Arizona Chickens

[The Critter Place]

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My x MIL used to say all he had to do was breath. lol...

I must say he's my favorite.

Oh, that voice. He does commercials that make me want to buy a truck and drink domestic beer.

You got it! And you sound like me!

And the smile, and twinkle in his eyes!

 

[Tracydr]

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Kefir should still be good if you refrigerated it after the first day. Strain it and start some more. You can make yourself a smoothies or "cream cheese" with the extra. Lots of things to do with the extra. Ranch dressing with hidden valley ranch, marinade in place of buttermilk. I marinated some chicken in it last night before " frying" it. It was so delicious!
I would start lowering the brooder temperature. Did you make any kefir with those kefir grains? If you did, start giving them kefir. If not, are they getting apple cider vinegar? Give them organic apple cider vinegar and a bit of store bought kefir.
I haven't had any pasty butt with mine. Last summer I had some and they didn't get kefir. They also had a more stressful shipping. I think the cheese is probably fine. I wouldn't keep using the sugar, that's just for the hump the first couple of days.

Thanks Tracy - Temp lowered 2 or so days ago. I set up the kefir but havn't used any of it. Is it still goood? Sugar discontinued but vitamins still in the water.

 

[Tracydr]

Tofu is another great high protein treat, if you're not opposed to soy. Mine love it. Also, nutritional yeast. It's loaded with b-vitamins and protein. You can buy large containers in the bulk section of Sprouts. It's a vegan substitute for Parmesan cheese. I've been using it as their b- vitamin " pre-mix" for their homemade chick food. I also give a sprinkle of kelp. They get scrambled or hard boiled eggs, which they love, as well. Bits of cooked meats. Sesame seeds are also high in good proteins.
Oh, BTW, the wheat sprouts really fast, too. Mine still eat the fenugreek, first. I think I'm going to try planting some fenugreek in the garden for the big chickens.

 

[The Critter Place]

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WOW! This is some great info!

I need to back track and print all the treats and nutritional info you've give!
Thanks so much Tracy!

 

[tball chicky]

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Please don't laugh - but how do you make sprouts? And out of what?

 

[The Critter Place]

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Please don't laugh - but how do you make sprouts? And out of what?

Hi tball!
No one is going to laugh, we all need to start somewhere!

Now, it's late and I'm about brain dead so I'm not guaranteeing how much help I will be.

A sprout is basically the start of a plant. When you plant a garden, the first little bit of the plant that pokes through is the sprout.

Now for sprouts for our selves or out pets , we go about it a little differently. Tracy helped me in a post earlier, that I need to try and find with seed suggestions and method.

Basically you take your seed of choice, soak it some in water, then drain it. Cover the container and keep moist, and in a few days you will see the start of growth, the sprout.

The birds I have, chickens, quail all love them! And people too! They can be used in place of lettuce. Like Broccoli , radish, alfalfa, and many more.

 

[tball chicky]

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Please don't laugh - but how do you make sprouts? And out of what?

Hi tball!
No one is going to laugh, we all need to start somewhere!

Now, it's late and I'm about brain dead so I'm not guaranteeing how much help I will be.

A sprout is basically the start of a plant. When you plant a garden, the first little bit of the plant that pokes through is the sprout.

Now for sprouts for our selves or out pets , we go about it a little differently. Tracy helped me in a post earlier, that I need to try and find with seed suggestions and method.

Basically you take your seed of choice, soak it some in water, then drain it. Cover the container and keep moist, and in a few days you will see the start of growth, the sprout.

The birds I have, chickens, quail all love them! And people too! They can be used in place of lettuce. Like Broccoli , radish, alfalfa, and many more.

Hey thanks! I couldn't figure out how you'd make plant sprouts without planting seeds. I'll have to try that. Thanks again

 

[The Critter Place]

Glad I could help.

I'll try and find the post from Tracy tonight or in the morning and post it for you.

 

[tball chicky]

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Awesome - thanks!

 

[tball chicky]

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If you can find a nice size, cheap wine cooler, they are easy to convert and work well. Mine is a Danby (they make great incubators, but are sucky wine coolers, so you often find them broken for cheap). With mine, the temperature gauges for the top and bottom zone work, and probably 4 or 5 of the 6 fans. It used to be 5, but we think one went out because the temps were suddenly not stable, but we can't find it without moving the cooler. So, we added a fan to the bottom, which makes the temps really super stable.
You just cut out the compressor, drill holes in the bottom back of the cooler, add a light kit or two (we did two, in case one goes out), install them, and connect the plugs to a thermostat, we used a reptile thermostat. It turns it on at 98.8 and off at 99.8. This seems to be the ideal temp range since now our seramas are hatching on day 21, instead of day 19. We got a humidity / temp gauge that is meant to go in a cigar box, it's a nice inexpensive digital gauge. We also added two egg turners after a bit. Now that I'm doing dry incubation, I barely ever have to even open it, except to take eggs out or put them in. Of course if it didn't have fans, we would probably need more fans than the one mini desk fan. On ours the temp gauge, the lights and the fans all run independent of the compressor. It looked like they all were on the same plug, but when we took it apart, the compressor was plugged into the main power.
The hardest thing was figuring out how it was wired, and how to take the compressor off without damaging the wiring to the fans and lights / temp gauge. It turned out much easier than it looked. Once we had the compressor unbolted, it was obvious how to do it. But we spent probably half an hour staring at it before we were brave enough to unbolt it.

Thanks...I'll be on the look for one of these then

Sounds easy enough (for hubby anyway)

Hey...do you think a mini-fridge (that doesn't work so well) would work for an incubator? Same basic concept as the wine cooler right?