Colorado

[jime]

Hi Colorado Peeps! Been busy fencing since the fox murdered Curl, now we have an enclosure that used 250 feet of fencing plus the width of the house and backyard. Chickens are safe(r). I put hardware fabric around 30' of the area and decided that life was much too short for this activity and found 10" landscape staples for 21 cents each at Lowe's which I drove into the ground about every 2-8 inches depending on the rock I encountered. Figured if the staple can't get past the rock, neither can Mr. Fox.

So.

Now my question to everyone is:

Has anyone raised their own mealworms? At $32.99 for 30 ounces (AND they're chinese), I'm looking into this because our recent newsletter from Greenwood Wildlife Rehab (Lyons, CO) had an article about doing just that.

The "frass" is the biggest management issue (mealworm poop).

The dried ones are very easy but darned pricey, so maybe I should raise live ones for them.

Anyone out there doing this?

I guess I would feed them live as I would have no idea how to dehydrate them. Plus, you know me, I don't think I could dehydrate even mealworms...like how to you dispatch them first? I couldn't just dehydrate them to kill them...what an agonizing death, eh?

Anywho, hope you all are doing great. I haven't even been lurking. Fence raising is time-consuming. But we did score 250 feet of fence from the neighbor who just happened to ask if we needed any...We had no idea how much there was but there it was, we'd measured out a 250 foot enclosure starting at one end of the house and going all 'round their coop/run and back to storage shed. Well, there were 250 feet. Almost to the foot! So spending $100 on staples seemed a no-brainer after dealing with my back from doing 30 feet of hardware cloth which had to be straightened out, bent, a trench dug, the cloth attached to the fence and the cloth then buried. Blech!

Oh, and hey! I learned something: The black zip ties are the strongest because they absorb 40% more of the UV limiter the mfr applies to zip ties.

And they had HEAVY DUTY ones at Murdoch's in Black and White. Black for the front of the house where it shows and white for the back (cuz they only had one bag of black). Way better than tying little pieces of wire like they do for horsefencing. Zip ties and Staples Rock!!!!

I raise meal worms, they are really easy to raise/breed but take for ever to build a steady supply. In my case I can only feed once month but I have about 60 birds.I still do them because I sell some to friends for their canaries.
What I find really say to grow are dubia roaches and I can feed those about once a weeks to all my birds.Once you get over the gross factor they are really easy.

 

[jime]

double Kidness: I had muscovy ducks, I am getting more in spring.They are great not noise, great mother good layers and don't need much water.

 

[Percheron chick]

I know nothing about ducks but there were maybe 20 muscovy at the bird swap in Brighton last week. Tons of others as well.

 

[trsturself]

I raise meal worms, they are really easy to raise/breed but take for ever to build a steady supply. In my case I can only feed once month but I have about 60 birds.I still do them because I sell some to friends for their canaries.
What I find really say to grow are dubia roaches and I can feed those about once a weeks to all my birds.Once you get over the gross factor they are really easy.

I've done both and prefer the meal worms. I felt like the bred faster and weren't nearly as creepy. I just couldn't get over the roaches and could never touch them. I originally raised both for lizards but when they died I tried feeding them to the chickens and they didn't like them. So that was a great reason to stop. I did meal worms for quite awhile though. Only stopped when we put our house on the market.

 

[Minchi]

FRACK!!!!! Last day of isolation for my SLW and she becomes an egg eater. Heading out for the mustard.

 

[Godiva]

What is the mustard for Minchi? For cooking her? Or some interesting way to break her of the nasty habit? We are about to move and since we had no idea we were going to buy a place right now, I had ordered chicks for a few days before we close!!! How crazy is that!! And it turns out that the place we are buying you are not supposed to have chickens. I guess we are going to be doing some serious radar avoidance!! I am bummed because I was so looking forward to breeding some Salmon Faverolles and Silkies and now there is no way to keep a roo for each breed. They'd be yelling to let everyone know we are being naughty ... hard to hide roosters I'm going to see if a friend wants a roo of each kind since she doesn't have a roo yet. Maybe we can work a plan where he comes to visit the ladies every now and again ?!

 

[trsturself]

What is the mustard for Minchi? For cooking her? Or some interesting way to break her of the nasty habit? We are about to move and since we had no idea we were going to buy a place right now, I had ordered chicks for a few days before we close!!! How crazy is that!! And it turns out that the place we are buying you are not supposed to have chickens. I guess we are going to be doing some serious radar avoidance!! I am bummed because I was so looking forward to breeding some Salmon Faverolles and Silkies and now there is no way to keep a roo for each breed. They'd be yelling to let everyone know we are being naughty ... hard to hide roosters I'm going to see if a friend wants a roo of each kind since she doesn't have a roo yet. Maybe we can work a plan where he comes to visit the ladies every now and again ?!

You blow out an egg and then fill with mustard and other yucky stuff so when the egg eater breaks the egg open they don't get the yummy stuff they were expecting. Ceramic or wooden eggs are also used so that they can't break them and give up.

Good luck! I've heard some egg eaters break easy and others are difficult.

I'm wondering if I have one also. I saw an egg shell on the ground the other day and insides in a nest, but just that once. I do feel like some days I'm getting a lot fewer than I should though. I'm keeping watch and crossing my fingers I don't have one.

 

[Minchi]

You blow out an egg and then fill with mustard and other yucky stuff so when the egg eater breaks the egg open they don't get the yummy stuff they were expecting. Ceramic or wooden eggs are also used so that they can't break them and give up.

Good luck! I've heard some egg eaters break easy and others are difficult.

I'm wondering if I have one also. I saw an egg shell on the ground the other day and insides in a nest, but just that once. I do feel like some days I'm getting a lot fewer than I should though. I'm keeping watch and crossing my fingers I don't have one. 

Thanks

I had to isolate her for two weeks because she was attacking them (My 2 new chicks) and had not laid for the 4 months. Today was move her back outside in a holding pen next to the main pen day. Some time in between the 5 hours I was gone this morning she learned she liked eggs. She is inspecting the new egg now.... I hope I caught this early enough that a few mustard eggs and golf balls are all I need.

(I need to remember to provide context)

 

[Ashdoes]

So, even though none of my chickens are acting sick or anything, they have tapeworms, I see them in the poo very often. I've used Valbazen twice, first at the regular dose, then a full cc. Still, the tapeworms persisted. After some research I found I needed to use a horse wormer, meant for tapeworm. So this evening we gave each bird a pea size amount, and this should take care of it. In the morning they're getting buttermilk, to help their insides clean out.
I've decided though, not to continue any further with new wormers. The chickens are actually quite hefty and happy. My husband held each, while I fed the wormer, and he commented each time on their size, especially my cochin hens. A couple of my girls are starting to molt, so I really want to be done with all this.

 

[Minchi]

So, even though none of my chickens are acting sick or anything, they have tapeworms, I see them in the poo very often. I've used Valbazen twice, first at the regular dose, then a full cc. Still, the tapeworms persisted. After some research I found I needed to use a horse wormer, meant for tapeworm. So this evening we gave each bird a pea size amount, and this should take care of it. In the morning they're getting buttermilk, to help their insides clean out.
I've decided though, not to continue any further with new wormers. The chickens are actually quite hefty and happy. My husband held each, while I fed the wormer, and he commented each time on their size, especially my cochin hens. A couple of my girls are starting to molt, so I really want to be done with all this.

I would give them a nice big pumpkin for breakfast as well. I have heard many times it is a natural dewormer, I think it is the seeds. Maybe someone here has use this and can offer a more solid opinion though.

note: I saw some articles on it being used for tape worms in dogs.... http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/pumpkin-seeds-natural-worms-dogs/