What to Feed Chickens at Every Age: Starter, Grower, Layer and All the Extras

Feeding questions come up a lot in our shop. Which bag do I need? When do I change over? Can I just give them scratch mix and scraps? My chooks are out all day on the grass, so they can get everything they need, don't they? And, what's the story with chilli flakes?

It's no wonder people are confused. Walk down the feed aisle of any produce or pet store, and you'll find a dozen bags that look much the same, plus a shelf of treats all promising bigger eggs and shinier feathers. So we've put together one guide that covers the lot. What your chooks need at each age, why it matters, and the truth about the extras.

Why chickens need different feeds as they grow

I often describe our business as being a bit like a "chicken nursery", as we are focused on breeding, incubating, hatching and growing healthy, happy hens. We want them to lay well and stay healthy for our customers. This means that we know just how much a chook's needs change between the day she hatches and the day she lays her first egg. Two nutrients do most of the heavy lifting.

• Protein builds muscle, bone and feathers. Chicks need the most because they grow so quickly.
• Calcium builds eggshells. Laying hens need a lot of it.  However, young birds that aren't laying need very little, and too much of it can harm them.

Get those two right at each stage and you've done most of the work. Here's how it looks at a glance.

Chick Starter: day 1 to 6 weeks

Baby chicks grow at an astonishingly fast rate. In just a few weeks, they go from fluffballs to little birds with a full set of feathers, and that takes plenty of protein. Chick starter feeds are generally the richest in protein of the three, usually around 18 to 20%. They also come in a small particle size that tiny beaks can pick up and digest easily.

Our Chick Starter also contains a coccidiostat. Coccidiosis is caused by a tiny parasite that thrives in damp litter, and it kills a surprising number of young chicks. Keeping the brooder dry and clean matters just as much as the feed.

At this age, keep it simple. Starter feed and fresh, clean water are all they need. Treats can wait.

Chick Grower: 6 weeks until she's nearly ready to lay

From about 6 weeks, growth slows down a little bit and the job changes. Now it's about building a strong frame, healthy bones and an efficient working gizzard. Chick Grower has a little less protein than starter and, importantly, stays low in calcium.

It can be tempting to jump straight to layer feed, but please don't! Layer feed carries several times the calcium of a grower feed, and young birds that aren't laying have nowhere to put it. Their kidneys have to deal with the excess. One study published in British Poultry Science found that growing layer-breed pullets fed a high-calcium diet suffered severe kidney damage. The damage doesn't always show straight away, but it can shorten a hen's life.

Layer feed: from 15 to 18 weeks, when she shows the signs

We change our pullets over to Sustainable Layer somewhere between 15 and 18 weeks, once they're showing they're nearly ready to lay. Watch for:

• Her comb and wattles growing and turning a deeper red
• Squatting low when you reach down towards her
• Poking her head into the nest boxes to check them out

Hybrids like our Hy-Line Browns get there sooner. Most purebreds don't start laying until 22 to 26 weeks depending on the season, so they can stay on grower a little longer until those signs appear. Let your hens guide you rather than the calendar. Mix the two feeds together over a week or so to make the change gentle as a change of feed can be quite stressful for chicks and hens.

Once she's laying, a hen is making a whole eggshell almost every day, and nearly all of that shell is calcium. Layer feed is built for exactly that job. Our Sustainable Layer is a 100% vegetarian dry mash of wheat, corn, lucerne, soybean meal and canola oil, with limestone grit already mixed through for calcium. It also contains organic micronutrients, being the trace elements, vitamins and minerals that keep chooks healthy over the long term. The recipe was originally formulated by Dr Hector Karunajeewa back in the 1970s, and a laying hen will eat about 120 to 130 grams of it a day.

The extras: what helps, what's a treat and what's a myth

Here's the rule we live by. A complete feed should make up at least 90% of what your chooks eat. Everything else together, from scraps to scratch to mealworms, should be around 10%. Fill them up on extras and you water down the balanced diet that keeps them laying and healthy.

Scratch mix

Scratch mix is a blend of cracked corn, wheat and other grains, and chooks absolutely love it. Think of it as lollies. Most scratch mixes are only around 7 to 10% protein, well short of the roughly 16 - 18% a laying hen needs. Too much of a scratch mix can mean fewer eggs and a slower recovery from a moult.

You'll often hear that scratch keeps chooks warm overnight in winter. There's a grain of truth in it, as digesting grain does produce a little heat. But what really keeps a hen warm is a dry, insulated, draught-free coop. Use scratch the smart way. Scatter a small handful in your chooks' range area late in the afternoon as an occasional treat. My main concern with any chicken food thrown on the ground is that it can attract rodents and wild birds to any leftovers.

Shell grit

If your hens are eating Sustainable Layer, they're already getting the calcium they need from the limestone grit in the mix. Shell grit in a separate dish is worth adding in a few special cases:

• Your hens eat a lot of scraps, pasture or treats, so they eat less of their layer feed
• You have older hens that are laying large, soft-shelled eggs
• You're seeing thin, soft or cracked shells but have recently dewormed your flock

Put medium to coarse shell grit in a separate container rather than mixing it into their feed, so each hen can take what she needs. Chicks and growing pullets don't need it. If you'd like to recycle your own eggshells, bake them first and crush them finely. Hens that recognise a shell as an egg can start developing the bad habit of eating their own eggs or those of other flock members.

Kitchen scraps

Scraps are a nice treat and a great way to cut food waste, as long as they stay a treat. Leafy greens, silverbeet, cabbage and a slice of frozen watermelon on a hot day all go down well. Feed them in the afternoon, after your chooks have filled up on their proper feed. Keep avocado, anything mouldy, chocolate and salty processed food well away. Our guide to kitchen scraps for backyard chickens has the full list.

We'd also suggest leaving out meat and anything that has touched it. In Queensland, it's actually illegal to feed poultry food scraps that have been in contact with meat, because of the risk of spreading serious diseases. Victoria's rules are aimed at pigs, but the reasons are just as sensible for chooks wherever you live. Meat scraps are also very attractive to rodents.

Pasture and fresh greens

Fresh grass and greens might be the best extra of all. Researchers at Penn State University found that eggs from hens foraging on pasture had twice the vitamin E and more than double the omega-3 fats of eggs from caged hens on feed alone.

There was a catch, though. The pastured hens in that study had their feed cut back, and they ended up 14% lighter and laid 15% fewer eggs. Grass simply doesn't have enough protein and energy to replace a proper feed. So let them graze, but keep their feeder full.

No lawn to spare? Hang a bunch of silverbeet or a cabbage in the run. It gives them greens and something to entertain themselves with.

Mealworms

Nothing gets chooks running quite like a handful of mealworms. Dried mealworms are around 50% protein, which makes them a great top-up during the moult when hens are regrowing thousands of feathers. They're also brilliant for training your flock to come when called.

The downside is that mealworms carry far more phosphorus than calcium. For laying hens, that's the wrong way round. A few per hen as a treat is perfect. A daily bowlful is not.

Black soldier fly larvae

Black soldier fly larvae are the insect treat we stock, and for good reason. They're around 40% protein, but unlike mealworms, they're also rich in calcium, with a much better balance of calcium to phosphorus for a laying hen. The larvae are raised on food scraps too, which turns waste into protein. A tablespoon per hen each week of our Black Soldier Fly treats is plenty.

Chilli flakes

This one surprises people. Chickens can't feel the heat of chilli at all. In mammals, a pain receptor called TRPV1 reacts to capsaicin, the compound that makes chilli burn. Birds have a version of that receptor that doesn't respond to it. That's why wild birds happily eat chillies and spread the seeds around.

So what about the claims? Red chilli and paprika contain natural red and orange pigments, and these can deepen yolk colour. Scientists in Hungary noticed this back in 1937. Some studies using measured pepper extracts have shown small improvements in laying, but there's little solid evidence that a sprinkle of chilli flakes boosts egg numbers, stops worms or gets rid of mites. Rats and mice, on the other hand, do feel the burn, which is why some keepers swear by a pinch in the feeder.

A little won't hurt your chooks. Just don't rely on it as a treatment for anything.

Pollard and the old-school warm mash

Ask around and plenty of people remember a grandparent mixing up a bucket of steaming pollard and scraps for the chooks on a frosty morning. Pollard is a finely milled mix of bran and wheat middlings, a by-product of flour milling.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Wheat middlings are around 17% protein. But they're fibrous, high in phosphorus and very low in calcium, so on their own they're far from a balanced diet. Hens fed mostly pollard and scraps were never going to lay like a modern hen on a complete feed.

Fermented feed

Fermented feed is an old idea that's back in fashion. You soak feed in water for a few days until natural lactic acid bacteria turn it pleasantly sour, a bit like sourdough.

The research is genuinely interesting. A Danish trial with 480 laying hens, published in British Poultry Science, found that fermented feed improved feed efficiency, gave heavier eggs and stronger shells, and made the gut more acidic, which helps protect against bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli and Campylobacter. But there were downsides too. The hens on fermented feed started laying later, the feed seemed to lose its appeal over time, those hens became more aggressive with poorer feathering, and their litter was wetter.

That last point matters. Wet litter is exactly what coccidiosis and bacteria love. If you'd like to try fermenting, make small batches in a clean, food-grade container, give only what your hens will eat in one go, keep their dry feed available too, and throw out any batch that smells foul or grows mould.

Keep it simple

If you remember one thing, make it this. Feed the right complete feed for their age, keep fresh water topped up, and treat the extras as exactly that. Starter to 6 weeks, grower until they show the signs of lay, then layer. Your chooks will do the rest.

If you're not sure which feed you need, pop into the shop at Merricks or give us a call on 0406 691 231. We're always happy to talk chooks.