- Apr 10, 2022
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I thought I would share my "story" of how I feed my flock has changed since day 1. Here it is:
I bought some chicks from rural king in March (yes I did research and planned to buy some chicks), I brought home 4 EE chicks. I had the brooder (my bathtub) all set up with food, water, and shavings. I had wanted to use Purina start and grow feed but they didn't have it so I had to use manna pro chick starter and yes it was medicated. I soon bought some adults because I just couldn't wait for eggs (1 EE, 1 barred rock, 1 speckled Sussex, 1 polish, 1 silkie hen, 1 black copper Marans hen, 1 silkie rooster, and 1 BCM rooster) this is where the feed problem starts. I fed them layena layer feed, even the rooster, and fed them 2 CUPS OF SCRACH WITH A SMALL HANDFUL OF MEALWORMS TO! I would also give small handfuls of whole oats sometimes with the scratch, I had no idea that I was doing anything wrong. I seriously thought this was ok! Well after the 2 BCMs passed on (they were sick when I got them) and the speckled Sussex was ill because of them, (she is gone now too) I was still feeding my flock this way! I finally joined BYC and learned that the layer feed was dangerous for my boy and we switched to Purina flock raiser but I still fed the same amounts of scratch (all while wondering why 14 quarts of food lasted 2 weeks in the feeder). After losing 3 more pullets (2 of the original chicks 1 I had bought separately) I finally stopped feeding treats. Now I only give a sparse handful of scratch every now and then, maybe a few mealworms but they only get scratch and mealworms rarely. The most frequent treat is frozen watermelon rind with a little pink left every few days because of the heat of some scrambled egg every now or then. I now have 11 in the coop and 4 more babies in the brooder.
I now look back on these feeding mistakes and can't even imagine giving them that much scratch or feeding it every day. Please don't be rude about what I did wrong, I already know it was bad choices in feeding, I just wanted to put this out there for anyone new who might be making my mistakes. Feel free to share your mistakes too. We all make mistakes, don't beat yourself up for it, as long as you fix them once you know they are wrong, you are doing your best.
I might make a thread listing ALL the other mistakes I made someday.
I bought some chicks from rural king in March (yes I did research and planned to buy some chicks), I brought home 4 EE chicks. I had the brooder (my bathtub) all set up with food, water, and shavings. I had wanted to use Purina start and grow feed but they didn't have it so I had to use manna pro chick starter and yes it was medicated. I soon bought some adults because I just couldn't wait for eggs (1 EE, 1 barred rock, 1 speckled Sussex, 1 polish, 1 silkie hen, 1 black copper Marans hen, 1 silkie rooster, and 1 BCM rooster) this is where the feed problem starts. I fed them layena layer feed, even the rooster, and fed them 2 CUPS OF SCRACH WITH A SMALL HANDFUL OF MEALWORMS TO! I would also give small handfuls of whole oats sometimes with the scratch, I had no idea that I was doing anything wrong. I seriously thought this was ok! Well after the 2 BCMs passed on (they were sick when I got them) and the speckled Sussex was ill because of them, (she is gone now too) I was still feeding my flock this way! I finally joined BYC and learned that the layer feed was dangerous for my boy and we switched to Purina flock raiser but I still fed the same amounts of scratch (all while wondering why 14 quarts of food lasted 2 weeks in the feeder). After losing 3 more pullets (2 of the original chicks 1 I had bought separately) I finally stopped feeding treats. Now I only give a sparse handful of scratch every now and then, maybe a few mealworms but they only get scratch and mealworms rarely. The most frequent treat is frozen watermelon rind with a little pink left every few days because of the heat of some scrambled egg every now or then. I now have 11 in the coop and 4 more babies in the brooder.
I now look back on these feeding mistakes and can't even imagine giving them that much scratch or feeding it every day. Please don't be rude about what I did wrong, I already know it was bad choices in feeding, I just wanted to put this out there for anyone new who might be making my mistakes. Feel free to share your mistakes too. We all make mistakes, don't beat yourself up for it, as long as you fix them once you know they are wrong, you are doing your best.
I might make a thread listing ALL the other mistakes I made someday.
