What can baby chicks eat?

[Arzella]

Last week we bought some 5 week old chicks and have been feeding them chick feed and spreading around sand for them to
to peck at in the run. Yesterday we bought 2 laying hens in hopes that they could teach the baby chicks what a mama hen would
teach them. They were hatched in an incubator, I believe the laying hens were also. My question is can we put out laying mesh for the laying hens when the chicks can get into it to, would it harm them if they to ate some of it? When we had chickens years ago the chicks had natural mothers and we put out laying mesh and cracked corn for the mama's and had different feeders in the same area with chick feed for the chicks. The chicks didn't seem to bother the laying mesh or cracked corn as I recall but I do know we had to fix a shelter or fence around the chick feed that only the chicks could get through in order to keep the big chickens out of it.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

The best time to integrate chicks with older hens is about 16 weeks. You may be able to get away with it earlier than that, but there is always the risk of injury or death.

Chicks should not eat laying mash/pellets/crumbles until they are close to laying, say 18-20 weeks since it has too much calcium in it and can damage the kidneys of the chicks (enough calcium to crank out eggshells).

I would keep your groups separate if it were me. Additionally I would quarantine the laying hens for a month, dust them for mites/lice, and consider worming them with either a wormer approved for laying hens, or toss eggs if the wormer isn't approved for laying hens (most on BYC say toss for 2 weeks).

You can put everyone on Flock Raiser or unmedicated chick starter or starter/grower, with oyster shell on the side for the laying hens, to answer your question.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

This link of mine should help you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/feeding-at-different-ages