Feeding Rhode Island Reds from Chick to Hen: What the Feed Tags and Guides Say

A Rhode Island Red doesn’t need a special Red feed. I went and checked, because the old version of this page said she did. The feed tags and the extension guides don’t sort chickens by breed at all. They sort them by age, and by whether a bird is laying yet. So that’s how this guide runs, from the day your chicks come home to the week the first egg turns up.

I read 12 sources for this page, and you’ll find them all listed at the bottom. Five are Purina’s own feed tags and its growth-stage guide. Two are hatchery pages, and three are university extension guides. The last two are the Merck Veterinary Manual and The Livestock Conservancy’s page on the breed. Where they disagree, I give you each one’s number and whose it is. How many eggs a Red lays (and each hatchery’s week for the first one) is on our Rhode Island Red egg production page, so this one sticks to what goes in your feeder.

The short version.

• Feed a Red like any laying breed. She’s a dual-purpose bird, not a meat bird, so skip the meat-bird starter.
• From hatch to about 6 weeks, chick starter. The guides put it at 18 to 22 percent protein.
• Medicated starter is for chicks the hatchery didn’t vaccinate for coccidiosis. Ask before you buy the bag.
• From about 6 to 18 weeks, a grower, or stay on a starter-grower that’s made to run the whole way. Either way the calcium stays low.
• Around 18 to 20 weeks, or at the first egg, move to layer feed over four or five days.
• A rooster or young birds in with your hens means an all-flock feed, with oyster shell in its own dish.
• A pullet eats somewhere around 14 to 20 pounds of feed from hatch to 20 weeks. After that it’s roughly 2 pounds a week.

A Red Eats What Any Laying Hen Eats

The old page called Reds a meat breed and pointed you to meat-bird starter. That’s backwards. Skip it. The Livestock Conservancy calls the Rhode Island Red “the most successful dual purpose bird”. Dual purpose means a breed kept for eggs and for the table both. The Conservancy puts the hens at over 6 pounds and the roosters at over 8.

And meat-bird feed is its own thing. Colorado State University Extension says to use baby chick starter “for all chicks except meat bird chicks, which need meat bird starter feed”. Its chart puts meat birds on 23 to 24 percent protein. Layer chicks get 18 to 20. If you’ve got Red chicks, they go in the layer column.

One more thing the tags agree on. A complete feed is built to be the whole meal. Purina’s Flock Raiser tag says “It is not necessary to provide additional grain”. Its Layena tag wants layer feed to make up at least 90 percent of what a hen eats. So when I say starter or layer feed here, I mean the bag from your feed store doing nearly all the work. Treats are the small part (our list of what not to feed chickens covers the ones to skip).

Hatch to 6 Weeks: Chick Starter

Every source starts a layer chick on chick starter. They just don’t print the same protein.

• Colorado State’s chart says 18 to 20 percent, from 0 to 6 weeks.
• Dr. Jacquie Jacob’s guide for the University of Kentucky says 20 to 22 percent, also from 0 to 6 weeks.
• Purina’s Start & Grow tag guarantees at least 18 percent. It’s meant to run from day one all the way to laying age.
• Meyer Hatchery sells a 20 percent medicated starter crumble and says to feed it for the first 7 weeks.

So anything from 18 to 22 percent sits inside what the guides print, and you don’t need to chase one exact number. Your bigger job in week one is getting the chicks to find the feed at all. Colorado State says to sprinkle feed on a white paper plate or white paper towels for the first day or two. Keep feed in the dishes too. It also says to lay paper towels or an old cloth over the bedding for the first two days only. That way your chicks don’t fill up on litter before they find the food.

The same sheet wants the brooder dry and safe from predators. It should be 95°F the first week, then 5 degrees cooler each week after that. And Tennessee’s 4-H guide says to keep fresh feed in front of chicks at all times, without letting it go to waste.

Medicated Starter or Not: Ask the Hatchery First

Medicated chick starter is about coccidiosis, a parasite disease of the gut. McMurray Hatchery says chickens of any age can get it, but “4-16 week-old chickens are most commonly affected”. That’s most of a pullet’s growing-up. So it’s worth getting this one right before you buy a bag. McMurray names wet litter as one of the most common triggers. So dry bedding matters here too (Tennessee’s guide sets the waterers on wire platforms so the birds aren’t on wet litter).

Everything here turns on one question. Were your chicks vaccinated? Purina puts it plainly: “If chicks were not vaccinated for coccidiosis by the hatchery, choose a medicated Chick Starter Feed”. Its Medicated tag says the same if you’re unsure of their vaccination status. The drug in that bag is amprolium, which the tag calls “not an antibiotic”. Purina also says medicated feeds like it aren’t affected by the Veterinary Feed Directive, so they “can be purchased without a veterinarian”.

Vaccinated chicks are the other branch. McMurray sprays its chicks with a live vaccine at one day old. It says the vaccine does away with the “undesirable side effects of coccidiostats”. The Merck Veterinary Manual explains how that vaccine works. It’s live oocysts given at a low dose, and it “serves only to introduce infection”. After that the chicks keep picking up the vaccine strain’s offspring on the farm, and that’s how they build immunity. So ask the hatchery which your chicks got. If they weren’t vaccinated, or you can’t find out, Purina’s answer is the medicated starter.

Either way, Reds you’re keeping for eggs have to build their own resistance in the end. That surprised me when I read it. Kentucky’s guide says mature chickens “develop a resistance to coccidiosis if allowed to contract a mild infection of the disease”. It says birds raised as replacement layers can have a coccidiostat feed “for the first 16 weeks of life”. Then they go on a nonmedicated feed. Merck makes the same point, that natural immunity matters in replacement layer pullets. And Kentucky adds that medicated feeds “are not typically fed to laying hens”.

Two label points. Meyer Hatchery says amprolium is FDA-approved “and has no withdrawal period for meat or eggs”. But not every medicated feed carries the same drug, so read the tag. Kentucky’s guide warns that monensin, another feed drug, can be toxic to horses. I don’t give a dose for anything here (your bag’s directions and your vet cover that).

6 to 18 Weeks: Grower, or Stay on the Starter-Grower

This is where the sources split the most. Why? Mostly because feed stores sell different bags. Kentucky’s guide says commercial pullets get three feeds while they grow. But it says “Most feed stores sell only one or two types”. Here’s what each source does with these weeks.

• Kentucky: pullet grower at 14 to 16 percent protein, from 6 to 20 weeks.
• Colorado State: “Layer finisher or grower” at 12 percent, from 6 weeks until laying.
• Tennessee’s 4-H guide: chick starter for the first 6 weeks, then a chick grower for the rest of the growing period.
• Meyer Hatchery: its 15 percent pullet grower for 8 to 16 weeks, and layer feed from 18 weeks.
• Purina: one starter-grower, Start & Grow, “from hatch until laying age (18-20 weeks)”. There’s no grower switch at all.

So if your feed store has a grower, the guides start it at about 6 weeks. If all it carries is a starter-grower like Purina’s, you can stay on that one bag until the hens are close to laying. Meyer’s page is the odd one out. It covers 8 to 16 weeks with its grower and starts layer feed at 18, and I couldn’t find where it says what your birds eat in between.

The one thing they all agree on is calcium. Growing birds get a low-calcium feed. Kentucky says growing chickens need only 1.2 percent calcium, and “If you feed high-calcium diets to growing chickens, kidney damage can result”. Purina caps its starter-grower at 1.25 percent. It says too much calcium “can have a detrimental effect on growth”, and its Start & Grow tag reads 0.75 to 1.25 percent. Layer feed runs 3.25 to 4.25 percent on Purina’s Layena tag, which is why it waits.

Around 18 Weeks or the First Egg: Layer Feed

Purina puts the switch at 18 weeks “or when the first egg arrives”. Its Layena tag says “Do not feed to birds less than 18 weeks of age”. Kentucky says to switch once your chickens start laying, “around 20 weeks of age”. And Purina’s Start & Grow tag gives 18 to 20 weeks. Your Reds won’t all start laying the same week, so I like Purina’s habit here. It says people start checking the nest boxes for that coveted first egg around weeks 16 and 17. That’s your cue to buy the layer bag.

Don’t swap bags overnight. Purina says it mixes the starter and layer feed “evenly for four or five days”. It also says to match the form. If your chicks grew up on crumbles, you start them on a crumble layer feed. Pellets go to pellets.

What changes in the bag is mostly calcium. The Layena tag reads 16 percent protein and 3.25 to 4.25 percent calcium. Kentucky says laying mashes run 2.5 to 3.5 percent calcium. It wants at least 14 percent protein in a layer feed, and says 16 is more common. Plus, Purina’s tag says most flocks on Layena shouldn’t need extra oyster shell, so you can skip the dish most of the year. It still calls a dish of it “good practice” in hot weather.

Later on, the molt changes the menu for a while. Purina says it usually shows up around 18 months, when you’ll find feathers starting to cover the coop floor. Then it switches to a 20 percent protein feed like its Flock Raiser. Once the hens start laying again, it’s back to layer feed.

Roosters and Mixed Flocks: All-Flock Feed

A rooster in the run, or a batch of young pullets in with your laying hens, makes layer feed a problem for you. Layena’s tag says “Do not feed to male birds”, and not to birds under 18 weeks either. You’ll remember Kentucky’s point from the grower section. High calcium in growing birds can damage their kidneys.

The usual answer is an all-flock feed. Purina’s Flock Raiser tag says it’s for “an entire mixed flock” of poultry, growing hens and roosters included. Its tag reads 20 percent protein and 0.80 to 1.30 percent calcium, so it’s a grower-level calcium feed. That’s why the same tag says to give laying birds oyster shell on the side. Kentucky’s guide lists an all-purpose 16 percent feed too, but only “if a single feed is available” for the whole growing period.

So your setup is simple. All-flock feed goes in the feeder for everyone. Oyster shell goes in its own dish, and the laying hens help themselves. Purina points older flocks the same way, to Flock Raiser with oyster shell for any hens still laying. And if you’re still deciding whether to keep a Red rooster at all, our Rhode Island Red hen vs rooster page goes through it.

How Much a Red Eats, Chick to Hen

Two of the guides print pounds, and they’re per flock, not per Red. I turned them into one bird’s share for you (that arithmetic is mine).

• Kentucky, per 10 birds: 20 to 29 pounds of chick starter to 6 weeks, then 120 to 130 pounds of pullet grower to 20 weeks. That’s 14 to about 16 pounds a bird from hatch to 20 weeks.
• Tennessee’s 4-H guide: about 4 pounds of starter and about 16 pounds of grower for each bird. That’s about 20 pounds a bird.
• Tennessee again, for a flock of 15: 50 pounds of starter and 200 pounds of grower. That’s about 16.7 pounds a bird, so the same guide gives two answers.
• Laying hens: Kentucky says 18 to 24 pounds a week for 10, or 1.8 to 2.4 pounds a hen. Tennessee’s 50 pounds every 2 weeks for 15 hens works out to about 1.7 pounds a hen a week.

Neither table is for Reds. Kentucky’s is headed “Feed requirements of commercially-raised pullets”. And a Red hen runs over 6 pounds by the Conservancy’s count. So expect your Red to eat at the top of these ranges, maybe past them. None of the sources gives a figure for the breed itself, and I’d rather not make one up.

Now think a bag at a time. If you keep six laying hens, they at 1.8 to 2.4 pounds each get through a 50-pound bag in about 24 to 32 days. Got only three? They take about 7 to 9 weeks. That runs into Kentucky’s rule that feed shouldn’t be stored more than two months, so you’d do better buying a smaller bag. Kentucky also says intake goes up in cold weather and down in hot weather, so plan on more feed in winter. I’d run your own numbers before the next feed store trip. Our free Chicken Feed Calculator runs these numbers for your own flock.

Tennessee’s guide calls not feeding enough “the second most common mistake”. It also says 70 percent of the cost of raising chickens is the feed.

Grit, Scratch and the Feeder

Grit is the small stone a chicken’s gizzard grinds food with (chickens don’t have teeth). Kentucky says if your birds get out on the ground, they can typically find enough on their own. If you feed scratch grains, it says you should supply grit as well. It comes in chick or hen size, and fine gravel will do. But don’t use oyster shell as grit. Kentucky says oyster shell “is too soft and does not aid in grinding”. And growing birds shouldn’t get the extra calcium anyway.

Scratch is where the guides get stern with you. Kentucky’s guide says “Scratch grains are like french fries”, because a bird that fills up on them has less appetite for real feed. Its rule is scratch in the afternoon, after they’ve eaten their complete feed. Give only as much as they’ll finish in 15 to 20 minutes. Tennessee’s 4-H guide goes further. It says no scratch grain or table scraps at all, and never scratch mixed into a complete ration. Birds on scratch “DO NOT grow as well”, it says, and they start picking at feathers. Then it adds that “Feeding scratch grains DOES NOT save money”, in its own capitals.

For the feeder itself, Kentucky wants enough room for every bird to eat at once, or some go short. Set your trough at the height of the birds’ backs, it says, and you’ll spill less. If bantams share a feeder with your big birds, set it for the bantams. Then keep your bags somewhere dry and cool. Use them up within two months. Old feed loses its nutrition and can grow mold, Kentucky says. Purina’s tags say never to feed moldy feed, and to store it where rodents and insects can’t get at it.

Updated October 2026: rewritten from the sources below and checked line by line. The old version told stories about a friend’s flock and its own Reds’ feeding routine. Those are gone, with every first-hand line. It called Reds a meat breed and sent their chicks to meat-bird starter, when the Conservancy calls them dual purpose. It gave a Purina Start & Grow feed 30 percent protein, and the Start & Grow tag says 18. Its calorie counts and calcium figures for grower and layer feed matched no source. Neither did its pounds per chick and per hen, or its inches of feeder and waterer space. Its week-by-week 25 percent switch is replaced with Purina’s four or five days. Its flaxseed and sprouted grains are cut, and so are its fermented feed and its vinegar in the water (no source read backs them). The Amazon box is gone too. It called Flock Raiser a layer feed, which it isn’t. Its rule against medicated layer feed for Reds is gone, since Kentucky’s point is about laying hens of any breed. So are its lettuce and citrus to get hens drinking, its foraging from 4 weeks and its body-condition checklist. And its AI illustrations are now real photos, each one credited under it.

Sources

• Feeding Chickens for Egg Production in Small and Backyard Flocks (Dr. Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky, on poultry.extension.org).
• Colorado State University Extension, Boulder County: How to Start Your Chickens Off Right.
• University of Tennessee Extension, Overton County 4-H Chick Chain: Now That You Have Your Chicks (Nicole Marrero).
• Purina Start & Grow (the feed tag).
• Purina Start & Grow Medicated (the feed tag).
• Purina: 6 Milestones of Chicken Growth Stages.
• Purina Layena Pellets (the feed tag).
• Purina Flock Raiser Crumbles (the feed tag).
• Meyer Hatchery: Meyer Hatchery Feed (its feed formulas, from starter to layer).
• Murray McMurray Hatchery: Coccidiosis Vaccination.
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Coccidiosis in Poultry (Richard W. Gerhold, Jr.; reviewed February 2023).
• The Livestock Conservancy: Rhode Island Red (the heritage breed page).

Sources checked October 26, 2026. The per-bird pounds and the days a bag lasts are my arithmetic from these sources. We aren’t vets. If your chicks or hens look sick, call a vet who sees poultry.

Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe