The Poultry Keeper

Aussie Chick · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 11:17 pm Post subject: Growers/Layers Pellets!

At the moment the chookies are on Grower Pellets and as they are 16 weeks, I thought I should switch them to Layers so I went to our local farm shop and the guy there said the only difference between Growers and Layers is about 2% protein ( higher in layers), so he said not to rush as I still have half a bag of growers and I can mix it with layers if I prefer.

Did anyone else know this?

Lisa · Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:06 am Post subject:

I did mix mine together to swap them over from one to the other, as was recommended to me when I got my first chickens, but I only had a little bag of growers that came with them so it only took a few weeks.

What I did find was my cheeky lot picked through the pellets trying to find all the growers pellets in preference to the layers - spilling loads of layers on the floor Rolling Eyes

Interesting you say there is a 2% difference in protein between the two. I just had a peek at the smallholder range on the web and the protein levels of growers and layers appear to be the same at 16% - so maybe it varies between manufacturers too?

Its not just about protein though - what about other nutrients? Maybe the layers have more calcium in them to help build up calcium reserves for all those egg shells to come? Without seeing the full ingredient list, its difficult to know.

Personally I would think a few weeks either way would be fine, but I'd think twice if it became several months... I guess it depends how big your bag is!

Aussie Chick · Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:53 am Post subject:

Apparently everything else is the same! I'm yet to read the ingredients in both bags. I will do later today.

I'm hoping I'll get through my layers in a few weeks, but with them free ranging they don't eat much when they're in the house.

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

Hi AC, when I got my first lot of girls, they were 10 weeks old and on growers. The lady I got them from said to keep them on growers until the first one laid an egg and then change to layers. BUT I was to throw away the first 5 days of eggs, because she said there was something in the growers that could give us humans an upset tummy.
I don't know any different from what she told me, and I have no reason not to believe her ~ it didn't matter to her what I did. So now I would always start to change them over at 16 weeks so that by 17 weeks they would be on full layers.
Just my thoughts and nothing to back it up, but it's what I would do.