What age do you you change their food?

[farm girl]

Starter: 2days-6weeks of age
Grower: 6weeks-11weeks of age
Finisher: 11weeks-18weeks of age
Scratch/Layer: the rest of there lives!

This is for chickens, or ducks. but don't give ducks scratch!

Hope this helps a lot!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Hi,
I have 7 red stars and one of them laid the first egg this morning! I know I need to switch to layer feed now, but what about the other 6? They are all about 17 weeks old. Will it be ok for the non-layers to eat layers feed?

They'd all be just fine.

However, Layer feed isn't essential, it is merely convenient. It is no different than feeding a high quality Grower or Raiser except that it has the higher calcium ground into the feed for convenience. You can accomplish the same thing by providing a calcium/shell supplement dish.

 

[zmaryellen]

My husband bought some cracked corn for the chickens. I'm not sure it is good for them at all. We have buff orpingtons (and one unidentified white and black) and they spend 8 hours or so free-ranging. The buffs are 4 months old and the w & b is about a month younger. Also, I guess layer food is too early for them now?

 

[Fred's Hens]

They'd all be just fine.

However, Layer feed isn't essential, it is merely convenient. It is no different than feeding a high quality Grower or Raiser except that it has the higher calcium ground into the feed for convenience. You can accomplish the same thing by providing a calcium/shell supplement dish.

 

[aggiemae]

Congrats on your first egg!

Until they are all laying you will need to offer calcium on the side. I nailed a cat food can to the run wall for this. You can buy crushed oyster shell as the feed store or just crushed washed eggshells. It's actually a good idea to do this even if you use layer feed since different hens need different amounts of calcium to produce nice hard eggs.

 

[aggiemae]

My husband bought some cracked corn for the chickens. I'm not sure it is good for them at all. We have buff orpingtons (and one unidentified white and black) and they spend 8 hours or so free-ranging. The buffs are 4 months old and the w & b is about a month younger. Also, I guess layer food is too early for them now?

Corn and scratch are treats and should only be a very small part of your hens diet. Aside for low nutrition value these food are high in bulk meaning more and larger poops resulting in more (and probably larger) flies especially in the summer months.

Chickens should not have calcium before they start laying feed them a growth, flock or unmediated starter formula. You can offer calcium "on the side" when they start laying.

 

[Lilrednana]

Thanks so much for info!

 

[Glos Girls]

Thank you for this info, I was looking for something else, but as usual this post caught my attention because I have been wondering when it would be time to switch their food. Thank You ♥

 

[Sheysd1]

My chicks are 7 weeks old today. I just pulled them off the Purina Start And Grow which was medicated and I put the on the Scratch And Peck grower. I mostly wanted to get them off medicated feed. I do free-range them and of course they get scraps and such as well.

 

[Chris09]

Corn and scratch are treats and should only be a very small part of your hens diet. Aside for low nutrition value these food are high in bulk meaning more and larger poops resulting in more (and probably larger) flies especially in the summer months.

A lot depends on the feed and the amount of protein being fed.
If feeding a higher protein feed (say 20% +) you can feed a good bit of corn or scratch especially in the summer when high amounts of protein can lead to heat stroke/ exhaustion.



Quote from Buckeye Nutrition FEEDING DIRECTIONS: Feed to laying hens at the rate of 60% Gold Standard Laying Crumbles and 40% grain. For lighter weight hens and hens in extremely heavy production, the level of
Gold Standard Laying Crumbles to grain may be increased to 70% Crumbles and 30% grain.

Also not all scratch mix are created equal, what I call and use as a scratch mix could be used as a feed if needed to.