4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[midgie]

Chook food query:

 

We have 5 hens already; 3 laying, 2 will be ready soon, all over 20 weeks old - they eat 'layers' food.

 

Just collected 2 new girls, both around 15 weeks old. What do I feed them? And if they need different food from the others, how has anyone else managed to make this work?!

 

All my hens are free-ranging, so it's not easy to keep them separate from each other

[The Dogmother]

Generally all new hens need to be quarantined and have seperate housing while you are introducing them - that would make it easy.

 

As you seem to be planning to pop them in with the existing flock, then they will have to eat layers with them; it's not recommended, but it sounds like your arrangements don't leave you with any alternative.

 

Details on introducing new stock here

[Egluntyne]

They should be on growers pellets till around 18 weeks.

 

Personally I wouldn't put them on layers pellets much before this as the extra calcium in layers pellets can have a detrimental effect on them.

 

Claret has taken the words out of my mouth re introductions.

[Redwing]

I agree with the others re intros, 15 weeks is very young and they are quite little breeds so will not be massive at their age so will be prone to bullying on two counts

 

If you have no choice but to put them in together feed them all growers

[midgie]

Thanks for those replies.

 

The intro has been as gentle as we've been able to make it - but not ideal, I know

 

The original flock has only been together a few weeks, and they're all pretty laid back - there's been very little in the way of bullying when the new girls joined. The wee ones are finding their own space in the garden, keeping to themselves so far. The older ones are curious but haven't been particularly aggressive with them - mostly it's just been a bit of 'getting in their space' now and then until the little ones take a step back.

 

I have been feeding the new girls Growers, and manually keeping the older ones out of it, but was worried about how I'd manage to keep it up over the next few weeks, as I'm not going to be around so much during the day.

 

Good to know that the older ones can have some Growers for a while if need be.

 

Thanks again

[The Dogmother]

They can have growers, but they might just stop laying - it doesn't contain all the nutrients needed to form eggs.

[Jools]

Just double check the growers to make sure it isn't medicated if you're planning on giving it to your layers, otherwise you won't be able to eat their eggs.

 

Who said chickens were easy lol!

[The Dogmother]

Should be OK, you don't often see medicated growers around, it's usually just the chick crumbs which are medicated - they need to get the medication in the first 6 weeks.

[Jools]

Medicated growers pellets are readily available and you may not know that your's are unless you ask. I couldn't get Smallholder growers this year as my supplier didn't have any, and the only ones I could buy were medicated. It's fine if you're only feeding them to growers and you move them onto layers a month before they're due to start laying, but they're not suitable for laying hens, or table birds.

 

Cocci can hit young birds after six weeks, so it's certainly not a bad idea to keep them on medicated food, particularly reading about the problems some people have had with their youngsters.