18% protien along with up to 4% calcuim would be far to much to feed to say a bantam in a moult and not laying. The calcium would over load her liver and kidneys and eventually kill her.
As it would a larger bird, i don't understand the argument there.
I would like to think no one is feeding a layers ration to non laying and/or moulting birds.
That is poor husbandry, not a problem with the ration.
The differing breed sizes make no difference, a chicken is a chicken is a chicken.
whether it is a bantam or a large fowl, the only difference between the breeds is the quantity required.
Yes a large bird will obviously eat more than a bantam but any chicken still gets 18% protein from a layers ration whether it eats 1oz, 1lb or 1 ton of feed.
Whatever amount is consumed the bird receives the balanced diet.
its all about percentage, the quantity is irrelevant.
There are no longer hormones, growth promoters etc added to poultry feed, that was all stopped a long time ago, feed companies of today don't put stuff in and don't tell you about it.
and as for giving birds a "Natural" diet, there is nothing unnatural in formulated poultry feed..
In fact here is the list of ingredients in my layers food.
Composition: Wheat, Dehulled Soya Bean Meal (sourced from traceable non-GM material), Limestone Flour, Extracted Sunflower Meal, Distiller's Wheat Grains, Maize, Lucerne Meal, Full Fat Linseed, Dicalcium Phosphate, Rape Oil, Salt, Mannan Oligosaccharides, Seaweed, Nettle, Marigold Flowers, Clivers, Blackcurrant, Kale, Spinach, Beetroot, Rosemary, Rosehip, Pomegranate, Carrot, Tomato
There are no E numbers, strange compounds or chemicals in there.
There are admittedly a couple of them not instantly recognisable..
Dicalcium Phosphate = Calcium
Mannan Oligosaccharides although sounding pretty horrendous is just a sugar...
Now if i said I were feeding all these ingredients individually to my chickens I suspect everyone would be singing my praises about providing such a varied and nutritious diet to my birds.
so why the negativity about feeding them mixed together as a pellet??
p.s. Castle Farm
Do you know exactly whats in your grain? do you grow your own feed? or are you using the same wheat etc as is being used by the feed mills which has been subjected to the same pesticides etc?
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I'm adding this part in at a later date as it came up in another thread and I forgot about it on this one!.
Calcium and phosphorous levels in the diet are pretty critical in laying birds, formulated feeds can control these very closely whereas they cannot be regulated by the birds themselves when free ranging and using oyster shell etc.
Over feeding calcium and phosphorus or feeding them in unbalanced amounts can do just as much harm to the bird as underfeeding and can in serious cases cause shell, bone and kidney problems.