Recent content by Dan23

Wow. Thank you for all the genuine responses. I really appreciate that. We have a couple acres, but coyotes do come through from time to time as well as owls and hawks... looks like my best option might be wait until we retire then start in on first drawing what I need to rough scale, then start...

For a little more than a decade I raised (bought and hatched out) hundreds of chicken chicks and dozens of peafowl -- it was a fun hobby with plenty of opportunities to see the miracle of life taking place and see some really incredibly beautiful birds (pied peafowl, white peafowl, bronze...

Well, I've made a dry "complete" cat food a regular part of my chicken and peafowl diet for years. Now, as you'll note in an earlier post, it's less than a 10 to 1 ratio, so it's not a hugely significant part of their diet, but I'm hopeful that it helps a little with the protein, vitamins, and...

Okay, finally measured how much the bucket contains... I was wrong about my estimate! So, the final breakdown is: 10 parts layer pellets, .75 parts dry cat food, .5 parts scratch, .2 part corn.

I will double check it tonight. Basically, I WAS using a scoop...so 6 scoops of layer pellets, 3/4 scoops of cat food, 1/2 scoop of scratch, and 1/4 scoop of corn. But I will recheck that as in the last month, I started using a bucket (cuz it took too long to do 6 scoops :). But as long as I was...

I have about 20 chickens.

Okay, I made the change in feed. I changed to a mix of 6-parts layer pellets to .75 parts dry cat food, .5 part scratch, and .2 parts corn. Egg size jumped up dramatically. Also, just as a side note, I was using crumble instead of pellets . . . I switched to pellets by accident (I ordered the...

Yeah, it looks like putting the bird down is the only option . . . thanks for your help. I double checked the feed...I'm using the Manna medicated chick starter and grower right now, which was the recommended feed (I have a large bag of Pen Pal chick starter grower that I haven't opened yet). My...

Yes, it has rotated a bit more and it is swollen a bit more.

Yes. I believe you're right. Do you know how to fix this problem?

It's Pen Pal medicated chick starter grower...not sure of the protein level right off the bat. I've raised scores of peachicks using chicken starter grower and haven't had this happen before....

I have a peachick that is 3 weeks old that I just noticed has a leg that seems to be dislocated. It doesn't kick out to the side but seems to fold inward a bit under her. Will zip tying or using bandaids on the legs to keep them straight and together help? It seems that the joint is swollen. I'm...

I add the cat food to increase the protein level in the food as I have chickens and peafowl in the same pens and the cat food has never been an issue over the last decade. The birds always have plenty of water. However, the chopped corn does seem to coincide with the reduced egg size. I'm not...

I have cinnamon queens and gold star hens. Haven't been weighing them, but they seem to be eating just as much as they always do, plus eating more bugs and clippings.

Having read the report listed here, my GUESS would be my switch to the cracked corn from the whole corn. I've been feeding my chickens the mixture for years, with the cracked corn being the only change . . . the weird thing is, the chickens have been "cleaning out" the feeder pretty much like...