When to take them off growers mash?!

[brooky]

Hi,

We have had our chickens for a few days now and we are over the moon with them. When we bought them the poultry center told us we need to feed them growers mash for about 3 and a half weeks then mix it with normal mash from there after. He drew a line on the bag too and said we should mix it with normal 50/50 when we get to there.

The problem is the three chickens are not eating anything like what he suggested. The area they have been put in has a reasonable anmount of grass and weeds which i think they are eating too.

Do you think they are not eating enough or have they given us too much feed? How long should a 20Kg bag of feed last for three chickens. I think we have been sold far too much for a months feed for three chickens. Any advice?

I want them to be healthy and happy.

 

[quinkerton]

That does sound like a lot for 3 chicks. Look up Whelp hatchery's web site, they have pretty good guide lines as to how to feed and care for baby chicks. In my experience a lot of people that work at feed stores or farm stores are not experts in the field, just someone filling a position and doesn't have hands on knowledge of actually raising animals, just what they have been told to say.

 

[brooky]

Thanks, I'll look it up. The guy who sold us them told me his family had been breeding for generations. He grilled us before he sold us the chicks to make sure we had a nice setup for them. I think he knew what he was doing but maybe the bag was the smallest they had.

No to worry I just want to make sure they are fed right. Apparently they should be laying in a couple of weeks.

 

[GwenDellAnno]

I have a hen with 6 chicks that free-range and they are eating very little of their food. I am still going to take them off the starter crumbles soon. (The oldest is 4 weeks today.)

They will be completely on the grower pellets until they are near POL (point of lay) at about 20 weeks, at which time I will switch them to the layer pellets.

I still have a small bag of the crumbles left. I found they came in handy when I had a sick roo that wasn't eating. I started him off with a mash of mixed crumbles and oatmeal in water. I figured the meds (in the crumbles) wouldn't hurt him any.

 

[quinkerton]

Mine are on a mash right now, younger on grower and adults on layer mash. Do you guys think pellets are better as opposed to mash? I have never had a problem with them, mostly seem to be healthy. Just didn't know what the difference really is. Always have feed the mash.