Will eating Starter Grower long term hurt chickens?

[BettyR]

My flock is getting older and not laying well anymore so I decided it was time to add some new chick's. I have a well built secure chicken house that my flock sleeps in but no runs. We live in the Piney Woods of East Texas and my chickens just run loose. When I add new babies I wait till a hen goes broody and then I put babies under her and she raises them. It works well and as the babies grow the adults teach them how to forage and avoid predators.
So since the babies needed Starter Grower and I have no way to separate their feed everyone is getting Starter Grower. Since they started eating the new feed my hens are laying about double what they had been laying.

My question is will it hurt them to keep getting the Starter Grower all the time instead of switching back to laying feed?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My flock is getting older and not laying well anymore so I decided it was time to add some new chick's. I have a well built secure chicken house that my flock sleeps in but no runs. We live in the Piney Woods of East Texas and my chickens just run loose. When I add new babies I wait till a hen goes broody and then I put babies under her and she raises them. It works well and as the babies grow the adults teach them how to forage and avoid predators.
So since the babies needed Starter Grower and I have no way to separate their feed everyone is getting Starter Grower. Since they started eating the new feed my hens are laying about double what they had been laying.

My question is will it hurt them to keep getting the Starter Grower all the time instead of switching back to laying feed?

I never ever use layer... just make sure you provide oyster shell on the side for those that are laying.

I use Purina flock raiser... which has 20% protein and a lower calcium content. It works well for my mix age, gender, and breed flock.

Dual purpose breeds in fact will do better with at least 18% protein. Most "layer" is about 16% protein which is the MINIMUM to sustain light bodied birds like leghorn. And 22% protein was shown to give better hatch rates... which to me says better nutrition in the eggs my family is eating.

Note... starter, grower, broiler, layer, flock raise, all flock... ALL confusing terms that mean not much... the MAIN difference in ANY of them will be the protein & calcium content.

It's great that your hens are laying double! It may be the increased nutrition (I'm SURE it has an effect), but possibly influenced by being at the height of daylight hours for the year.

 

[snow5164]

A chicken breeder feeds her whole flock grower , calcium /egg shells on the side and they’re good !!

I think we make a lot of fuss for no reason , protein and calcium are what needs to be watched

 

[igorsMistress]

My hens are about a year and a half old. They eat starter/grower still and I keep oyster shell and egg shells available at all times. Everyone is fine, nice strong egg shells too.

 

[0die]

think I'm dropping the "layer" feed too...or mix 50/50 with grower feed plus oyster on the side?

 

[BettyR]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I'll start keeping egg shells and throwing those in with the table scraps that they get.