Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I've lost my old boy (1 year old) and just purchased a purebred replacement rooster. Part of me thinks that the higher calcium in the layer crumbles may have attributed to his demise (along with my inexperience with ventilation last winter). Can a rooster safely eat layer crumble, or do you have an "all flock" type fee available? My feed store does not have an "all flock" option, just grower, layer, or chick feed. What are your thoughts?

My boy eats layer quite happily, the only time you don't want to give too much calcium is when you are rearing chicks yourself because it can cause skeletal problems while growing. My roosters have always had layer. I also have free choice oyster shell out with no problems.

I feed 15% broiler breeder ration that I get from Floradale feeds. Most of the larger mills carry some version of that.

We have fed layer pellets for years and have never fed different feed to a rooster, can't imagine how that would be achieved.
As a rule, the rooster has much lover intake of feed then hens, since he doesn't have to produce eggs.
Our birds go on 18% Layer pellets at around 5 month and the same goes for any cockerels that might be living with them.
Have one with the hens now 3,5 years old, still pretty spry :)

We also give all of the hens and rooster laying mash. Extra calcium in the form of oyster shells is free choice hanging on the fence in a rabbit feeder. In that, occasionally I add egg shells (baked & crumbled) and maybe some sesame seeds. I only do this because most of the hens didn't like the oyster shells.