[dizzylizzie]

hi everyone, as you know my love of hens has lead to my flock expanding somewhat!
I was feeding my ex-batts the smallholder ex-batt food , and they are doing great on it, i have given the 3 newer hens this food also as 1 is already laying and the other 2 are point of lay. i know they are not ex-batts, but they dont seem to have any ill affect sfrom it.
my question really is about my younger ones....they should be on growers, but as they are now with the big girls, is really hard to keep the feed seperate. Would it be ok to let the youngsters have layers, even tho in an ideal world they should have growers?. the youngsters are ignoring their food by the way, but are scoffing the layers..., the other question is im sure one of the little ones is a cokeral....as males dont lay do they have layers?...i know you are probably laughing at that question...but it kind of makes sense, if its for layers, that it would have things to keep the ladies healthy.....

[poultrygeist]

Hi Lizzie.

How old are the youngsters ? I think normally they should be on growers until they're about 16 weeks or so. But I think they're ok from about 12 weeks on.

I've seen the cockerel question before so you're not the first, don't worry 
If I remember rightly, they can do just fine on layers pellets. You'd struggle to give them all somethine different.

Rob

[dizzylizzie]

Hi Rob, thanks for your quick reply. As i compleatly fluffed up buying these two birds im not sure. we got them from a woman who said she was just a back garden chicken keeper (rubbish)...we bought a cuckoo maren and a buff. the maren , im sure is a cockerel, the buff has had gape worn, so every one has had treatment!...she would have know about both birds, i think he lied about how old they were because of the maren having a comb!...anyway we are not sure how old they are , the buff is just starting to bok occasionaly, the maren is cheeping still, so to be honest i dont know how old they are , but cant see how im going to be able to get them to eat the growers because thy are making a bee-line for the layers!. Should i maybe keep them in in the morning till they have had some growers? thanks for your help

[poultrygeist]

They're a right old mix. I don't know if it's just protein content that differs in the growers or added vits, etc.
Is there any way of getting the cheepy one on some growers, even if it's just a bit early on as you suggest ?
We had ours at POL so didn't have that issue.

Sarah will probably know when she's around.

Rob

[dizzylizzie]

They're a right old mix. I don't know if it's just protein content that differs in the growers or added vits, etc.
Is there any way of getting the cheepy one on some growers, even if it's just a bit early on as you suggest ?
We had ours at POL so didn't have that issue.

Sarah will probably know when she's around.

Rob

lol...Sarah knows all things feathered thats for sure, i have spoken to her briefly about the age difference, but not about the cockerel thing....she thinks im mad as it is

seriously tho, she is visiting family today, and im going to buy more food in 15mins, so thought i would check before i spend more money . thanks anyway

[poultrygeist]

Wish i was better able to advise Lizzie. Maybe your supplier could offer some help ?

I expect Sarah will pop on and offer an opinion when she's back. You'll have to tell her off for not being around when she's needed 

Rob

[karlooben]

i first gave my babies the right food but as soon as they were out with the big girls the baby food went out the window  and they have all done really well on it even the cockerals i had .

[woodside farm]

I can't remember what extra growers pellets have, but all it does is make them grow slightly quicker  when I mix my young chickens, somethimes as young as 12 weeks they go onto layers pellets, and yes cockerels do eat layers pellets it does them no harm 

Michelle xx

[hillfooter]

As others have said I wouldn't worry about trying to feed growers in your circumstances.  I too have fed layers fron 12 weeks with no apparent ill effects in fact one of these is now 10 years old and still going strong. In any case the batts feed will have extra protein so I don't think that's an issue.  More likely it's the extra calcium in the layers which might not be so good for the growers in theory but I doubt it will be a problem.

However I'd be more concerned about mixing free range "back garden" reared chickens with ex batts.  The batts will have been vaccinated against several diseases whereas the two new ones will probably not have been vaccinated at all.  Chickens vaccinated with live vaccines can be carriers so there's a danger of cross infection with the ex batts possibly being exposed to diseases they have no immunity to and the back gardeners being exposed to potential carriers of latent diseases.  Probably there are others on this chat site more knowlegible than I who can give a more authoritive opinion on this aspect.
Regards

[GrannieAnnie]

Our cockerels get whatever is going spare at the time!  If I'm walking down the garden dishing out layers pellets, they get that, If I've got a bag of growers in the barrow they get that!  They don't are what it is and they are all healthy, even if they are all moulting at the moment!!   

[dizzylizzie]

hi, thanks again to everyone for your replies. it was actually the extra calcium in the layers feed that i was worried about with the babies...but i was also worried about giving a boy food that was obviously for ladies
Hillfooter, thanks for the advice about the vacinated birds. i was aware of this, and took advice before introducing new birds to the flock. the information i was given was the live vacines will have been sprayed onto the feathers, there for there is a risk of passing over illness to unvacinated birds.i was worried that if this really was the case i was only ever going to be able to increase my flock with ex-batts, and i know that lots of people have increased the flock sizes and the only worry they have had is if they have enough purple spray as things can get nasty(i also know you have to give them time, lots of feeders,etc....and in a few weeks all will be ok) anyway, after speaking to people in the 'know' and getting lots of advice, we went for it as the risk was so low. im glad we did, as we now have a lovely flock, with some beautiful girls (and boys). one of things that helped make up my mind was the rescue people would have to give serious warings about mixing ex-batts with others to protect your exsisting/ flocks, and they dont. touch wood, mine are all doing well. we have been on a massive learning curve, andi wouldnt change them for the world

[dizzylizzie]

Wish i was better able to advise Lizzie. Maybe your supplier could offer some help ?

I expect Sarah will pop on and offer an opinion when she's back. You'll have to tell her off for not being around when she's needed 

Rob

think i will sack her actually.....she was my chief chicken adviser.....but you know you just cant get the staff!

[digga666]

Does anybody here feed their Hens just grain and still get eggs to the same amount.?

If the birds are outside and have access to grass and insects etc etc, do you still need to feed your birds pellets, in otherwords could you just feed grain?

Have  pellets been invented for birds which were going to be kept intensively in sheds instead of being out on grass/pasture, so the pellets replaced what the birds lost through being in sheds, so in otherwords if you reverse this and put them outside again need you only feed your birds grain which would be its natural food?

I just cant understand the idea that we only get eggs if we feed pellets.

[dizzylizzie]

i dont think you just get eggs if you feed them layers ...but layers gives them all the nutrients to help them lay and stay healthy. ive got ex-batts and ive seen the damage done to these girls when they pop out eggs with out getting the proper vitamins...its not good. i will continue to feed my girls layers, knowing they are getting all the vitamins they need

[poultrygeist]

Lizzie's right. They will lay eggs if you feed them mars bars, but they'll soon get ill and die.

If they are free-ranging all day they should, in theory, be able to gather all they need, but the pellets are a guarantee that they will get everything in the right balance. I would always have pellets available so they an turn to them if they need to.
It's a nice thought to dispense with manufactured feeds on ethical grounds but the hens themselves are largely manufactured with these feeds in mind. WIthout the high quality feeds, the modern hybrids would possibly not be able to cope with laying so many eggs in a year.

This article explains a bit better than I can...

http://www.poultry.allotment-garden.org/keeping-chickens/feeding-chickens_1.php

ROb