What do you feed your 3-4 month old chickens?

[kubotafoot]

Have the folks at the feed store ever raised chickens or do they just handle them to sell? With the "great" advice they're giving out, makes me wonder.....then again, here at Tractor Supply the first year they opened I was told a little yellow chick was a LONGHORN. I questioned it and said, maybe a Leghorn? Nope....it was a longhorn to be sure..... It was a Leghorn! Ditto to getting them back to grower feed. Don't need the medicated at this age any longer, but definitely starter/grow. Layer feed is for chickens presently laying!
I have 3 week old chicks and they've eater cracked corn, lettuce, cut grapes, peaches (no pits) soaked stale bread with garlic powder on it. Meal worms, regular worms....stale human cereal....just about anything. If the mother thinks it is too large for the kids, she takes a mouthful off and spits it out for them to try. Yum, yum!

 

[jakenhyde]

I was surprised as well. I bought day old chicks last year at the same time and they didn't start laying until late July.

 

[urbanhermit]

My latest hatch is 8 days old, and they've been ranging around with Broody since they first peeked out from under. They have access to a feeder of chick starter and cracked corn and occasionally eat from that, but they much prefer the smorgasbord of insects, grass, and kitchen scraps. I don't use any medications on them, and I've never had any problems raising very healthy chicks to adulthood. They have about a half-acre of city lawn and flowers (no herbicides or pesticides) to roam through and a safe locked pen at night. When they're ready, Broody will take them to the main coop at night and I'll know it's time to clean up the brood area for next year. Buddy, the one rooster, and the other six hens (Biddy, Betty, Birdy, Stripe, Pearl, and Whitey) in his harem don't bother them at all. When I throw out vegetable waste, they all, oldsters and youngsters, gather to peck at the pile. Once the chickies start using the main coop, they'll also be able to get into the laying mash, and that will be well before 3 months of age. I've never had a problem with that before, but maybe it's because there's so much other good fodder that none of the chickens eat very much of the mash. Of course, if you have them enclosed in a coop and run, they won't have as many choices, so maybe you have to be more careful about it. All the best to you and your flock!

 

[stevexxx]

Earlier in the posts someone talked about the predators and type fencing they used for their runs. One thin to keep in mind is that if there is racoons, possums and mink around then there is a good chance that you also have fox in the area. If you havent done so yet, you might want to bury some fence about 8 inches into the ground and out another 12 or so inches. Fox will dig under the fence and take your flock one at a time. I lost five barnvelders one night including the most beautiful rooster Ive ever had. made me sick to my stomach. As you may know the barnvelders are not always that easy to find. A fox will also pull on the chicken wire until it breaks and it will break, chicken wire is great to keep chickens in but lousy at keeping predators out of the coop/runs. Ive raised chickens for about 10 years now and if your new at raising them then welcome to one of the greatest hobbies there is. You will get lots of pleasure and awesome eggs from it. Chickens are very relaxing to just sit and watch their antics. Be careful though because it is very addictive and before you know it you'll be like me and have 30 or 40 at one time and will be building coops all over the place lol.

 

[AKNan]

My chicks are just one month old. I read that chopped up garlic is good for them so I tried it. Oh my gosh they are crazy for it. Just wondering if you have tried this? I would not worry a chick would choke on a worm after all they are not toddlers. My husband built our coop and used that hardware cloth on the bottom half and chicken wire on the top half.

 

[mikichick]

Mikichick1 [/B] my 12 week old red sexlinks keep sleeping & pooping in the nest boxes. I put up curtains but that seems to make them happier to be there. They have plenty of roosting bars ...

 

[Suzyr]

Three month old pullets choking on worms? Baloney. I've got robins in my yard that consume huge earthworms. I've got 14 pullets that were hatched on March 5th, 2014. Got my first egg two days ago(6/16). Only one so far. But I've been feeding them chick starter until now. Had a half bag(25 lbs) of chick starter left and just mixed it with my regular laying crumbles. When that's gone, it will be laying crumbles all the way. Did the same thing with last year's pullets and it worked out just fine.
BTW....I built a 5'x10' pen adjacent to my regular chicken run....one side of the pen is a common fence with the regular run. So the older hens have been able to see and be near the young pullets. I have seen no sign of animosity between old and young, so will integrate the whole bunch soon as it quits snowing(yes, it's snowing on June 18 here in SW Montana) I will then have 38 hens. At this time, the girls can't keep up with the demand for their fresh eggs. All my hens, except five, are golden sex link. They lay beautiful very large brown eggs. Jim Schwindt

 

[jstamesngr]

I feed my crumbles, Purina Layena Sunfresh recipe. They free range around the backyard and eat whatever they want out there. I have 3 other adults (2 hens & a Bantam rooster) and I usually feed them Omega -3 Plus but w/ the babies they're all on the same thing now until babies can eat pellets. I throw out strawberries sometimes, spinach whatever. The "bigs" don't like much people food so I don't do too much...berries, melons, squash, soft stuff. They don't seem to like hard things like carrots, celery...the babies I got 4/4 and they're just doing chicken stuff...except 2 of my 3 newbies turned out to be roosters, barred roc & australorp. I have to rehome the barred roc asap...he's a beauty and will be a wonderful rooster...

 

[CrazyHens]

I am so pleased I found this discussion! I have 17 chicks of varying ages on chick crumb. Normally the hen hatches them and they go from crumb to layers pellets. This time they are inccy hatchlings or day old I have bought. I went to my local feed store and nearly started a fight between 2 men who worked there. 1, who raises pheasants said at 5 weeks put them on growers ( which it advised on the bag) , the other said straight to layers because his mother had always done it that way. An argument ensued and I bought growers so am happy that has been the advice on here. As for bugs etc, well my hens take theirs out at a couple of hours old and teach them to eat bugs, grass and chick crumb and I have had all healthy chicks ... maybe English carrots taste different but none of them ( chick or hen) will eat them lol

 

[dabbler939]

When I first got some chicks at the farm store. The lady in charge of the chicks said to just feed them one bag of starter and then switch them to layer. But thankfully I had some one to advise me who told me to feed them starter till they start laying. You just have to dig until you find out the truth. LOL