Feeding a mixed age flock

Hello All: We're mixing our 16 week old birds with our "big girls" this weekend. Can I feed a mix of grower and layer feed  to the flock these 4 weeks? I understand neither will hurt either group of birds?

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  • You might also consider using crushed oyster shell to supplement calcium to the layers.

    • thank you! unusually, our girls are "so over" the crusted oyster shell. Even though the big girls aren't laying as often, they have no interest in the oyster shell. Its very odd, but they got a good bill of health so I can't complain!

    • If I just give our birds oyster shells, they turn their bills up at it. But I guess I'm mixing the veggies with the desert, but here's what I do:\

      We save the egg shells from the eggs we use, bake them and blend them in the food processor until their pretty little pieces. I then mix them with the oyster shells, about 50/50.

      During the day our birds free range in the pasture, so their primary food source is grass and bugs. In the morning, before I let them out of the coop, I scatter a bunch of food and a handful of the shells out on the ground, and they eat that before going foraging. They pick up most of the shells along with the food.

      If your eggs have good hard shells, you probably don't need to worry about it, though, unless they eat the grower food with the young'uns.

    • Yes, I was assuming that she wasn't wanting to feed the older and younger girls separately, and if that's the case, like you said, she has to feed the higher protein grower/chick starter. The grower is lower in calcium so that will need to be supplemented. I find that if I leave it out free choice, I find that my hens eat it when they need it.

  • You need to feed them all the grower/chick starter until the younger ones start laying, then you can switch to layer feed.

  • You should stick with catering to the group with the highest protein needs.  The rest will do fine on the higher protein, but the growing birds will not do fine on the lower protein feed. 

    • thanks Bethany! I still have a half a bag of grower so I may save it to feed little ones while they range. They enjoy finding little treats.

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