when to switch from starter feed?

[TREX]

Quote:
Originally Posted by TATTOOJOSH

i love it when my girls catch a worm...its like chicken football how they chase each other around and almost tackle each other...entertaining for sure


I am a high school football coach and I will tell you I wish some of my players moved with that kind of enthusiam and knew how to take angles like that on the field. Talk about a scrmbel drill... FUN to watch.

 

[lazy gardener]

Do you really have to switch to grower feed? Could you not just use the chick starter until time for Laying pellets? Everyone here is around 4 weeks and getting chick starter except the adult chickens that get flock raiser...I've used all different chick starters. Then I know I'm picking the right one. Right now were using game bird starter...last it was just chick starter, before that a different brand of chick starter. With 17 laying breed chicks, 8 ducks, and 9 meat birds we've gone through a crazy amount of food. I don't let it run out but in 2 months we've bought 300lbs of feed for everyone 100lbs flock raiser, and the other 200 is between game bird chick starter, and meat bird grower feed...at first I didn't put the feed in anything I just had the bags on the garage, but then I noticed that something pretty large had scratched and torn a big hole in a bag of flock raiser, so I got totes to put all the feed in. I'm hoping this will keep us from having to buy so freaking much.

Years ago, I was storing my feed in the garage, not paying much attention to how fast it was being used, just buying a new bag when the old one was getting empty. then we saw a rat. We had a huge rat infestation. If you see one rat, there's probably 20 more that you don't see. get that grain in a METAL can!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

I switched to a hanging feeder and the food bill has gone way down.Apparantly my birds liked scratching most of the crumbles out looking for choice pieces and wasted tons of it on the bottom of the brooder and coop. Also I heard someone on another board recommend switching to pellets instead of crumbles,and there is always the discussion about fermenting the feed to make it more digestable to achieve alot less waste.

You might also try fermented feed. It's real easy to do, the chicks love it, and there's virtually no waste, and with the pro-biotics, they are supposed to be more efficient at digesting what they do eat, so they don't eat as much.

 

[AussieHens96]

At the moment, while all our chickens are 16 weeks and 8 weeks, we were told to feed them crumble until they were 20 weeks? And then use normal feed?

 

[The Hen]

Totally confused after reading all these. What is the difference between starter, starter/grower, grower, and layer. I know that some are obvious like the starter and layer. When I got my chicks my husband bought Purina Sunfresh Recipe (red bag) medicated Start & Grow crumbles so when i bought the second bag at about 6 weeks i bought the same thing. I think the protein content is 18% or 20%. I plan to keep them on this until they start laying. That is actually what the back of the bag says to do and what i have read in several books etc. I have gone through a 50# bag in about 5-6 weeks. they are now 7 weeks old. They eat a ton. I have one of those metal feed trays with the bar in the middle and i fill that twice a day with about 5-6 cups of feed. My babies seem to be doing great though even Bent Beak (her beak is crooked) she is just as big as the others. Every night when we get home from work they seem to have grown again.

Commenting about the worm and chicken football. When i find tomato worms on my plants i give them to my chickens. They kinda don't know what to do with it. I think because those worms are so big and fat. My husband like to collect grasshoppers and crickets for them.

 

[Going Quackers]

Usually growers are less protein and can be in pellet forms, starters are crumbles smaller, easier to eat for wee ones. My ladies are on a multi purpose food, which is an 18%... they started on it and are still on it lol I do have grower here that can be used for chickens too but it's like 15% and in pellet form it's fed to my ducks.

I am looking into downing the protein level they really don't need 18% anymore, plus the crumble is wasteful!

 

[The Hen]

Usually growers are less protein and can be in pellet forms, starters are crumbles smaller, easier to eat for wee ones. My ladies are on a multi purpose food, which is an 18%... they started on it and are still on it lol I do have grower here that can be used for chickens too but it's like 15% and in pellet form it's fed to my ducks.

I am looking into downing the protein level they really don't need 18% anymore, plus the crumble is wasteful!

My girls wont eat pellets and when i did try them i thought they were more wasteful because in watching them eat it the pellets would fly out and end up on the coop floor in the litter. The crumbles seem to stay in the hanging feeder better i think.

 

[newburt]

I have purchased some great books on chicken raising and the general concencus on this topic between all the books that ive read seems to be that you feed chick starter/grower for the first 8 weeks, and then poultry finisher for 10 weeks after that and at 18 weeks old they can be switched to laying pellets or mash. I hope this helps. I have several stages of chicks from two weeks, to 6 weeks, to 8 weeks and this is the method that i am going by.

 

[newburt]

Starter feed is just what it says, it is a chick starter. It's what u sart them on and continue them on for the first 8 weeks or so. Now some companies combine starter feed with grower nutrients and make a feed called starter/grower and this is what I prefer. In my own small mind I feel like I am strengthening/conditioning my chickens from the start and making them more resilient and helping them develop more fully in less time by doing this. When I finish with this feed at approximately 8-10 weeks I switch to poultry FINISHER hitch is also jus as it reads. It is for finishing the growing cycle. It's a little bit less protein as they don't need 18% protein anymore at this stage. When the girls begin to approach the laying age (approximately 18-24 weeks) you will switch them to laying mash or pellets which is typically 16% protein but combines minerals needed for good hearty egg development.

 

[locoguru]

That helps them a lot, lot and I have always put red pepper flakes in their feed when they get about 6 months old, it helps them lay better

You mean the flakes I put on pizza?