At our last meeting for the dUccle club, we discussed, heavily the fact that dUccles are getting way to big, which is a big concern, two of the breeders breeding for size and winning stated it was due to the amount if protein in all poultry feed. They have switched to a fine screened corn form the first 8 weeks going vitimans in the water and hay. Older birds get hay (winter and free range grass in summer) and scratch grains as they are lower in protein. They also get vitamins in water. Their sizes are coming down.
Good info. I'm constantly tweaking diets, whether it be for meat, egg or DP breeds. On the flip side of your situation, the birds I'm working with (and all the others with the same breed in the US) are a little on the light side. The hens are close to standard but the roos are a little light. For the near term I'm going to be starting them all on 22 % protein. At 8 weeks, I'm splitting the sexes and drop pullets to 16% till POL, I'll keep the cockerels on 22% till 12 weeks and drop them to 18%.
I'm fortunate to have a friend that wholesales a wide variety of feeds for all types of animals from parrots, to ferrets, to goats, to dogs, to fish.
Grower feeds are available in protein percentages of 16, 18, 22, 24 and 27. Layer/breeder feed in 17 and 20%. And now she has various types of organic feed.
She also has a 36% poultry concentrate and fishmeal that is about 65% protein.
I also get various types of peas, sunflower seed, wheat, barley, oats, flax and buckwheat. I both grow those and sprout them for chickens. Sprouting increases the vitamin and protein content of the seed/grain and reduces the digestive inhibiting mycotoxins that are present in most seeds.
Morning' fellow chicken addicts! I have a couple questions.
My hubs is an OTR truck driver so he goes all over. We live in rural Georgia so getting eggs, chicks, etc is pretty limited. If he were to pick up chicks and bring them home would they do okay? And if he's in y'all's area would you be willing to meet him? Since he obviously can't drive a semi most places not on a main road.
I've been trying to get a ride for a rooster from St. Louis to Ohio.
I thought OTR truckers could be a good option for transporting individual rare birds around the country.
If chicks are packed with sufficient numbers, like 20, they should be fine in the cab if it is comfortable for a person. In the back of the truck they might need a heat pack.
thank you! out of curiosity where did you get all your knowledge on nutrition for chickens? Im very into nutrition for my animals and have done lots of research on dogs and goats but have just started with my chickens because it seems more complicated than goats lol. Ill read those two links tho! and hopefully my one bag of layer pellets didnt over do it for my girls. from now on they will get a grower feed or an all flock feed because i will have roosters in there. I always thought it was interesting when reading the labels on the layer feeds that calcium was so high on the ingredients list. I even went to a local feed mill to try to feed my animals local feed but the chicken feed was just corn soybean meal and limestone. Considering im trying to stay away from GMOs and those are the two biggest GMO crops i didnt buy that feed lol but it was surprising to me that limestone would be the third ingredient but now i understand more. thanks again
I've been a nutrition Nazi most of my life which is the basis regardless of species. For poultry, I've done a lot of research, I worked in the commercial poultry feed industry, I've attended lectures by and spoken to poultry nutritionists.
As for your one bag of layer. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Danger of excess calcium is a cumulative issue, so feeding for a short period shouldn't have long term effects. To detox birds, changing the diet and plenty of water is the only remedy. You could try getting the grower now and mixing the 2.
last night it rained instead of snow and Power outage
omg i ran to my eggs as i got to them power came bacj on and now my bator is working better then ever lol ...that was a close 1
and im glad i remembered to throw someting on before i ran out to eggs in living room i had a house guest sleeping on couch as it was i scared him when i ran in and to think if i was naked too he might be blind LMBO
We've had a lot of cold, snow and ice. It may now hit 60 today but will be back in the teens by the end of the weekend with 4 days of rain and snow on the way. Winter is just starting. I just had my generator gone over and it got delivered today. I feel much better now that I'm prepared for power outages.
and im glad i remembered to throw someting on before i ran out to eggs in living room i had a house guest sleeping on couch as it was i scared him when i ran in and to think if i was naked too he might be blind LMBO
