formulate a flock grower feed you can use to either egg layer or meat producing bird. laying feed goes to adult hens. it cant be to chicks calcium too high for them.
it is good to give milk as a treat and mix it to their feed but was wondering the French Bresse chicken was fattened using corn, wheat and fresh milk. Might be a good fattening feed to finish about to be butchered roosters.
the bag you bought is some sort of pickstone for the birds when they need it they'll pick it up. leave it to a tray accessible to the birds just give enough to last a week. you must provide clean stuff everytime but in this case every week if possible they should get fresh supply.
it depends on the egg laying breed you have. by standard, laying mash should be given to fowl laying eggs to support the egg shell forming and protein to complete the process.
now if the poorer layer might have some sort of disturbance example sickness, nutritional deficiency or stress. you...
feeding corn is one of the oldest and never die practices but will only supply partial vitamins to your birds' diet and is helpful to survive the freezing winter cold.
layer feed is good for dual purpose birds for it will support strenous egg laying for the hens, if free range cant provide the...
"teach" your birds to roost where you want them, rooster, hen, cockerel or pullet.
at night, place them one by one to your desired roost location.
make sure the roost has no light or else the birds will go nowhere.
do this untl they "learn" to locate the roost before nightfall.
Free ranging enables your flock to get nutrients from soil, enable to grow to their fullest physicality and fertilize it with their manure. The birds act natural as they can be, regulate their temp by dustbaths or sunbath for vitamin D. Run and fly and roost at night. Applicable to those who...
sometimes occurences of stunting will happen if there's a bird that gets picked on. i would recommend that you isolate the younger ones because this will subject them to stress and since adults are hurting them it prevents them to eat and grow normally.
the birds that get picked on will...
you can check this out http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/Nutri-Drench-32-Ounce/Poultry-Vitamins-Supplements
nutridench contains methionine. mix it in drinking water for 1 month, if situation improves 3x times a week alternate with clean water.
sometimes it is just random and if they're hungry they can as well but i would recommend to observe behavior first. give them time if they're around 8-9 mos and still peckin at you its time to think a very best recipe. lol
feather eaters lack methionine which is causing them to pluck and eat feathers. those feather eaters and pluckers must be isolated and provided with vitamins including methionine in feed for 2 weeks. reintegrate the birds and continue providing methionine for 4 weeks.
you need to review and...
what worked for me is i grew the roosters away from the hens. when the roosters grew big, i let them loose with the hens. the hens gave in easily because the roosters are big and brave enough. the roosters will learn eventually.
dosage of yakult doesnt need to be every day. 3x a week in drinking water their should improve their health. it contains skim milk w/c provides additional protein.
might as well consider other hens from other breeds like australorp and new hampshire could basically make the cross interesting or freedom ranger hens could basically provide you a more multi-colored variety.
if you keep the eggs for table thats ok.
inbreeding starts the defective genes...
flighty ones will have the tendency to stray away and get adventurous. might as well search in this forum galleries for best run and coop designs that will give you ideas. roosting the birds takes time and you have to "teach" them where to find the roost and settle in for the night.