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[WitchHazel]

Hello, mea gain

 

Our Dinner Chickens are being fed growers pellets. We probably won't cull some of the birds until they are22-24-26? weeks old. Is it OK to confinue feeding Growers for all this time?

 

I'm wondering whether I should switch to miced corn or something, or change their feed so that they have less growers and something else instead.

 

What do you do please? Or do you cull fairly early so it doesn't really become an issue for you?

[Charlottechicken]

I have Dodson and Horrell growers and it says in the blurb you can use it to fatten up, and I intend to

[Lewis]

I know some people feed corn before culling as it makes the skin yellow.

 

Not having any, but personally I'd carry on with the growers, and add mixed corn in aswell - should fatten them up a bit too

[WitchHazel]

I'm not sure they need much help in fattening up, they are quite big already!

 

Those of you that have Dinner Chickens, how much do you feed per chicken per day? I;m wondering if we're feeding them too much.

 

They are 12 or 13 weeks old. (We got them on 17 April, and I can't remember if they were 6 or 8 weeks old when we got them)

 

We give them pellets in the morning. They then free range all day, in a very large enclosure ut the grazing isn't very rich; they do run around a bit and do some rooking, but they also sit down a lot. We then give them more pellets in the evening, just before we shut them up at night. At the moment they are not getting any mixed corn. We put in vegetables if we have some spare.

 

In total we are feeding them between 3.5kg and 4.kg of pellets a day and there are 24 of them, which works out at an average of 145g-166g of pellets per chicken per day. I'm sure they'd consume twice that much if we let them.

 

 

Does that sound OK?

[Redwing]

I feed my birds on growers pellets with handfuls of barley and wheat mixed in

 

I was also adding corn but the first bird has quite a bit of fat on him so I have cut that out for the rest

 

Apparently the barley makes the meat moist and it was certainly lovely and yummy

 

You can get a type of feed called Finishers pellets which makes the gutting less smelly apparently

 

If the growers feed is medicated (often says 'with ACS' on the pack) some people recommend that you switch from those to unmedicated or Finishers pellets in the ten days prior to culling

 

I feed my birds as much as they will eat, they always have plenty of food available but I don't think the amounts you are specifying seem too much personally especially since a skinny laying bird can eat 120g a day but then I am a mere amateur!

[Lesley]

We feed half and half Growers and Mixed Corn - ad lib. They have a lovely yellow colour and are nice and moist. We grow some of ours for anyhting up to 9 months - and they still roast well.

[The Dogmother]

We feed half and half Growers and Mixed Corn - ad lib. They have a lovely yellow colour and are nice and moist. We grow some of ours for anyhting up to 9 months - and they still roast well.

 

I can vouch for that - they are delicious and very moist.

[Griffin]

Can I butt in with a kind of related question? I have three meat boys, one is 15 weeks and the other two 12 weeks. They free range with the rest of my chooks and have done for over a week now. There are three feeders dotted around the garden. I had been filling up the one previously used by the youngest ones with growers pellets and putting the usual layers pellets in the other two for the big girls. Now it's a free for all and everyone is eating out of all of the feeders. For the past two days I've been mixing layers & growers pellets together. What difference would it make to the big girls if I just filled up with growers pellets & mixed corn and stopped feeding layers pellets for a few weeks? Or should I just carry on with the growers/layers cocktail for a few more weeks? I can't keep the boys separate, there is no room to do that at the moment with my spare runs being used by a broody and the forthcoming ex-batts.

[Lewis]

Can I butt in with a kind of related question? I have three meat boys, one is 15 weeks and the other two 12 weeks. They free range with the rest of my chooks and have done for over a week now. There are three feeders dotted around the garden. I had been filling up the one previously used by the youngest ones with growers pellets and putting the usual layers pellets in the other two for the big girls. Now it's a free for all and everyone is eating out of all of the feeders. For the past two days I've been mixing layers & growers pellets together. What difference would it make to the big girls if I just filled up with growers pellets & mixed corn and stopped feeding layers pellets for a few weeks? Or should I just carry on with the growers/layers cocktail for a few more weeks? I can't keep the boys separate, there is no room to do that at the moment with my spare runs being used by a broody and the forthcoming ex-batts.

Have a look at the bags, I think layers pellets have ≈ 16% protein, Chick crumbs ≈ 17.5% but not sure about growers, I suspect a bit lower than chick crumbs.

Personally I think you'd be best to carry on with the layers as it has everything the hens need to lay, and it wont harm the growers.

[Lesley]

We have used Layers when we've mixed table birds and layers.

[TAJ]

Growers has more protein than layers - advice on the Smallholders range is if 'finnishers' is not available use layers pellets. Mine had growers until it wasn't worth getting another full sack and spent the last few weeks on 50/50 mixed corn/layers and that worked well.

 

Tracy