Recent content by DaveBeaty

If you read the chicken ordinance thread local governments have already been doing this for decades. Despite the second amendment talk, I'll wager dollars to doughnuts that no one on this board (and very few people in the entire country) is willing to shoot a police officer to prevent them from...

If I recall correctly, the issue with avocados was that a while back on the board there was a tale of someone's parrot dying after eating avocado. Therefore the thought was that avocados were poisonous to birds. No one wanted to test that hypothesis and risk killing their chicken. I am glad...

A Florida Department of Agriculture study found that adding orange pulp to commercial laying chickens' diet caused them to lay fewer eggs. The results of the study came out as "Don't feed your chickens citrus". This had gotten mis-interpreted as "Citrus is bad for chickens". A later study in...

Try Bermuda, foxtails, and crabgrass. No, seriously. Most people complain that they can't get rid of these types of weed grass, so maybe they can stand up to chickens.

From personal experience, Purina dog chow is fine for chickens. After coyotes got our pug (no more small dogs at in-laws place!) I fed 10 pounds of it to my three New Hampshire Reds. I wish they ate squash bugs so well.

Chocolate is not toxic to chickens. I fed my New Hampshire rooster Mario over a pound of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips. It had no detrimental effect on him. Next time I get ticked off at him, I will fire up the scalding pot and break out the avocados for another...

It is my understanding that the older and funkier the yogurt, the better! Since chickens are not mammals, they lack the enzyme lactase to digest milk sugar, or lactose. The bacteria that ferments milk into yogurt (lactobaccilus being the most famous) help convert that lactose into other...

I switched to pellets when I found out my "waste" was actually feeding little birds that could fly through the welded wire of the run! The chickens scooped it out of their feeder looking for their old food at first, but I made them eat it off the ground, and now they realize that is their food...

I know chickens will eat leftover deer... I seriously have found very little a chicken won't eat (bindweed and squash bugs are on the reject list). You may wish to wait until the chicks are eating grit with their food before introducing "exotic" foodstuffs.

Quote: I'm in Los Lunas, keeping a tiny (two hens, 1 rooster) flock of New Hampshires (or New Hampshire Reds? Who the heck gets to determine how a breed is designated?) looking to aquire some more or hatch my own.

Good grief that is a tad pricey! How many eggs were you looking to hatch at a time? I am a big fan of Brinsea incubators. The Brinsea Octagon 40 hold 40 chicken eggs (more quail, as the egg dividers are adjustable) and includes autoturning for about $500.

I switched mine at a little less than 1 year old mainly because I was tired of the tweety birds stealing all the crumbles! Of course, the chickens shoveled 25 pounds of it out of the feeder (looking for the old food, perhaps?). Sooooooo, no pasture and no scraps until they ate the pellets! By...

Here is one my Uncle Ted used to sing to my family when I was a child: I had a chicken, but no eggs would she lay, I had a chicken, but no eggs would she lay. I had a chicken, but no eggs would she lay, I had a chicken, but she wouldn't lay eggs. One day this rooster, came into our yard, and...

I am game for the swap in Edgewood. This Saturday the 26th, 9 AM, Edgewood Feed Store, 92 Church street, correct? On a semi-related note, my source for New Hampshire Reds NHRs (La Quinta feed store in Los Lunas) seems to be getting out of the chick supplying business, but I just happen to...

Coyotes got my dog. His Purina Dog Chow has been supplementing the chicken feed.