California - Northern

[tommysgirl]

How many of you sprout grains for your flock? I took a break from feeding my birds fermented feed this summer and have been sprouting wheat, oats, barley, and a high quality bird seed with BOSS, millet, etc. My flock LOVES sprouted grains! This morning, I was reading about the nutritional value of sprouted grains on the whole grains council website. They have a page that lists some research showing the health benefits of sprouted grains. I was interested to see that there is research showing that eating sprouted buckwheat protects against fatty liver disease. I have lost one girl to this and Ron has, also. (Correct?) I might have to add buckwheat to my list of sprouted grains!

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/health-benefits-of-sprouted-grains

I have every intention of sprouting stuff but haven't started...Can you explain your methods? I was going to start with some beans and lentils but so far it's not more than an idea...I need to get a gallon jar or two. Can you post pics of your set-up?

I also want to ferment feed and grow my own mealworms...it's a question of time and space at this point. Isn't everything???

Another repost from my FB page and non chicken related. I am hoping Laura @lawatt or someone might have insight on what we are dealing with. No chickens (all cooped for night) were harmed.

A horrific sight this morning, the first predator attack on our sheep. A just weaned, 3 month old lamb found with 4 puncture wounds in her throat. Tail off and internal organs ripped out internally from the rear of the body. The rest of the body left intact. The other lamb in the pen was untouched. Pen is field fenced, 4 feet high. Close enough to the house that we should have heard any commotion. What kind of animal would leave a carcass like this?

Kim this makes me so sad. I am no expert but it seems likely that it was cat of some kind based on stealth and the throat thing. Coyotes and Dogs tend to be less precise about things.What is weird is that from what I know, cats usually drag their kills away and this one left the lamb. Maybe it was a smaller cat...a bobcat? and it was startled by something and took off. I would think a mountain lion would have take it away.

 

[ronott1]

Good morning, when I went out to check on my broody mama one of the eggs wasn't all the way under her and it was cold to the touch, this is day 3. Will the egg still develop or should I just remove it?

Push it back under her. If it is developing, It will be fine.

Are other chickens laying in her nest?

 

[tommysgirl]

Good morning, when I went out to check on my broody mama one of the eggs wasn't all the way under her and it was cold to the touch, this is day 3. Will the egg still develop or should I just remove it?

Leave it under her. You will know in a few days if anything is going on. Eggs are so resilient look what these have been through already

 

[liz9910]

Quote:
Ok that's what I did, no she is separated from everyone in her own little Dogloo

 

[PetRock]

I haven't gotten into the standards to see what is points off and what is a dis qualifer. There is a difference between the two color patterns, but the shape, size and etc. are usually more important.

I to love the yellow legs with black spots though.

I love everything about these birds. All of mine are more black than white but the two cockerels do have mostly white tails. I just went out there to check on them and they all clustered around me to see what I was doing. It doesn't matter which end of the aviary I go into, they come running. I was bending over with my sun hat on and they took turns jumping for the ties.

 

[PetRock]

I have every intention of sprouting stuff but haven't started...Can you explain your methods? I was going to start with some beans and lentils but so far it's not more than an idea...I need to get a gallon jar or two. Can you post pics of your set-up?

I don't really have a set up, yet. I have been thinking about getting my DH to build me a rack with a container underneath where the jars can sit at an angle to drain. I have 3 different types of containers that I use: re-purposed parmesan cheese containers with drainage holes drilled that I nestle inside empty large plastic peanut butter/mayonnaise/etc. containers, Mason jars with plastic sprouting lids, and an actual sprouter set that I purchased from amazon. The sprouter set works really well and looks nicer than the parmesan containers but it does cost more.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sprout-Ho...=UTF8&qid=1383844778&sr=8-9&keywords=sprouter

http://www.amazon.com/Sprouting-Jar...=UTF8&qid=1383844719&sr=8-3&keywords=sprouter

http://www.amazon.com/Accessories-S...UTF8&qid=1383844675&sr=8-1&keywords=sproutamo

It is a 3-4 day process. I start by filling the container 1/4-1/3 full of grain (thinking about adding a rinse step before soaking), adding a small amount of oxine to take care of any mold spores, then filling with water. I usually end up soaking them all day or overnight but I have read that some grains like oats sprout better with a shorter soak time so I may adjust the time to see if that works better. After soaking, I rinse the grain and let it drain preferably at an angle. I then rinse & drain the grain twice a day. I gently shake the containers before rinsing to help the water reach all the grains. They have usually started sprouting by day 2 and I usually feed them to the chooks when the root tail is at least 1/2 the size of the grain. My chickens yard free range in my 1/3 acre yard so I scatter the sprouted grain to give them additional forage material. They do an excellent job of cleaning it all up!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote: Agreed, very scary.

Another repost from my FB page and non chicken related. I am hoping Laura @lawatt or someone might have insight on what we are dealing with. No chickens (all cooped for night) were harmed.

A horrific sight this morning, the first predator attack on our sheep. A just weaned, 3 month old lamb found with 4 puncture wounds in her throat. Tail off and internal organs ripped out internally from the rear of the body. The rest of the body left intact. The other lamb in the pen was untouched. Pen is field fenced, 4 feet high. Close enough to the house that we should have heard any commotion. What kind of animal would leave a carcass like this?

I'm so sorry! I too think a cat. They tend to go for the throat. I know that Llama's are good flock protectors for sheep, if that's an option for you.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I used to sprout grains for my flock. I had five large buckets. Four of the buckets had holes all up the sides for drainage. Day 1, I would soak the grains in the first bucket. Day 2, I would dump the grains into the second bucket to drain and rinse them with the hose once or twice. First bucket would be filled with fresh grains to soak. Day 3, dump the initial grain into third bucket and rinse. Bucket #1 is dumped into bucket #2 and rinsed. Fresh grains are set to soak in bucket #1. Keep repeating this process, moving the grain each day to the next bucket. On day 5, feed the now sprouted grains from that bucket.

I quit doing this because it was labor intensive, grains were slow to sprout in cold weather and tended to mold or go bad in hot weather if not rinsed many times a day. My birds didn't seem to benefit from it. They sure enjoyed the sprouts, though.

 

[lawatt]

Another repost from my FB page and non chicken related. I am hoping Laura @lawatt or someone might have insight on what we are dealing with. No chickens (all cooped for night) were harmed.

A horrific sight this morning, the first predator attack on our sheep. A just weaned, 3 month old lamb found with 4 puncture wounds in her throat. Tail off and internal organs ripped out internally from the rear of the body. The rest of the body left intact. The other lamb in the pen was untouched. Pen is field fenced, 4 feet high. Close enough to the house that we should have heard any commotion. What kind of animal would leave a carcass like this?

hi Kim @capayvalleychick !

definitely a cat of some kind, they usually stalk their prey & then grab the throat & asphyxiate their prey, hence the puncture marks -- if the lamb was sleeping, it probably never knew what hit it, & hence no commotion. also cats will often eat part of a carcass, then go sleep & come back to it later to eat more. they don't kill indiscriminately (i.e. killing all the lambs in the pen just for the heck of it), the way dogs sometimes will.

given that it doesn't sound like it ate a large amount of the lamb, my guess would be bobcat, as they are smaller than mountain lions & might be less able to try to carry it away to a denning site.

hope this helps -- sorry for your loss!

 

[Deerling]

Quote: I'm so sorry about your lamb! I can't even imagine how it would feel to come upon that. I agree that a cat is probably to blame. We've had a terrible time with bobcats this year, and they are very stealthy and, I've heard, their whole idea is to do things as quickly and quietly as possible. When we lose a chicken to a coyote there's usually a commotion and a huge trail of feathers... with a bobcat not so much. We actually watched one sit by our porch and seem to analyze the situation (before Mark killed it). If it was smaller maybe it couldn't drag the lamb away? I'm not sure how big a three month old lamb is. We had both our full grown Pekin ducks taken overnight without a commotion or feather trail or anything, and the male duck was big and mean, but I suppose at night they thought they were safe in their enclosure.

We adopted a dog to try and help out with the predators during the day, but we didn't realize she was pregnant when we got her! She's wonderful. She had four puppies and two have gone off to their new homes - Zooweemama took one! Here are the two we still have. We are keeping the brindle one (Bear) and my cousin is taking Gilbert, the black one. They're such amazing dogs. It was so cool to see her give birth. We are getting her spayed, though. We think the dad was some sort of Mastiff (as does the vet).

Gilbert and Bear (this was a few weeks ago, they're 8 weeks now)


Here's mama (eta She had longer hair but we had her shaved before she delivered)