Thank you!
I have not found a date on the feed bag either! Someone posted check the date- haha I don’t see a date.
I gonna try crumbles!
Good idea.
Thanks again!
I do have grower crumbles Durham feed and they don’t eat that either. Gonna try another brand.
as far as treats - they get kale.
And scratch at night.
But for the locked up period of 3 days they only got the layer feed with oyster shells.
I dumped the feed. Nothing was touched.
Oyster shells was empty
There will always be a mill date on the bag. Sometimes it is hard to find, sometimes it is obvious. Many companies like Nutrena will print it right on the bottom of the guaranteed analysis feed tag with the day, month, and year clearly understood.
Purina, Dumor and others print it on the seal strip at either the top or bottom of the bag. It isn't always obvious. Look for printing on the strip and it will be in that line.
Some, like ADM use the Julian date which is harder to decipher. That is the day of the year. 001 will be January 1. March 1 will be 60 or 61 depending on if it is a leap year. December 31 is either 365 or 366 for the same reason.
Still others like Fertrell will have a date code with 2 digit, month, 2 digit day and 2 digit year followed by which mill run of the day it was.
If you still can't find it, ask at the feed store. There's a 50:50 chance someone there will know. Otherwise, call the manufacturer and they can guide you.
As was said, if still no luck, buy something else or elsewhere.
I feed mine the Dumor Grower crumble feed (cheap, low calcium, 15% protein). Sometimes it's more like powder feed, but that's OK because I add a lot of water to it.
I occasionally use that for certain purposes. I know it says 'grower' but a 15% feed is a finisher feed. Dumor used to label it 'finisher' about 8 years or so ago.
Finisher is usually for finishing meat birds but I use it for roosters and maturing cockerels since they don't need as much protein.
I am always amazed that people don't need oyster shell when feeding layer feed. My current flock is on layer feed & 10 hens go thru at least a cup of OS shell a week. Have no idea what they would need if they were on FR. This has been the same on many different feeds all containing 3.5-4.5% calcium. I never noticed in past years, but for the last 3-4 years this has been the case through 3 different flocks.
It all depends on the productivity of the birds in question.
Birds building 5-7 egg shells a week will likely need more calcium than that in layer. Hence, oyster shell, crushed egg shells or limestone.
Medium production birds will find layer to be sufficient.
For poor producers (0 or 1 egg a week), layer may be too high in calcium
1% calcium is sufficient for all non-layers (chicks, roosters and any mature hens out of production).
Most layer feeds are in the neighborhood of 3.5-4.5% calcium.
Large scale poultry producers have their own mills and are able to customize formulas to meet the needs of their specific birds. For example, for growing pullets, they will begin to feed a pre-lay diet of about 2-2.5% calcium at about 16 weeks. Then when that batch of 500,000 birds all begin laying within a few days of each other due to the lighting program, they feed a full layer diet and some even topdress with OS.
The rest of us are stuck with the selection at the feed store.
Needless to say, one size doesn't fit all. As you noted, in backyard flocks, the needs vary dramatically.
Furthermore, it isn't always about the calcium percentage. Other nutrients like phosphorus and D3 play a great role in calcium utilization. For example, if no D3 is present, they can't uptake calcium at all. There are many other variables as well including acidity level of feed and water.
I feed mine mixed grains, with Purina Layena layer crumbles. I've been mixing in some Flock Raiser in to give them extra protein since it's been cold, and chickens use up more energy during the winter.
Energy comes from carbs, starches, sugars and fats.
