When to add new pullets?

[aart]

All flock is good for chicks from day one?

I feed Purina Flock Raiser from hatch to harvest....
.....providing Oyster Shell in a separate feeder for the active layers.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I feed Purina Flock Raiser from hatch to harvest....
.....providing Oyster Shell in a separate feeder for the active layers.

I'm going to make the switch. I already offer oyster shell anyway, and currently have 3 DIFFERWNT FEEDS and don't even have my meat birds yet. They really confuse you with all those specialized choices! And it's suitable for broilers?! I'm sold.

 

[aart]

They really confuse you with all those specialized choices!

Mostly it's 'Marketing Hype'.

And it's suitable for broilers?!

Not sure about that. 20% protein might not be enough for broilers(CX?).
Search/ask in the meat birds forum.
The birds I 'harvest' are layer breeds, extra cockerels and older layer hens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

All flock is good for chicks from day one?

Look on the label on the bag, the analysis not the ingredients. There are several important things listed there and their percentages of content. Of the different feeds I've looked at there are only two items that are significantly different between any of them, calcium and protein. Feed meant for laying hens has around 4% calcium, all the others have around 1%. They can be a little higher or lower but in those areas. So any of them in the 1% area will not have enough calcium to harm growing chicks.

In various feeds labeled for chickens I've seen the protein content vary from 15% to 20%. We all have our preferences, I like feeding a relatively high protein content feed to chicks until they feather out and then droop back to a lower protein content. Others stay with a higher protein feed. A couple of times I was raising turkeys with the flock so everyone got a 24% protein game bird feed for a while. Everybody in the flock eats what the chicks eat. And oyster shell is always offered on the side for the hens that need the calcium for their egg shells.

There are three different forms of feed, mash, pellets, and crumbles. They make mash by gathering all the ingredients and grinding them into a powder. They make pellets by mixing water with mash, extruding that paste through a die and flash drying it. They make crumble by lightly crushing pellets. So form doesn't have anything to do with what the ingredients are, you need to look at the label for that. There are different reasons they have these different forms. For this discussion baby chicks can't handle pellets, they are too big. Typically mine handle crumbles fine but on rare occasions I see them leaving the bigger chunks behind so I grind those up a little in a blender. This may be more of a problem if you have bantams.