Recent content by petitbleu88

We have pretty bad predator problems, too. I had a flock of guineas get eaten by a pair of bobcats and a hawk, but this happened at night or at the break of dawn, not during the day. Our property is fenced--not chicken tight, but it is fenced--and there is plenty of thick cover for them if they...

I really wish bringing them indoors was an option, but unfortunately it's not. We could put steel roofing on their tractor, though, and I can see letting them free range during the day. They would all come back to the coop at night, right?

We're entering our first heat wave in Tennessee, and I'm worried about my flock. We have our chicken tractor in an area where there is absolutely no shade whatsoever. We have covered the tractor with a tarp to create shade for them, but I don't know if this helps or hurts because I worry about...

Thanks! Another great suggestion. Since I have so few chickens I could probably just buy most of the ingredients by the pound at my local food coop. As for the "food-grade" fish meal, I just meant fish meal that is safe for consumption by animals. I've found a lot of agricultural fish meal, but...

No worries. I appreciate the reply, and if I have to, I will probably use soy meal. I just didn't realize that fish meal would be so hard to source.

By "feed store" I meant farmers' coop. We have several of those in the area, but none of them carry fish meal, which I found odd. To my knowledge there are no mills near me.

Oh, sorry, I meant fish meal! Thanks again.

Thanks for the link! That's really helpful because I couldn't seem to find it at any of the feed stores near us, and getting anywhere out here is a big deal--45 minutes to the closest grocery store. I have a small flock (7 hens and a rooster), so I only need a small amount of the kelp, making...

Since I'm already using split peas in my feed, I'm wondering if using another bean would be appropriate. I would also prefer to do without soybeans in any form if possible. My dilemma is mostly that I can't seem to find food-grade fish meal. If anyone knows of a good source (I live in a very...

Cultured dairy products are a perennial favorite in my flock--yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, clabbered milk...they go crazy. Then, bugs and chickweed. I always bring my hens lots of chickweed in the spring when it grows everywhere, and I'm starting to wonder if it acquired the name "chickweed"...

I'm in the process of mixing my own chicken feed, and the recipe I'm using calls for fish meal. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it anywhere. I've searched at local farmers' coops, and I even looked on the Fertrell site to see if there were any dealers near me, which there aren't. Is there a...

Two days ago, I noticed that one of my roosters was limping. After close inspection of the foot in question, I noticed no sign of anything being wrong--no scabs or cuts or wounds. I felt the foot and the thigh to see if something was broken, but again, nothing. Could it simply be a sprained leg...

Last fall, one of my friends gave me several chickens that were about 20 weeks old. After a very warm, wet winter, all but two of my hens died, and so I had almost given up hope on this batch of chickens. Lo and behold, my two remaining hens went broody and are sharing the responsibility of a...

Thanks for the advice. After doing all that reading I was starting to think that keeping chickens was really complicated.

I recently inherited a small flock of chickens and I've had two die in the past four weeks, one from anemia due to worms and another from unknown causes. I really want to take good care of these beautiful birds, and I've been reading relentlessly about chickens, but I confess that every time I...