Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[Eveil]

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I really liked reading her post thanks for sharing.

 

[Eveil]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Jeanette, that's normal... that chick will likely have more "color" than the others. Tag it, and watch it.

Rachel, I tried feeding my chickens the alfalfa, and they shunned it too. Every once in a while hubby scoops up the feed that the rabbits spill, and tosses it in the chicken run... they'll eat it then. I even tried the cubes. They just kicked them around until the ground absorbed them. They'd rather eat the hay out of the nest boxes. I don't know about the rabbits, though...
That sucks about the bag of feed... I'm guessing it DID get wet at one point. And then you risk all sorts of toxic stuff...

Ok so I have read about tagging and seen it but never done it. As I have a small flock never really needed to. Now my flock is getting bigger and I will need to. Is there a place around here that sells the tags cheep or dose it mater where I get tags? As far as type I have seen many different ones and color what type works best any thoughts?​

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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Ok so I have read about tagging and seen it but never done it. As I have a small flock never really needed to. Now my flock is getting bigger and I will need to. Is there a place around here that sells the tags cheep or dose it mater where I get tags? As far as type I have seen many different ones and color what type works best any thoughts?

Those itty bitty zip ties work.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

I have solved the problem of storing all this barley over the winter!!!!
http://howlingduckranch.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/imgp1401.jpg

It will need to be a bit smaller though.
We have cats, so we never have rodents around to worry about.
We have all the wood I need around here, from various projects and pallets we picked up over the summer.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Ok I just figured that an 80lb bag of feed from Budget lasts me about 8 days, more or less. I have 35 birds that are eating this feed now, that's 3.5lbs of feed a day per bird? Is that right, or am I WAY off??

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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That matches up with us quite well.
We have about 40 birds, and a bag lasts us about a week.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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As for per bird......split it this way. 80 pounds, 8 days, 35 birds, = 10 pounds per day, so it should be .28 pounds per bird per day.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Yeah my math was backwards...lol So that seems like not too much or too little? They get BOSS and scratch and leftovers daily too.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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If they are getting unlimited feed like ours our, along with the BOSS and scraps, then they doing just fine. In the summer, because we let them take over a much larger area, they eat about half that amount.

 

[Wolfwoman]

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If they are getting unlimited feed like ours our, along with the BOSS and scraps, then they doing just fine. In the summer, because we let them take over a much larger area, they eat about half that amount.

I am hoping when we get moved to the other cabin we can have a much larger space for them. Be nice to cut down on feed some. Am going to get some barley and supplement with that too - sprouted. That should help cut down too, and continue to let them have free feed of the Budget stuff.