I'm have a hen hatching out chicks. I was wondering what I should feed her after the chicks hatch. I want to have her raise the chicks. Is it okay for her to eat the high protien chick food?

Your hen can eat chick food. You can't give her layer food because sh will feed it to her chicks.

Actually, I have had hens raise chicks on layer mash and do just fine. Usually we put chick pellets in when they get the hang of eating from the feeder (which usually doesn't take very long), but feeding layer mash will probably slow their growth just a little bit. In the end, they should be normal sized birds. It won't hurt your hen to eat chick pellets, and will actually help her regain her weight and condition faster. In warm weather, mom will show them how to catch bugs and worms, adding to their protein intake. Good luck.

Layer feed is a TERRIBLE thing to feed chicks. It can kill by causing sever damage to their kindneys.

How does it do that?

Layer feed is high in calcium. The calcium will damege the kodneys. Everything I have read says that and if you have chicks and no chickfood you better off feeding grong oatmeal and corn than layer feed.

Our layer mash contains between 3.1% and 4.1% calcium. Like I said, we have seen chicks raised on it with no ill effects. At this rate, it still is not enough calcium to supply their needs for producing sound shells on their eggs for the entire cycle. I'll check to see how much calcium the starter and grower rations contain.

Our starter has about 1% calcium, but I can't get the figure for grower this morning, as the mill is out. Chickens are pretty good at balancing their own rations, if you keep in mind that they aren't interested in maximizing their production of eggs, only producing enough to ensure reproduction and propagation. If I were to make a smorgasbord of feeds and other delicacies available all the time, mom hen would raise the little ones just fine. If the weather were warm, she'd probably also do fine with bugs, grass, and weed seeds. To ensure a better start, we feed prepared feeds.