Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[Scooby]

I have been keeping my two Fenton Blue hens (now 18 weeks old) in a separated part of the run for nearly five weeks now.

 

They have been free-ranging with the other girls and for the past week or so sleeping in the cube with them.

 

I would like to go for it and remove the partition in the run but they are still on growers pellets and I'm wondering if it's fine for them to move onto layers pellets/mash yet?

 

Obviously if they went in with the other girls this is what they'd end up eating.

 

Anyone have experience of this?

 

Thanks

[abwsco]

At 18 weeks they'll be fine on layers. The other thing to do is you've still got growers to finish off is put them all on that.

[eggypeggy]

I'm no expert, but the advice I've been given is that, It's better for the youngsters to be on Growers until they start to lay, this helps to bulk them up and there is no problem putting laying chooks on Growers.. you just might not get as many eggs.

 

The saying goes. Putting pullets on layers to the detriment of the bird and putting Laying birds on Growers to the detriment of the egg. I hope that makes sense.

 

However having said that.. I'm sure someone else on the forum said the other day that 18 weeks plus is fine for chooks to go on Layers. And when we got our pepperpots from omlet, they came with a sack of layers, so that's what we fed them.

 

What I'm doing with my new birds is feeding Growers until they lay, all my chooks are on Growers. I have 4 chooks, 1 of my two oldies is moulting, so the growers is particularly good for her. I'm still getting eggs off my other oldie chook though.

 

Good luck with intros. My new chooks are about 19 weeks and they free range all day with oldies, which is going very well. The last two nights they have been sleeping with the oldies at night .. that's going well too, but I only have a standard run, so I haven't left them all together in there yet.. don't think that would go to well yet..

[Scooby]

Excellent - thank you.

 

I will put them all on growers pellets then as got nearly half a sack to get through - plus there is no issue on the egg scenario atm as they are all on Baytril for treatment of a respiratory illness - it's been killing me throwing all their eggs away!

[MedusA]

I tend to mix them half and half layers and growers until I've used all the growers up. It gets the youngsters used to the taste of the layers and makes the older girls think they are getting a treat! It's a win-win situation!

 

Good luck with the final stage of the integration.

[Egluntyne]

I'd go for it if they have been free ranging together and you have the egg issue to contend with too.

 

I must get round to merging my Fenton Blues with the big girls.

[Scooby]

I must get round to merging my Fenton Blues with the big girls.

 

Your girls'll be the same age as mine won't they?

[Egluntyne]

I got them in early August, and they were around 8 weeks, so yes.

 

Quidditch seems to be a bit younger and is smalle, so I'm waiting for her to catch up as I don't see the point of upsetting them twice.

[Scooby]

same here - Trinny is turning out to be quite a good sized bird but Suzannah is just a teeny still

[Milly]

I tend to mix them half and half layers and growers until I've used all the growers up. It gets the youngsters used to the taste of the layers and makes the older girls think they are getting a treat!

 

That's just what I was going to suggest. When we got our new girls we were told to wait until they were about 20 weeks or until the growers pellets they came with were finished. The two coincided pretty neatly. If you wait until they start laying you might have a long wait!

 

Milly