The Buckeye Thread

[sumi]

He's a pic of a 11 week old cockerel that is really growing out nicely. I finally got one to stand still. I walked over and he let me pick him up; he weighs 4 1/2 lbs.....he shows great promise with a full breast and big thighs.

Quote: Very nice!

 

[Turk Raphael]

Dairy goats are another great addition to a farm. You should visit our sister site, BackYardHerds.com's goat section. BYH is tiny compared to BYC, but we have a lovely bunch of people over there and some great discussions. I'm thinking about getting some dairy goats at some point, but I don't know if I'll have the space to spare for them. We shall see... Have you thought about getting some pigs? Now those things are useful on a farm! Low maintenance, good at clearing land, easiest thing in the world to feed and they grow to a decent slaughter size in 5-6 months only.

Thanks for the link, sumi. We certainly have considered raising pigs. We had them on the farm for decades while grand dad was living and he had a very effective area built for them out of cinder block walls and concrete flooring, with a very large area on the down hill side for 'mud'. We always kept Yorkshires and later Landrace whites. I think we will go with the Landrace because they make for excellent bacon.

We're far ahead in the moving, thanks to some sympathetic friends who chipped in yesterday and today. The last thing to do at the old place is clean it up really well and of course...sell it!

Question.We are considering using fermented feed with our chickens. Does anyone have any experience with that? I can find no down side in my reading but I'm thinking there must be one. Any input on this subject will be very much appreciated.

Again..thanks for the link!

Turk

 

[sumi]

I don't use FF myself, but the members I spoke to who does, raves about it. Have you looked at the threads on the topic here? Type "fermented feed" into the search bar to pull them up.

 

[Regin]

Quote:

Quote: I have been using fermented feed for about a year now. I am raising all my chicks on it now.
The good points, better bioavailable nutrition, better digestive health, less stinky, less waste, lower costs. I think it helps to prevent cocci but that's just my opinion.
Downside; requires preplanning, messier, more labor intensive. The chicks get it on them. You have to sprinkle some dry food to get the chicks started for a few days.

 

[Turk Raphael]

Quote:
I have been using fermented feed for about a year now. I am raising all my chicks on it now.
The good points, better bioavailable nutrition, better digestive health, less stinky, less waste, lower costs. I think it helps to prevent cocci but that's just my opinion.
Downside; requires preplanning, messier, more labor intensive. The chicks get it on them. You have to sprinkle some dry food to get the chicks started for a few days.

Thanks. We're going to give it a go. After thinking about a bit, it can't hurt to do it for the pigs too. Grand pa used to gather 'slop' from restaurants and I don't know where from and if anything had ever 'fermented' before it was fed to an animal, that stuff was...even in the hottest summer months and the pigs were always in great shape and raised very large litters of piglets and the sows just poured with milk. All they got was the slop, wheat middlings and whey from the cows.

Sorry...I'll try to stick to chickens...I don't know if there's a pork thread...

Turk

Very nice!

I'd love to see more pictures of other members' birds. I would give me a better idea of what I'm looking for. The SOP is one thing, but I'm a very visual person and seeing pics of very nice birds will help me greatly.

Turk

 

[FireAntFarmer]

Ok, this broody chicken crap has got to end. My hen is still insane. She is quarantined from nest laying materials and has been in a pet taxi for the last two nights. My other three hens have not laid an egg for the last two days. Sympathetic broodiness???

Maybe I should just look for fertile eggs and let her hatch them. Out of four hens do I have go through this every year? Can it happen more than once in a year or does it just occur in the spring?

 

[Sydney Acres]

Ok, this broody chicken crap has got to end. My hen is still insane. She is quarantined from nest laying materials and has been in a pet taxi for the last two nights. My other three hens have not laid an egg for the last two days. Sympathetic broodiness???

Maybe I should just look for fertile eggs and let her hatch them. Out of four hens do I have go through this every year? Can it happen more than once in a year or does it just occur in the spring?

Don't give up too soon. You're half way home. I made the mistake of letting one of mine free after 2 days. She mingled with the flock all morning, then in the evening went back to the nest. Had to start the time all over again.

How often they brood depends on the individual line, and the individual bird. About 1/2 of my hens never brood. Of the ones that do, about 1/2 of them will abandon the nest when the eggs are removed and they are picked up off the nest 3-4 times a day. That leaves about 1/4 total that go into a full brood. Of those birds, about 2/3 brood only once a year, or only once every 2-3 years. The remainder will brood 2-4 times a year. So far this year I have 3 birds that are in their second brood since February, but they are all from a very broody line.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Broodiness is a very individual thing. I think it's certainly more likely to happen in the spring (depending on where you live of course), but it can happen any time of the year. Some hens will only go broody once in their life, others will make an annual thing of it, and some will go broody several times a year (some extremely broody birds, for example, have been known to be broody almost as soon as they start laying, raise their clutch, and then go broody again a month or less after kicking their chicks out of the nest).

 

[slfarms]

Buckeyes seem like angels in comparison to our broody turkey. Good lord she went from wanted petted to acting like a dragon within a week. I'm not trying to move her at this point. I need more egg layers even if what she is sitting on is buckeye and leghorn crosses. All my utility hens hid their lays and the turkey found them. Ugh

 

[FireAntFarmer]

All very good and interesting information. I'll stick with the program and see what happens.
Towards the end of the day, just before I let them out of the tractor to free range before dark and coop lockdown, I threatened to eat them all if I didn't get my eggs...hahaha. Thirty minutes later, I had two eggs.