I’ll try to find a picture, we had to cull him do to aggression issues but were surprised at his appearance as well. When we called tsc when he feathered out they confirmed he was Sapphire Gem, they didn’t sound too sure of the breed though.
We have a blended flock and have a second generation hen, her Roo was a sapphire gem that looked like a cooper maran, and her hen was obviously a buff brahma because she carries most of those characteristics. My question is, where did she get the green eggs??
Our gem and brahmas lay pale...
...my animals expell dead worms after use. Not at any other time.
For those who say it doesn’t work wet:
That’s if you are using it on insect exoskeletons which thankfully worms don’t have. External use dry, internal use wet.
Enjoy the cheap, easy, and effective all natural DE dewormer *bows...
Ok so 1) we decided we are probably going to drastically reduce flock size and work on managing a smaller flock in hopes of prices going down in the future. We will be keeping our homemade barnyard mix hens and retiring the original flock ladies. Hopefully bringing in some new blood next round...
It sounds absurd right? There’s literally folks one street over selling them that price, so can’t manage higher and get sales. Grocery stores cost more, but have consistent stock.
We store it in plastic containers to keep the rodents etc out. My husband has been putting the feed out every morning and it’s gone in a matter of minutes. We’ve never been able to free-feed these hens because they don’t stop eating. They also free range part time, and get scraps. I’m thinking...
I live in Eastern NC, and so even now we still have greens growing around the yard, we have woods full of bugs and piles of wood chips, compost, etc. I think they should be able to find what they need out and about with the feed as a supplement, but husband has been in the habit of filling...
We have a large family and need the eggs, though we’ve managed to sacrifice and sell a dozen here or there, at $2 a dozen (local value) it’s not offsetting anything. I’ve mentioned just reducing the flock and maybe getting some younger hens before summer (stretch the feed till the foraging is...
We do give them all the kitchen scraps, which is a pail-ful daily, and they free range half the day, but at about 20 hens they eat a large bag of feed every week. Are we overfeeding them? I wonder.
I’ve seen online that some people go feed-free with whole grain berries, bugs, and other foraging.
Has anyone here tried to cut back amounts by a good deal or even entirely omitted chicken feed?
I was planning on letting them summer over my garden bed this year instead of gardening, but...