What age does everyone put their chicks onto grower feed? 🙂

[Aunt Angus]

I'll add that I USED to do starter, then grower, then layer. It got to be too much of a hassle once I had 3 generations of birds. Once I started having broodies raise the chicks, I realized that mamas break up the larger pellets for their chicks. I realized that worrying about it was unnecessary. If mamas don't change feed, then I wouldn't either. But I do use starter when I have brooder babies because of size and extra protein.

 

[Brooks_]

I am in the Flock raiser for entire life camp.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My white stars are 3 weeks old tomorrow, their bag of chick crumb is almost done. Just wondering what age people put them onto grower as I know many people do it differently, would like to hear what age everyone chooses

I see you are in the UK. I'm not sure what is available for you over there or how it is packaged. I can just talk about things over here and assume it is fairly similar.

Chick Starter is generally a reasonably high protein feed, typically 18% to 20% protein. It's main purpose with the higher protein level is to get the chicks off to a great start, especially to help them feather out faster. Grower typically has a little less protein, maybe 16% to 18%. All the other nutrients are pretty much the same as Starter. Both of these have relatively low levels of calcium as growing chicks don't need it. Layer typically has protein levels around 16% to 18% and a higher level of calcium for the egg shells. The names Starter, Grower, and Layer are generic types, they don't really give you that much details.

There are other feeds too, a combined Starter-Grower, All-Flock, Flock Raiser, Game Bird feeds, and others but you didn't ask about them. As you mentioned, people do all kinds of different things. There are no hard and fast rules you have to follow. The chicken police are not going to take your chicks away if you do something differently than someone else.

As for your specific question, I feed a combined 18% protein Starter-Grower until they are at least 4 weeks old, then I switch to a 16% protein Grower. I switch to Grower when the bag runs out after 4 weeks. If it is at 8 weeks, that is not a problem, it won't hurt them.

I had never heard of the UK White Stars until you mentioned them. They appear to be specially bred leghorns. Since they have smaller bodies than a lot of our typical dual purpose chickens they don't need as much protein to grow and maintain bigger bodies. I don't know what protein levels you have in your Starter and Grower but I would get another bag of Starter to get to four weeks, then whenever it runs out switch to Grower. And, in the future when you decide what to feed them as adults, I'd not feel guilty about feeding them a slightly less protein feed than a lot of people on here use. With their smaller bodies they don't need it.

 

[K0k0shka]

I don't do grower either. I use medicated chick starter for the first few weeks (at least 2 weeks after they go outside, if brooded indoors), then I let them finish the bag if they haven't already and when they do, I switch them to flock raiser. I use Purina, so both the chick starter and the flock raiser are 20% protein. The only difference between the two (that I care about) is the amprolium in the medicated feed, but if you don't care about that, you can just use flock raiser for all life stages and all types of chickens, with calcium on the side for the layers. That's what I'd do. When I have broodies with chicks out with the flock, I switch the whole flock to medicated chick starter for a few weeks, then back to flock raiser for everybody. I always have crushed eggshell on the side for the layers. Haven't had any problems, and I find this to be the most straightforward and easiest way to handle multiple generations.

 

[FC16]

I see you are in the UK. I'm not sure what is available for you over there or how it is packaged. I can just talk about things over here and assume it is fairly similar.

Chick Starter is generally a reasonably high protein feed, typically 18% to 20% protein. It's main purpose with the higher protein level is to get the chicks off to a great start, especially to help them feather out faster. Grower typically has a little less protein, maybe 16% to 18%. All the other nutrients are pretty much the same as Starter. Both of these have relatively low levels of calcium as growing chicks don't need it. Layer typically has protein levels around 16% to 18% and a higher level of calcium for the egg shells. The names Starter, Grower, and Layer are generic types, they don't really give you that much details.

There are other feeds too, a combined Starter-Grower, All-Flock, Flock Raiser, Game Bird feeds, and others but you didn't ask about them. As you mentioned, people do all kinds of different things. There are no hard and fast rules you have to follow. The chicken police are not going to take your chicks away if you do something differently than someone else.

As for your specific question, I feed a combined 18% protein Starter-Grower until they are at least 4 weeks old, then I switch to a 16% protein Grower. I switch to Grower when the bag runs out after 4 weeks. If it is at 8 weeks, that is not a problem, it won't hurt them.

I had never heard of the UK White Stars until you mentioned them. They appear to be specially bred leghorns. Since they have smaller bodies than a lot of our typical dual purpose chickens they don't need as much protein to grow and maintain bigger bodies. I don't know what protein levels you have in your Starter and Grower but I would get another bag of Starter to get to four weeks, then whenever it runs out switch to Grower. And, in the future when you decide what to feed them as adults, I'd not feel guilty about feeding them a slightly less protein feed than a lot of people on here use. With their smaller bodies they don't need it.

Thank you very helpful advice as always, I’ll keep them in it for another week and then switch them. I’d never heard of the white star either until I got them. Egg colour, appearance and temperament are all identical to the white leghorn, so they’re essentially white leghorns but I think genetically they’re some strain of leghorn or something so they’re supposed to be slightly better at laying even more eggs (even though the leghorn itself Is great at laying), yeah I don’t know much about chicken genetics to be honest just what I’ve read

 

[3KillerBs]

But now that I have a mixed flock I have been doing medicated for 6-8 weeks (depending when the bag runs out haha) then just switching to all-flock.

That's what I do too.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Short answer: I switch when I run out of starter, so around 8 weeks or so (I generally only have 3-4 chicks at a time).

Long answer: I complicate things as I offer both dry and fermented feed. So when I have chicks, they get dry all flock crumbles for the first week or two. Then I start introducing fermented starter + dry all flock. When I run out of starter, I switch to fermented grower + dry all flock. And when they begin laying, continue with fermented grower but switch to dry layer pellets (I prefer pellets). Long story short, there's no one right way to feed your birds, and not really a specific moment to switch feeds, if you choose to do so at all.

 

[Brooks_]

I complicate things

You don't say?

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I buy a 50 lb bag of starter feed, and once that is gone they get the 20% protein layer pellets with the big girls. I usually will have 6 chicks, the first 50 pounds last about 8-10 weeks as I recall.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You don't say?

If my girls would just eat grower pellets instead of flinging them everywhere in rage, I wouldn't have to do 2 feeds.