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When the field mice moved into the coop I put up a live trap for them. One morning there were 4 mice the trap, I took the trap outside were the hens were, shook the trap to stun them then dumped them out to the waiting hens, gone in a few seconds, those hens had them and gone. It wasn't the...

I have a silkie roo and two hens. They all can range in our backyard, there is no problem keeping them nice and clean as the yard has some kind of ground cover plant that keeps them out of the mud. Of course the deep litter in the coop really helps all the flock to stay clean and dry. The two...

The other day someone asked about compost and chickens, I looked and couldn't find the forum that talked about "composting with chickens" till I was sent an update today, here is the link to that discussion, enjoy...

I plan to sprout grains for my flock when the dry season hits here, I will start about November and keep it going till maybe the end of May (our dry season can be very dry). The grass here when it is dry turns brown so this will give them some greens along with the FF. I will be using a little...

I'm sure you will but please post the resulting condition of the hens that are old. My flock is not old enough to have "old hens" but I do hope they get there some day. Posting good info such as that will help me and others to plan on what to expect form our flocks fed with FF from day one. The...

When you get those very large eggs with the huge rich reddish orange yokes you will be so happy and proud you gave them FF. Just look at the size of this egg coming from a barnyard hen (well that is what I call a hen from an egg hatched by one of our whoknowswhat hens and our ol' yard rooster)...

There was a thread about composting with chickens, folks ended up putting their compost materials in their chickens runs or where the chickens could get to it when the free ranged, some were huge piles, the chickens did their thing the pile shrank fast. We toss all of our table scraps where the...

Here in Costa Rica we get over 100" of rain during the 6 months of the rainy season. Knowing I was wanting to go with deep litter on a dirt floor I installed an 18" footing with 3 rows of block on top in hopes of keeping the wood shavings dry. They not only say dry but they help to dry the...

I think you are correct if what I have read is correct. My using yogurt for a starter is supposed to give me a finished lactic acid FF, someone correct me if I am wrong. I kick start my FF with some baker's yeast and molasses then with the liquids form the last batch and a 4 day ferment I get...

I would just add a little at a time to your fermentation mash. Allowing the mash to ferment with LAB or ACV or natural yogurt will convert the sugar and corn syrup alcohol to good probiotics, no problem for your chickens. I ferment my mash for 4 days, I add molasses to the mash, by the time I...

I hear and understand, I started work when I was 13 and worked hard for over 50 years. I did not plan things that I got, I ended up at 50 years old with two badly damaged sons (ex wife), 8 AND 6 and raised them. Tired is when you work for two weeks to save up to take your sons to MacDonalds...

Go to a tire shop that services truck tires. There you can get a no good inner tube and cut your own large rubber bands. Not only do they work for that but when regluing chair legs they hold things together till the glue is set. Most of the tire places will give you the old tubes, they are glad...

BTW, once the nettles have wilted, cows will eat them too.

I pour either the whey from raw milk yogurt or some of the drained liquid from the FF (that also contains the yogurt probiotics) over the dogs dry food which is gone in 30 seconds. They really like that plus it is so good for them.

I open the coop before sunup and leave it open all day. Perhaps something like 30+ minutes after sunup I put out the FF trough, the flock comes and eats their fill them go to foraging around the yard again. Today it was raining hard, the flock was both out in the rain foraging and in the coop...

I start feeding FF from day one all day. I try to fill the troughs so there is some left over for in the morning. After I turn the flock out I start draining a new batch while they clean up yesterdays leftovers. By the time they have cleaned that up, usually in 30 minutes or so the next batch...

I store the chicken feed and cracked corn in "Fresh Step" litter buckets. When I purchase a 50kilo sack it fills 5 of those buckets which seal fairly well, here the humidity is high (over 50%) most of the time, these buckets keep the feed nice and dry plus they are easy to handle when full. I...

From another "sad" engineer, even though our chickens get to free range in our backyard, the yard isn't all that big. Perhaps the chickens do get some bugs for protein but I was wondering if the raw milk yogurt that I add to the FF after I put the FF in the feed troughs would count toward "meat...

If I am not mistaken, isn't oyster shell used for both grit and calcium? I remember when I was a youth we always had oyster shell in the hen house. It seems to me it was bought in 50# bags. At that time it was my job to fill feeders, gather eggs and clean the coop so I was never concerned about...

I see no problem using stainless steel, wood, aluminum or plastic to stir your FF. I uses a large aluminum spoon to stir my FF all the time and a wire mesh strainer for draining the FF and have no problems. The spoon is just as bright as the day I bought it, if there was a reaction going on the...