When do I switch feeds?

[WhiteLeghorn2]

I know it can be confusing. We're also pretty new to chickens. A lot of the info here on BYC has been spot on and useful and some has been misleading, though I don't think anyone intended to mislead.

BYC really is an amazing community...so many good folks here willing to share.

Thanks. There's so many opinions that it is hard to know who's correct.

But you learn new things every day!

 

[pdirt]

Thanks. There's so many opinions that it is hard to know who's correct.  But you learn new things every day! 

Thank you, it's sometimes hard to know who to trust.  My grandpa who owned chickens for 30 years was one of the people who told me oyster shell is basically the same thing as grit. But then again, his chickens were free ranged and pretty much took care of themselves, besides that they had a coop with a bowl of corn and water. Back then, they did what worked for them, there wasn't books and lots of information on chickens. Happy New Year!   

Yes, and the chickens probably did fine because they free ranged so much. They probably didn't raise Cornish cross either. I don't think CX would do well on just free range and corn. Also, here on BYC it can be hard to know who to trust because lots of details can get lost online. I was reading about how someone was leaving their fermented feed bucket outside during winter and I thought, "well, I'll have to remember that so and so lives in a very different climate than I do and take that into account when I'm reading their opinions (because the fermented feed will freeze where I live.)"

 

[chicksurreal]

Great thread! My chickens, which are 14 pullets and 2 cockerels are about 17 weeks old and I have been wondering what to do when the pullets reach laying age. We are feeding all of them non-medicated starter right now (they also free-range during the day with some treats and scraps added) and I am tending to go towards continuing that plus putting out a dish of oyster shell when the pullets start laying. Any advice to the contrary?

 

[kpgoldstar]

Great thread! My chickens, which are 14 pullets and 2 cockerels are about 17 weeks old and I have been wondering what to do when the pullets reach laying age. We are feeding all of them non-medicated starter right now (they also free-range during the day with some treats and scraps added) and I am tending to go towards continuing that plus putting out a dish of oyster shell when the pullets start laying. Any advice to the contrary?

Hi chicksurreal I am also on the AZ page. Mine are 14 weeks and as soon as I get my first egg I am switching to layer and planning to add oyster shell as well. They get non-medicated starter that I ferment, some scraps that they hardly ever eat, and a little scratch about once a week.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Great thread! My chickens, which are 14 pullets and 2 cockerels are about 17 weeks old and I have been wondering what to do when the pullets reach laying age. We are feeding all of them non-medicated starter right now (they also free-range during the day with some treats and scraps added) and I am tending to go towards continuing that plus putting out a dish of oyster shell when the pullets start laying. Any advice to the contrary?

IMO that's the best plan. I've seen so much research documenting the damage to birds getting too much calcium and not actively laying. Most people won't do a necropsy so never attribute death to nutrition.

I don't think anyone purposely tries to mislead. There's just a lot of misinformation out there from people who supposedly know chickens. Some of that info comes from feed store employees that may never have had chickens, much less studied poultry nutrition or attended vet school. Yet, they freely give advice.
I had a neighbor that wanted to buy some hens from me. He said his quit laying. I asked him what he was feeding them. He said, "corn". I said, "what else?" He said, "just corn, I was told that's all they needed."
I said, "you're starving them". His birds weren't even free ranging.

I think it's especially daunting for people that grew up in the city or never cared for livestock.

 

[chicksurreal]

Hi chicksurreal I am also on the AZ page. Mine are 14 weeks and as soon as I get my first egg I am switching to layer and planning to add oyster shell as well. They get non-medicated starter that I ferment, some scraps that they hardly ever eat, and a little scratch about once a week.

Hi!

My main concern is for the cockerels, I don't want them to eat too much calcium, so I think I will add the oyster shell after I see eggs, but not the layer feed, since they are a mixed flock. We keep them all together and there's no way to separate what they eat. From what I've read, the hens will eat the oyster shell if they need it and the roos won't. I'm so new to this, it's great to have so many people here to share their experiences and results!

 

[chicksurreal]

IMO that's the best plan. I've seen so much research documenting the damage to birds getting too much calcium and not actively laying. Most people won't do a necropsy so never attribute death to nutrition.

I don't think anyone purposely tries to mislead. There's just a lot of misinformation out there from people who supposedly know chickens. Some of that info comes from feed store employees that may never have had chickens, much less studied poultry nutrition or attended vet school. Yet, they freely give advice.
I had a neighbor that wanted to buy some hens from me. He said his quit laying. I asked him what he was feeding them. He said, "corn". I said, "what else?" He said, "just corn, I was told that's all they needed."
I said, "you're starving them". His birds weren't even free ranging.

I think it especially daunting for people that grew up in the city or never cared for livestock.

When we needed to get a new bag of feed last week, the employee at the feed store tried to sell us layer feed even though we don't have any chickens of laying age. That's why I was wondering about it. She said that everyone feeds layer feed, even to chicks! I knew that couldn't be right, so I just got the starter feed and came here to do some research.

I have a friend who's wife is a vet tech and they call their chickens "little garbage disposals", giving them anything that they want to get rid of from the kitchen. They regularly lose chickens to unknown causes. I grew up on a cattle ranch, but have never raised chickens myself and am so happy to have a place like this where I can talk about issues with people who have experience with raising chickens!

 

[pdirt]

IMO that's the best plan. I've seen so much research documenting the damage to birds getting too much calcium and not actively laying. Most people won't do a necropsy so never attribute death to nutrition.

I don't think anyone purposely tries to mislead. There's just a lot of misinformation out there from people who supposedly know chickens. Some of that info comes from feed store employees that may never have had chickens, much less studied poultry nutrition or attended vet school. Yet, they freely give advice.
I had a neighbor that wanted to buy some hens from me. He said his quit laying. I asked him what he was feeding them. He said, "corn". I said, "what else?" He said, "just corn, I was told that's all they needed."
I said, "you're starving them". His birds weren't even free ranging.

I think it especially daunting for people that grew up in the city or never cared for livestock.

What I keep reading regarding the stories of people who said they raised fine chickens their whole life feeding just corn is that they forgot to mention a vital detail...that they free ranged their birds a lot. Some of them didn't even have pens or coops and just let them roost in trees and so they had opportunity to free range that much more. It may never have occurred to them that most of the birds' nutrition came from free-ranging, not the corn. I think of it like hummingbird feeder nectar...if you fed a hummingbird (in captivity) only sugar water, they'd not last long...in the wild they eat quite a few insects.

I've had this happen to me with some "old timers" before. They told me how to do something and when I told them I wasn't getting the results that they had been, they would come see what I was doing. They would say, "Well, you're not doing _____, that's why you have a problem." And their answer of "_____" would never have occurred to me in a 1000 years but to them it was common knowledge, assuming everyone knew something as obvious as THAT! Possibly a generation gap sort of thing, but I know to ask a lot more questions now!

ChickenCanoe - so what happened with your neighbor? Did he start feeding them properly and did they start laying again?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What I keep reading regarding the stories of people who said they raised fine chickens their whole life feeding just corn is that they forgot to mention a vital detail...that they free ranged their birds a lot. Some of them didn't even have pens or coops and just let them roost in trees and so they had opportunity to free range that much more. It may never have occurred to them that most of the birds' nutrition came from free-ranging, not the corn. I think of it like hummingbird feeder nectar...if you fed a hummingbird (in captivity) only sugar water, they'd not last long...in the wild they eat quite a few insects.

Absolutely right about the free range stuff!! I saw a hummingbird hovering next to a spider nest. It ate every hatchling as it emerged.

I've had this happen to me with some "old timers" before. They told me how to do something and when I told them I wasn't getting the results that they had been, they would come see what I was doing. They would say, "Well, you're not doing _____, that's why you have a problem." And their answer of "_____" would never have occurred to me in a 1000 years but to them it was common knowledge, assuming everyone knew something as obvious as THAT! Possibly a generation gap sort of thing, but I know to ask a lot more questions now!

It's a common sense thing. But one can't have that common sense if they've never experienced anything remotely like the task at hand
It amuses me when people talk about chasing their chickens trying to catch them to put them in the coop. You can't chase chickens, it is possible to somewhat herd them cautiously. I say that because I've herded cattle, hogs, horses, etc.. all my life. It is a skill that translates to lots of animals.


ChickenCanoe - so what happened with your neighbor? Did he start feeding them properly and did they start laying again?

He was actually at the feed store when we had that conversation. He bought chicken feed that day. I see him from time to time and apparently they're doing better. They had only been laying a few months when he thought they were broken.

I grew up in the city but we also had a suburban farm of about 40 acres with 100 leghorn hens and occasionally a batch of broilers. We also had a rural farm with cattle, hogs, horses and pheasant. After a long adult chicken hiatus, I started raising chickens again. I've had over 30 breeds/varieties but have only been breeding chickens for a little over 5 years. I'm constantly learning. I worked programming feed mills for commercial poultry producers, I've been around various size flocks throughout Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. I spent some time in Costa Rica at a huge facility that bred Scarlet and Great Green macaws for release into the wild doing maintenance and training volunteers how to feed and care for the birds. I've been teaching chicken classes at area community colleges and sustainable living venues. Until you have exposure to people of such varied backgrounds, it is difficult to comprehend the various levels of animal understanding(or lack thereof) that people bring to the hobby.
I'm also a co-organizer of a local backyard chicken group with 650 members.
I'm always amazed when I explain something that I thought was common sense and people are in awe and say how amazing that is.

 

[pdirt]

I grew up in the city but we also had a suburban farm of about 40 acres with 100 leghorn hens and occasionally a batch of broilers. We also had a rural farm with cattle, hogs, horses and pheasant. After a long adult chicken hiatus, I started raising chickens again. I've had over 30 breeds/varieties but have only been breeding chickens for a little over 5 years. I'm constantly learning. I worked programming feed mills for commercial poultry producers, I've been around various size flocks throughout Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. I spent some time in Costa Rica at a huge facility that bred Scarlet and Great Green macaws for release into the wild doing maintenance and training volunteers how to feed and care for the birds. I've been teaching chicken classes at area community colleges and sustainable living venues. Until you have exposure to people of such varied backgrounds, it is difficult to comprehend the various levels of animal understanding(or lack thereof) that people bring to the hobby.
I'm also a co-organizer of a local backyard chicken group with 650 members.
I'm always amazed when I explain something that I thought was common sense and people are in awe and say how amazing that is.

ChickenCanoe - So great to have you here on BYC with all your experience. You seem to have that key skill...being able to tell someone their doing it all wrong without telling them they're stupid. Nothing like feeling dumb for not knowing any better then having someone ridicule you for it. I'm sure your neighbor felt horrible once he realized he was starving the chickens. Poor things!

Yes, sometimes common sense is thinking things through, as in, "Does that sound right?" and sometimes it comes from like you said, from experience of being around something common. It was common for me to douse my sugary cereals with more sugar when I was a kid and later in life I now shake my head at what I had done then. But I didn't know any better at the time.