feeding different age birds

What do you feed your chickens when you have a dozen different age birds all together. I am worried about my laying hens eating too much grower food. I also have oyster shell and they free range. I have two feeders with just layer in them that are too high for all but the much older chicks but they all seem to prefer the grower food. Is there anything that they all could eat. The mamas don't seem to want to entice their chicks to eat chick starter. I have a feeder that only the little ones can get into but they mostly follow the mama's lead and eat what she eats. Everyone seems to be ok but we are not getting many eggs.

vic's chicks wrote:What do you feed your chickens when you have a dozen different age birds all together. I am worried about my laying hens eating too much grower food. I also have oyster shell and they free range. I have two feeders with just layer in them that are too high for all but the much older chicks but they all seem to prefer the grower food. Is there anything that they all could eat. The mamas don't seem to want to entice their chicks to eat chick starter. I have a feeder that only the little ones can get into but they mostly follow the mama's lead and eat what she eats. Everyone seems to be ok but we are not getting many eggs.

I'm not sure what foods you feed, but I feed top shelf and I just spoke with one of the reps who said that the biggest difference between the grower and layer is the addition of alfalfa to one and calcium to the other.  I was looking for the higher protein layer as my chickens did finally just start molting, and he was out, but said he'd spoke to the nutritionist at top shelf the day previous when his higher protein layer didn't arrive and was told as long as you add the oyster shell to the grower, it's fine for hens.

Oh, and he said feeding the grower (plus eggshells) to the hens will make the yolks more yellow because of the alfalfa.

That is good to know. I am feeding top shelf as well. I usually get 18% layer. I am not sure what the grower is,might be 19 or 20. Some of mine are moulting as well ao that might account for less eggs, and six are still looking after chicks.

HI, This is actually a situation that I try to avoid. Both for the different feeding issues and the potential for the younger birds to be picked on. In my experience, this causes grief and is best avoided.

Only caveat I'd add is: don't mix the oyster shell in with the feed, leave it separate and free choice. The hens who need it will eat it, and the young ones, who can be damaged by too much calcium, will leave it alone.  

I don't think there's much difference between starter and grower except for particle size (and sometimes protein), so wouldn't worry about that. If you have a fairly large flock, AND They have lots of room, and things to amuse them, fighting between the different ages shouldn't be that much of a problem.

We go through the same thing every year, integrating the new young ones, with or without mums, into the main flock, and have never come to grief.  Smaller flocks are sometimes trickier, though.  And definitely if they are bored or crowded; competition, bullying and fighting can get out of hand. A lot like people, really.

When will I ever stop feeling so completely ignorant in the truest sense of the word?  We are also in the process of integrating the flocks....Mature birds, teenagers and the 8 week old chicks. What to feed, what not to feed?  We have had them in adjoining pens so they can see each other and have now added the 12 week old pullets to the 8 week old crew (still a bit of a guessing game as to boys and girls there)  One of the very cocky young boys has been firmly put in his place by the "Big Girls" and did he ever need it!  The Boys (as soon as I can tell who is who) will go to the bachelor pen and allowed to grow up over the winter.  The best of the boys will be given their own hens in the spring to start breeding groups and the others will....well you know.  Every day I just feel like I am bumbling through this wonderful world of poultry.... sigh.

Echo, of course you're bumbling! We all bumbled. We all did things and went, ooops, that was a bad idea. Or, hey, that worked out really well. Learning, it's all about learning. You are learning, cut yourself some slack!

I have found that mixing ages is a tense time and if you don't have A LOT of space, you can run into trouble! Sometimes it just isn't going to work and you have to be prepared to take steps to protect the safety of the young who can sometimes take a brutal beating. Sometimes the beatings end soon, other times they don't and you have to watch and step in when needed.

I also found a serious factor to watch for was the difference in bird personalities/temperaments. It has been my experience the better a bird lays, the more high strung and prone to viciousness she can be. Some of those big, dopey, not so great layer birds with the personality of a stoned hippy, they can take a terrible amount of abuse from the high strung, intense layers in the crowd. Your flock mix can often affect how peaceful or war like your hen house is. It might not be possible to keep a variety of different type birds peaceably.

Something else to keep you awake at night...roosters. Not by crowing, although that is a given. Right now I have my mystery white rooster with the blue/black hide. He is huge and I think gorgeous and I would like to get some chicks showing his size, stature and black skin. BUT..he's a complete idiot! He is so brutal and savage with the hens that he is about to have his head knocked off. When you enter your hen house mid-day and most of your hens are inside on the roosts or hanging out in nest boxes when they would normally be outside, note to self, you have a problem with a rooster. This guy is such an in-your-face a##hole, that most of the other chickens will go without food to avoid him. Despite my obvious attachment to his looks, his aggression and terrible bedside manner is a death sentence. An obnoxious rooster can destroy the peace in a hen house, be prepared to let go of boys who have no manners. (sorry, I realize you didn 't ask for any of this)

When my chicks are small they get chick crumbles, and when they are big enough to swallow a pellet without choking, they get lay pellets. That's it. No special feeding for different ages. Once they are past 5 or 6 weeks, lay pellets. It's a tough life. Except meat birds are always raised separately and given a grower diet.

I agree with you about space. We have a ton of space. I am always up at sunup to let them out. I think a lot of bad stuff can happen when 'cooped' up together too long. I also agree with you about layers temperment. I have three EOs that I am concerned about. They are more high strung and I notice them pecking the younger ones a lot. We have 30 layers 2 roosters 2 almost grown cockerels and about 40 chicks of various ages between 2 days and 13 weeks old. We are home almost all the time and have almost never seen any aggression towards the young ones. I find the roos we have had so far become mellow with age. Both of ours are over the one year mark and are much nicer to the girls now.