Forgive the question, as I assume I've missed the answer in an obvious location, but I don't have much computer time and need an answer. I have four, six week old chicks that I've been giving medicated chick feed to. All the older hens are gobbling it up instead of their own food, so today I asked my husband to get us more chick crumble and that I'd feed it to everyone until the chicks get old enough to eat the Layena. Anyway...hubby thought "chick" meant short for chickens, not actual baby "chick", so he bought Layena crumbles....NOT baby chick feed. The question to you all is: Do we need to go tomorrow to get baby chick (unmedicated) crumbles since I'm assuming it has more of the stuff they need to grow (calories, vitamins, etc.), or are we o.k. with the Layena adult crumble. Thank you for your advice on this! If you can even just link me to the section to find this info I'd be greatly grateful.
You don't want to give chicks Layer food for any length of time because the excess calcium is bad for their kidneys. What most people do who have mixed age flocks is just feed a starter/grower or all-age type food (most are around 18% protein) and have oyster shell on the side for the laying hens.
Maybe someone smarter than I will post but to ease your mind, it won't kill them. Chick feed has more protein and less calcium than layer feed from what I've noticed. Calcium has issues with young birds and high protein has issues with older birds. I'd say find some wire and make a small pen inside the run that only the chicks can get in to put the chick feed. Not big, just enough so the babies can come in and eat without the old folks lol. And then get some chick feed to put in it. Don't have to be crumbles at this point.
What chickens eat is based upon age and activity. Chick feed is good for a certain period, then grower-finisher feed. Once they start to lay, provide oyster shell in a dish for them to eat as needed or change to layer food which has calcium for laying. Pullets that aren't laying should not have layer food. For a mixed age flock, feed grower feed with a dish of oyster shell. The hens laying will eat the oyster shell as needed. The others will ignore it. I don't provide medicated feed at any age. Chris
