What I should feed for my mixed flock

[Buckeye11]

First time raising chickens and I decided to buy mixed breeds to get duals and layers. Well all the chickens are 19 weeks old and 7 out of 20 are roosters. Well I have marans, araucanas, orpingtons and wyandottes. Some of the hens will be laying soon but the araucanas are still months away from laying.

What feed should I be feeding for week 20? Should I just give them a container of oyster shells so the hens have some calcium with the grower feed? When should the araucanas be given layer? I should be fine with giving the roosters layer in a month, right?

 

[Kelsie2290]

A lot of people with mixed flocks never feed Layer, they just feed some sort of All-Ages or Flock Raiser type food (they are usually around 18% protein) and just have oyster shell on the side for the layers. Besides Layer with the added calcium, most chicken feeds are pretty similar except for the protein percentage. I personally feed a 20% pellet from a local mill that I cut with grain if I want to lower the protein % for some birds.

 

[Buckeye11]

Well can't do the flock raiser because the organic mill I buy from is grower and layer. I was just thinking of getting them layer since I have read that the layer won't do much harm to the roosters or hens that are over 18 weeks. Anyone have any suggestions or experiences with what I'm dealing with.