Medicated chick feed?

[Farmfresh]

Kind of like Bee's practice of helping out as little as possible to let only the strong survive. It is a valid idea!

I also like to help things out, when I can, with a spike of diversity. For example, if you just purchase chicks from hatcheries in different parts of the country that alone could add a lot of genetic diversity to a home flock. When I was raising show bantams I was always on the look out for good blood from afar.

 

[Denim Deb]

Well, I went into TSC to buy some flock raiser. They had Purina, and Dumor. I picked up a bag of the Purina, then looked at the price. It was $2.00 MORE than their layer feed! Then I looked at the price of the Dumor. It was about the same price as the Purina layer, so I got the Dumor. Tomorrow, I'll mix it in w/what's left of the chick starter, then once the feeder is empty again, they'll get just the raiser.

 

[lwheelr]

I don't much like Purina feeds anyway. Their scratch mix is heat treated, to stop germination - which means that the seeds are much less nutritious than they should be. And the chickens will only eat about half of the grains in it, so it is pretty much a waste of money.

Their other feeds tend to have more unnatural additives than some of the less expensive brands out here.

Heat treating is common with scratch grains, so they won't cause "weeds", though having them sprout in the chicken yard would prove an asset if raw grains were tossed out for them, since the chickens would eat the sprouts too. I don't think I'd like it if the thistle seed sprouted, so I don't mind that they heat treat that, and I'll find an alternative that I can grow myself as soon as we are on land.

 

[Beekissed]

Do you have a real feed store close by....not TSC...? If so, you don't have to rely on formulated feeds and their high prices that come with the brand names.

It's more of a pain to mix your own but at least you can go a little cheaper in the winter months and get grains that they love. You can also buy enough to lessen trips to the feed store, as whole grains store better than the formulated feeds.

Wheat is very cheap and my chickens love it, so I make the bulk of my mix out of wheat. Oats come next as they are the next in line for expense, but still nutritious. Cracked corn is the cheapest but, for some reason, my gals don't like the cracked corn anymore...wondering if it is now GMO...so I don't use much of it. BOSS is the most expensive for me, so I use less in the mix ratio, but still more than of the cracked corn.

 

[Farmfresh]

I feed Dumor and find it pretty decent feed for a commercial mix.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Then I looked at the price of the Dumor. It was about the same price as the Purina layer, so I got the Dumor. Tomorrow, I'll mix it in w/what's left of the chick starter, then once the feeder is empty again, they'll get just the raiser.

if for any reason i run out of organic feed before my next shipment comes in, Dumor is what i buy for chicks. it's the ONLY chick feed i can get locally that is unmedicated (at least that i've found so far).

i don't buy Purina ever- all their chick feed sold locally is medicated and it's way more expensive than what i can get at the Co-Op for my grown birds if i have to. i typically feed a 19% grower organic feed (soy free) since i have a mixed flock. i just provide oyster shell for the girls.

 

[Denim Deb]

Do you have a real feed store close by....not TSC...? If so, you don't have to rely on formulated feeds and their high prices that come with the brand names.

It's more of a pain to mix your own but at least you can go a little cheaper in the winter months and get grains that they love. You can also buy enough to lessen trips to the feed store, as whole grains store better than the formulated feeds.

Wheat is very cheap and my chickens love it, so I make the bulk of my mix out of wheat. Oats come next as they are the next in line for expense, but still nutritious. Cracked corn is the cheapest but, for some reason, my gals don't like the cracked corn anymore...wondering if it is now GMO...so I don't use much of it. BOSS is the most expensive for me, so I use less in the mix ratio, but still more than of the cracked corn.

The feed store in the area closes at 4:00 pm, and it was way later than that when I was able to get to the store. I don't know what all they have-besides the regular feeds. I know they mix their own horse feed, but it's a sweet feed, and I don't really like to feed sweet feed. Plus right now, I don't have the time to even think about mixing my own. :/

 

[BarredBuff]

I feed flock raiser, only for right now. I'd like to switch them this spring and summer to just corn and BOSS. But only when they run outside. They hardly touch the feed in the summer.

 

[Farmfresh]

This time of the year (if you can get it) a bale of good leafy alfalfa is great to have on hand. I like to keep a fresh flake in the hen pen all winter. It is AMAZING how much hay my hens will eat... AND it gives them something to do in the boring old winter!

 

[~gd]

Medicated chicken feed was developed for mass production facilities. The close quarters and large numbers give rise to rare problems becoming common ones. So they then compensate with something else unnatural that in turn, produces another serious side effect which then has to be compensated for. Mass produced chicks, bred for type but not for hardiness also have low adaptibility and poor disease resistence as a rule anyway.

So commercial chick feeds are created for that kind of environment and mentality. Yeah, I suppose I have a bad attitude about it, but with good reason.

We fed our ducks meatbird feed for a while, which is unmedicated (it is higher in protein than layer feed, best for chickens preparing for the freezer). I won't feed my animals anything that has medications in it because it tends to weaken their immune systems and cause a range of other problems which explains a lot about why chicken raising books make it sound so complicated, and why they think that disease is lurking prevalently just waiting to strike your flock.

If your chickens are well cared for, and given a variety of greens and grains in addition to feed, they simply do not need medicated feed. Research has shown that backyard flocks have far less disease incident per chicken than production facility raised poultry.

There is just so much untrue here that I have to post. Meat factory chickens are never given medicated feed! Biosecurity is the method used. These birds never see the outdoors until they are on the truck to go to be butchered. They are raised for short lives 9-12 weeks and are bred to grow fast during that short period and hardly have any immune system at all. These breeds are not available for backyard or small chicken farms and the exact breed plan going back to their grand parents are closely held Corporate secrets. Hatcheries that claim to sell these birds lie! If illness should appear in one of these grow houses. Dead birds make it very apparent and either the contents of the house are destroyed or saved by medications given in the water. No trace of these medications is allowed to be found when the birds are butchered. In any case the grow house is completly cleaned and sterilized between each batch of chickens. biosecurity is much cheaper than medications!
The truth is that medicated feed was produced only for backyard flocks and small farm operations. It is only available in bags, The chicks sold for these operations are bred for disease resistance also. For these outdoor birds are exposed to wild birds which carry and spread diseases. once you have a disease in the soil it is almost impossible to get rid of it. If you haven't had an outbreak of disease in your outdoor birds you have been very lucky. The research you cite was for outdoor poultry farms vs backyard flocks. Commercial house grown birds are not available for this type of research.
Sorry to be disagreeable but the truth needed to be posted.