There just has to be a genetic aspect involved in it.........No wild ducks except human fed populations develop angel wing right?? so that screams thats its dietary...but I have a local lake with probably 300 geese and 500 ducks........all fed bread etc 100 times a day by people. There...
that was starting with 19% starter and dropping to 15% ......the calc. says add 50lbs oats to 50 lbs of feed......I am not comfortable with that diet at all
my muscovy mamas are super protective. they do just fine staying integrated and never being seperated for me. The mamas turn into pitbulls if anyone messes with babies
i know i read that in his book and was part of the reason for my belief before. I just think there has to be at least a genetic tendency for it based on my observations
ok here is my scenario that makes me feel angel wing must be genetic.
I have Muscovy ducks 2 drakes 5 hens. one drake has angel wing. the other does not. no hens have it. After reading some stuff I had decided that angel wing was dietary or at least dietary stimulated with genetic...
I know it will differ with variables and management styles etc but there also has to be a range those numbers will generally fall in. especially within a bioregion.
a general point I was trying to make is I think numbers like 10 sq ft in a static run cause ground and potentially water...
Right. there are soooooooo many variables to it and I know this is a chicken keeping forum so thats the main topic. My issue is can the ground, water, vegatation handle it? not the chickens. obviously medicated, vaccinated etc birds can live and produce in 18 sq in battery cages but also...
I see what your saying but even 6 chickens maxs out a 1/8 acre lot if 100% of the lot gets that manure shared. I just think that even 50% of that manure in that 60sq ft is way too much.
I get the bird health part of the sq ft. But what I've seen for the 50/acre was on manure load I think. I dont see anyway you could feed 87 chickens off 1 acre of forage alone but that would be awesome. Do you happen to recall where you saw that? not because I dont believe you, just...
So I constantly see this question come up about how big a coop and run should be. You basically see the same 4 sq ft inside 10 outside etc etc..... But to me there is a huge lack of information and consideration missing from that stance. The carrying capacity of the land those chickens...
Dumping old hay in there gives them a bug fest too........Can you rotate them????? thats really the key. try to establish anything in a run with constant scratching, heavy nitrogen etc is tough. you will need to fence around most things until they get going........also plant stuff around...
that depends how comfortable you are around tools and building things. Kits will always cost more than the same coop you just build.
there needs to be something....hay, straw, leaves, wood shavings, sand etc