[AndynJ]

Mainly because I'm as tight as they come.

My chooks cost me about 2p a day to feed but the chicks cost more, we are getting to the point we are going to need to buy chick crump as we have so many chicks producing their food is somewhat time consuming.

Has anyone got any suggestions of what I can feed the chicks ? natural or free would be good

They gat one egg a day between them (there worth 16p)

[FiB]

If you do natural grains for your hens.... Just grind it up a bit (either bash it with a stone or pestle and mortar..) although I bought a little bag of chick crumbs, I've noticed that my broody who they are all 18 in with now, just makes her food smaller for them... And she must know! 2 pt wheat, 1 part barley, 1 part cracked corn..... So I'll just be doing that from now on

[Marches Farmer]

Wheat is around 14% protein, the other grains slightly lower.

[Steph Hen]

I have a hand grinder and mill up whole grains for the first few days. I read this would help reduce the chance of their bottoms getting pasted up. Not that I had much of a problem with that when only using chick crumb. Mostly I feed chick crumb when they're chicks. One batch of cross bred chicks I had I fed only cracked grains as an experiment... They grew slightly more slowly but into decent healthy birds and years on they are still going strong, laying well.

[AndynJ]

Thanks I was just concerned about wheat becoming stuck or binding them up

[shygirl]

traditionally it was a lump of meat allowed to get flyblown and the maggots fed to the chicks.