003]

Share more about poultry in Thailand...this is very interesting.

What would you like to know?

In my village many houses keep chickens. The chickens are very tall and with long legs - look almost like dinosaurs! These are kept for eggs and eating. If I was at someone's house, and we were hungry and too lazy (or drunk) to go to the market, someone would go and get on of these chickens and use it for cooking. Everything is eaten. The plucked chicken is put over a chopping board and chopped up - starting from the head right down to the feet. Nothing is wasted.

I never ate chicken feet before I moved to Thailand. They are good in soup or also fried. My favourite soup is made with the chickens ovaries. The soups is clear, very spicy, has chilli, ginger, chicken intestines, tomatoes, lemon grass, and the ovaries - which have many egg yolks at all different sizes.

The chickens are kept totally free range in the day. They are only fed dry unhulled rice by the handful in the morning and in the evening to get the birds to return to their roosting place. They also scavenge around the house at mealtimes, and veg waste is throw out of the kitchen into the garden for them to eat.

Most roost under the traditional wooden houses, or in the trees in the garden. The ones with chicks are kept under the baskets that you see in my photo. Also the valuable roosters are kept in these baskets.

Also there are many people like me that keep the Japanese Bantams as pets and they are very into showing them. Some people also keep the wild jungle fowl as they are very hardy.

When I go to visit the hill tribes in the mountains they also have some other kind of chicken, but I don't know what it is. They are shorter and fatter than the village chickens. Muscovy ducks are also very popular in the mountains. Its very interesting to see how they keep them too.

 

[aggiemae]

If a hen is on growth or starter feed her first eggs might be soft which anyone who had had a baby will tell you is good thing!

Too much calcium can cause egg binding. Too much calcium can also cause kidney and joint problems and cause bones to thicken or become brittle. So since there are some risks and absolutely no benefits IMO there is no reason to changing feed until after the first egg is laid.

 

[chicmom]

Hello! At age 17 weeks, I change them over to layer crumbles. That way, the extra calcium can get into their systems for those nice strong egg shells.

 

[jak2002003]

You will know when to change when the chickens look start to look like adult birds and are nearly as big as the adults.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

If you are raising a layer flock...then feed Chick Feed until they start laying then switch to a Layer Ration.

 

[Chris09]

You'll want to feed your Starter/Grower till you get the first egg then you can switch to the Layer type.
You don't want to switch them too soon because the extra Calcium that is in Layer Feed could do more harm than good in Non-Laying birds.

Chris

 

[phelpcd1]

Huh??

Do NOT feed layer crumble until AFTER they start laying eggs? Ughhhhh......I added in layer crumble a couple of weeks ago to the pullet developer I was feeding...they are 15-18 weeks old now. Am I hurting them by doing this? They are fairly large, not little babies at all..(see below). Fred, my EE is small...but they all are eating the food, and they have pretty much destroyed my Dill and another large plant that tastes like celery too.

Could feeding them layer crumble too early cause crooked neck issues I wonder? Louise just started that within the last 2 weeks......sigh