CHICK DAYS: Getting Great Starts on Your Flock and Garden

With harsh winter storms happening across the nation, it's hard for some of us to think about spring, but it's almost here and so are the baby chicks! Beginning this month, Purina dealers across the country are kicking off the Great Starts™ program and Chick Days, a series of special events providing new chicks, savings and expert advice for both new and longtime chicken owners like you.

Dealers will be offering advice and guidance on how to raise baby chickens from freshly hatched chicks through laying, including details on proper nutrition to provide the best eggs. They'll also be offering savings on the supplies you need to get started. Purina caters to both the smaller backyard flocks with five pound packages of Purina® SunFresh® Recipe Start & Grow® and Purina® SunFresh® Recipe Flock Raiser®—two products formulated specifically for baby birds—and Purina® Layena® product in a twenty-five pound and fifty pound bag since adult laying hens, even in small flocks, consume a quarter pound of feed per day. A twenty-five pound bag is ideal for a small flock's monthly feed requirements.

REGISTER YOUR CHICK
To keep both beginners and seasoned poultry owners up to date on care for their new chicks, Purina is continuing the "Register Your Chick" program. For more information and to get started, visit www.purinamills.com/newchick. From there, you can sign up for a free e-newsletter program that gives you time-released management and care tips through your chicks' first year. It provides information about how to keep chicks healthy and growing, producing eggs when they are mature, and how to keep them safe from predators. It also includes basic management tips like hand-washing and sanitation practices like cleaning the eggs.

CHICKENS IN THE GARDEN
We all like the taste of fresh eggs, why not have fresh, homegrown fruits and vegetables, too? The 2011 Great Starts program is not only focusing on chickens' abilities to produce fresh, homegrown eggs, but also their role as garden composters, tillers and exterminators. The combination of chickens and gardens are part of the locavore movement—people's desire to manage the freshness and quality of their family's food and reduce their carbon footprint. With both a flock and a garden, you not only get fresh vegetables and eggs, but the chickens will produce fertilizer after eating the garden waste in addition to their feed, help control the pests and prepare soil before planting.

FIND YOUR LOCAL PURINA® DEALER
Ready to add more chicks to your flock? Contact your local Olsen's Grain as soon as possible to get our chick schedule.