18 Weeks/Feed

The chickens turned 18 weeks and are really big!  Its not just their size, but their appetite too.  When they were just little chicks, it took 12 weeks to go through a 25lb bag of the Start&Grow chick feed.  Now as they are a little older, it took 6 weeks to go through the same bag!  I equate the change in feeding a baby boy to feeding a teenage boy.  :)

But now that they are about ready to lay eggs, its time to switch their feed.  I stopped by the Golden Mill yesterday and picked up a 50 lb bag of the Purina Layena crumbles. They say to start the chickens on the Layena about 1 month before they start laying eggs and keep them on the feed through their laying cycle. It sounds like a good feed for them because its free of animal proteins and fats too to help the chickens made strong good tasting eggs.  

I also picked up some straw to start geting their nest box ready.  The chicks have been digging in the mulch around the yard a lot more and its start to look like a war zone with all the random bomb blast holes chicken holes in the mulch.  Since its been a bit cooler lately, I'm taking the behavior as they are starting to feel like nesting.  I'll post some photos of the nest box as soon as I get the straw in.

Speaking of straw, I had to buy a bale of straw...  its quite a bit for my three chickens.  What do others do to store their extra straw?  Is it worth trying to save the unused amount of straw?