Organic feed for chicks

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It has been 20 years since I had anything to do with chickens. Back then I got six chicks for free. I fed them wheat and whatever they can find on their own. Predators got three and I ate the other three.

In the next few days I'll have 75 chicks arrive from McMurray hatchery.

The local farm supplies all have medicated chick feed. I would like to be strictly organic. Somehow I think that feeding them just wheat and whatever they can forage for themselves is probably not a good idea. Should the wheat be cracked? Should I provide other grains? We have a lot of grasshoppers here which I'm hoping will be the primary food for the chicks as they get old enough to catch them.

What is so magic about chick feed? What's in it?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 10, 2001

Answers

Hi Paul! I think it is great that you are going organic. Some feeds have added calcium needed for quick growers. (One breed gets so big so fast their legs can not keep up and they can not walk) Chick feed and layers mash also have added protein to help them grow, the only problem is that some companies still use ground up animals for that protein. While it is not used in cattle feed, it can still be used in rabbit and chicken feed. I guess that is only a problem if any disease hits the U.S. and downs animals used to make feed. I know you can get organic feed if you check around (my sister can get it). Both of the towns by us have animal proteins in the feed, so I use cracked corn. My chickens have eaten wheat (not cracked) and they loved it. And they will take all the corn off a cob themselves. However, I think they can get more out of the feed if it is "cracked". I let ours forage and give them the cracked corn for the summer. (Lots of bugs) In feeding natural items you may not get the production that chicken houses get, but your birds might last longer. :) I have heard they like comfrey and other plants. Ours will eat lots of different items. (even apples) If chickens had to have one type of diet, I figured they wouldn't have made it with the settlers so well. Hope this helps. ~ Brenda

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), June 10, 2001.

We can buy our feed medicated or non medicated here. We can also go to the co-op and have it mixed or bagged for us.

We order milo, wheat, cracked, whole, or rolled corn (ours prefer the rolled corn) oats, and hey will either mix it, or you can buy it in equal parts. We can get laying crumbles medicated or non-medicated at the Farm Supply Store like Orschelns or Atwoods.

Right now, we have the scratch grains, such as corn, oats, milo, but the chickens aren't eating it much, as we let them out every morning and they eat grass, bugs, weeds, weed seeds and we put them up at nite. In winter there won't be so many bugs for them and if you're mixing your own grains, you'll need something for their protein. We also buy something for our 'organic' chicks, we don't feed them medicated either, we feed them something called 'wild game feed'. It's a ground up mix of grains, and we feed it to our guineas, too. My friend also feeds her cats and chickens the leftover grease from cooking, including meat, and bones from meals, including chicken bones and leftover meat for her protein supplementing. You can buy oyster shell, or crush up their eggs for calcium, or give them milk, they love milk....

-- Louise Whitley (whitley@terraworld.net), June 10, 2001.


OOPS! A few more things. When they are tiny they will definately need things ground up. On my last batch I ground up wheat, etc. and still ground up a bit of the regular mash for them. :) They even ate a few wild bird seeds. They reccommend giving vitamins to help them over the shock of shipping, or to get them off on a good start nutritionally. All the mentioned items were in some small child vitamins I had so I ground those up(One vitamin for all the birds in their water). Do not know if it helped, but the birds were fine. ~~Hope you have fun with your birds~~ Brenda

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), June 10, 2001.

Most chick starters/growers have antibiotics in it to help keep the chicks from contracting various infections like respiratory infections, digestive tract, etc. It's up to you if you want to feed them starter/grower. Also, most of it has a pretty high protien content. I am not sure if anyone makes an unmedicated chick starter.

I don't know what to tell you other than give you an example of what I did a few times with day-old chicks. I had also ordered from Murray McMurray, and when the chicks got here I fed them starter for about a week. Then, I had a financial loss and didn't have even the few dollars to buy the medicated starter, so I took plain old hen scratch that contained milo, corn, and I believe either oats or wheat, can't remember which, and ground it up fine, like cornmeal, in my grain mill, and fed them that for a few weeks until I could buy more starter. The chicks did well on it, as far as I could detect they did as well as on the medicated starter.

One thing I did do was to buy some of that 'Quick Chick' powder that you mix with their water. I am a great believer in that stuff now, as since I have been using it I don't lose any more chicks--not one-- to shipping stress AND, best of all, NO PASTED VENTS!!! The Quick Chick has all kinds of beneficial bacteria in it as well as electrolytes, sugar, and other things to give the chicks energy and nutrition. A small package will last a long time so unless you have hundreds of chicks, a small package will go a long way.

If you don't want to use medicated chick starter/grower, you should be sure the environment your chicks are going into is clean and dry and that no other diseased poultry have been in or near that area for several years. I opt to feed medicated starter (for my Cornish Rocks I only feed medicated starter for about two weeks and then finish them on high protien non-medicated feed) and also vaccinate because I have kept poultry for many years, and also the mosquito population in this area is so high. It is also a very humid, high rainfall area and I would rather have them vaccinated than not to. After all, vaccination is different than medicating as it stimulates an immune response rather than having a chemotherapeutic action like medications do.

I don't know if this answered your question or not--I hope so.

-- HannahMariaHolly (hannahholly@hotmail.com), June 10, 2001.


Hi Paul, according to Carla Emory, chicks can get by on just about anything as long as it is ground up so they can eat it, their beaks are very little!!! I just use the non-medicated starter feed for 8 weeks (co-op can order it in for you), then go to a pullet grower formula that is cheaper than the starter till they start laying. I feed plenty of fresh hand cut greens every day also, about a 5 gallon bucket full for 25 pullets, mostly clover and meadow grasses from the hay fields. Most importantly, all chickens and peeps get one ounce of cider vinegar added to a gallon of water as their sole drinking water, for their entire lives. Have never had a worm problem or any diseases, ever!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), June 11, 2001.


Paul,

If I remember correctly, you are in Eastern WA and there is a source of organic feed on your side of the mountains.

I just fed my pullets chick scratch and plain poultry feed from day 1 (with some grit sprinkled on top.

Good luck, Amy

-- Amy Richards (amysgarden2@earthlink.net), June 12, 2001.


We are offering the chicks about a half dozen items. Most of which is organic food for humans. We are also offering stuff from our pastures. And last night we offered a whole bunch of meal worms: by far the favorite. Crickets went over well too. This morning we offered worms, again a big winner.

I'm convinced that chickens would make bugs be all of their diet if they could get enough of them.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 12, 2001.


My meat kings chicks came yesterday and I was ready with organic starter ration and some electrolyte stuff Terri gave me. The starter ration is ground quite fine so to combat dust and waste I have been feeding it moistened with water to a crumbly dough consistency. No wasyte or dust and they have been gobbling it up. I will do the same for the turkeys that I get Friday. The organic feed I get has various grains as well as soybeans and flax. Kinda smells peanutty!

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), June 13, 2001.

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