How do you feed a mixed flock of poultry with differing food requirements? What can a chicken owner do when they want to add more chickens or even add ducklings into the mix? Let me give you a few pointers that have worked for us concerning how to feed a mixed poultry flock.
What to Feed a Mixed Flock of Poultry
The important thing for any animal is getting the best nutrition. It is possible to house chickens, ducks, partially grown pullets and ducklings together, and still provide the nutrition that each requires. The key, to put it simply, is to feed them all a non medicated chick feed and then add the extra nutritional requirements of laying hens and ducks in separate feeders. In the meantime, supply the laying hens with free choice calcium in the form of crushed oyster shells or dried crushed egg shells. The chicks who don’t need it will not eat it, and the hens can eat all of the free choice calcium they need. Excess calcium in feed can lead to extra fast bone growth in growing chicks and result in weakened bone structure.
The Special Needs of Ducklings
- Ducks have a few special requirements in a search for what to feed a mixed flock. The laying ducks will need some extra calcium from time to time. Most of the time, my ducks have very strong shells without adding calcium to the pellet feed. When ducklings are growing it is important to monitor the amount of protein that they are receiving if their diet consists mainly of commercial feed. Too much protein can lead to wing abnormalities and leg bone issues due to too fast of a growth rate. The wing condition known as Angel Wing is a result of commercial food for ducks and not enough forage and insect eating. Ducks are excellent foragers and when they get most of their nutrition from a processed poultry food and not enough green grass and bugs, they can have problems. There are a few ways to work around this in a mixed flock.
- 1. if possible, keep the ducklings separate from 3 weeks of age until 10 weeks of age.
- 2. feed some forage material to the ducklings and chicks such as fresh grass clippings (chopped small to avoid choking) or timothy/orchard grass hay. Our ducks would rather eat grass hay than duck pellets any day of the week.
Niacin is a requirement for ducklings. An easy way to increase niacin for your ducklings is through supplementing with Brewers Yeast. Adding this to the feed will not adversely affect the chickens. A second way to increase niacin content is to ferment the feed you use. Fermenting increases the nutrition available in the feed. (links to other posts on fermenting chicken feed Natural Probiotics for Chickens, How to Save Money by Fermenting Chicken Feed Fermented Chicken Feed)
Commercial Flock Raiser Diet for Mixed Flock
The feeds formulated for mixed species have a higher protein percentage than is needed for ducklings. These flock rations are intended for meat birds who will have an abbreviated life span. I have stopped using these flock feeds for my ducklings and use a lower protein percentage non medicated chick starter for ducklings.
By paying a little more attention to the rations you use to feed a mixed flock , you can successfully keep a mixed flock of poultry even if they are varying ages.
(this post appeared first on Backyard Poultry Mag.com)
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What if you are raising egg and meat chickens? I am not raising anything yet, but plan on having both meat and egg chickens, and I understand they have different feed requirements. How do I do this? Do I have to keep them completely separate? I wanted to try free ranging them on my 5 acres… I want all the info and set up ready before I get any birds…
Thanks!
Hi Carol. I am going to check on this answer because I have not raised meat chickens. But I believe that if you are raising them together, they will be fine on the grower ration until the time you harvest the meat birds.
Great article! Thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop!
My ducks are 4 months old, and I had no idea about the niacin. They are huge and healthy (appearing) despite my lack of knowledge. They’ll be headed to the freezer in another month, Should they be supplemented now?
hi Daisy No at this point I wouldn’t supplement with Niacin. And it’s really only an issue if the duck is going to have a life as a pet or breeder. – Janet
I dont know if this is an actual issue for me since all of my birds are or will be free range… I am planning on ducks and more chicks this spring and already have hens. I was planning on switching to chick starter until all my birds are of laying age then swap them back to layer feed and everything else they get from free ranging. I also feed the dried egg shells back to them for calcium.
that’s fine for your chickens, my only caution would be make sure you use the non-medicated chick starter since you are giving it to both chicks and ducklings. Sounds like a lot of fun times are heading your way
Is corn to hot for chickens and ducks in the summer were having alot of picking of each othekr to a point they kill one another .
I don’t feed corn to my poultry unless it is part of the layer ration or feed ration. I would suggest maybe a frozen block with chopped fruit and veggies to keep them busy Sounds like you might need to separate out some of the more aggressive for a time out
Can I feed my ducks layena crumbles like I feed my chickens? When do I switch feed from chick starter to layena?
yes you can but I think Flock Raiser is a better choice for a mixed flock of chickens and ducks. Give calcium free choice so the layer hens get plenty when they need it. Switch your chickens to Layena at around 18 to 20 weeks of age.
I recently started feeding my chickens a 22% protein layer feed from a local mill and I love it, they eat less and seem to be laying better after only a few weeks. But, I have 6 ducks who had been eating the same 16% layer ration I had been giving my chickens. I’m thinking about mixing 50% new layer feed and 50% cracked corn to make my duck feed. Is this ok or should a buy them a separate ration, like poultry raider?
We use flock raiser for our ducks. I have no experience using a ration with a 22% protein level. That could be too high for the birds long term. But as I said, I have no experience to share on this.
Thank you so much for writing this!! It has been unbelievably helpful to a complete newbie (me).