Arizona Chickens

[Gallo del Cielo]

yes exactly what I meant. Your treadle feeder looks neat but I have gone to fermented feed so feed mostly early in the morning, the birds clean up most of it in a short time. I check in the middle of the afternoon and if it is all gone give another smaller feeding. Around here a lot of people feed the wild birds and there are thousands of sparrows. When feed was out all the time the place was literally covered with them. since I started limited feeding I only see a couple at a time. I live just outside the limits of a small town and don't have any real close neighbors. Don't know what it would be like if I had more close neighbors that were feeding the wild birds.

You are fortunate for your rural location, I'm envious for that. I wouldn't even mind people feeding the wild birds (use to feed them myself), but I think most of it ends up going to non-native birds at the detriment of our native wild birds (at least here in town). The chickens do go crazy over the fermented feed, don't they? That would certainly encourage the chickens to eat it up before the wild birds get it.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Hello Chicken Friends

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Bootsie! Hi where you been? Missed you!

 

[City farm]

CITY FARM, I still have a few. Some broken, some disappeared. I had taken care of my mother for 5 years, then I could not handle it any longer. It is a very long story....... my nephew came here to SCW, and we lived in the same condo for a little over a year. He is still taking care of her.

Thanks. I have issues......

Yeah well I do not know anyone who doe not have issues...
Your plates look really cool... We have so many different plates,cups,glasses... Ect, we entertain & do not want to use plastic throw away cup.. Each one
is different... That way we all have a different glass.. I did take a pottery class.. Fun... I only have a few pieces left from them...
We now have a full doezen eggs.. .

 

[City farm]

quote name="maryhysong" url="/t/31227/arizona-chickens/32850#post_10197833"]yes exactly what I meant. Your treadle feeder looks neat but I have gone to fermented feed so feed mostly early in the morning, the birds clean up most of it in a short time. I check in the middle of the afternoon and if it is all gone give another smaller feeding. Around here a lot of people feed the wild birds and there are thousands of sparrows. When feed was out all the time the place was literally covered with them. since I started limited feeding I only see a couple at a time. I live just outside the limits of a small town and don't have any real close neighbors. Don't know what it would be like if I had more close neighbors that were feeding the wild birds.
[/quote]may I ask information on fermented food? Wher & how?
Explain? Please?

 

[maryhysong]

quote name="maryhysong" url="/t/31227/arizona-chickens/32850#post_10197833"]yes exactly what I meant. Your treadle feeder looks neat but I have gone to fermented feed so feed mostly early in the morning, the birds clean up most of it in a short time. I check in the middle of the afternoon and if it is all gone give another smaller feeding. Around here a lot of people feed the wild birds and there are thousands of sparrows. When feed was out all the time the place was literally covered with them. since I started limited feeding I only see a couple at a time. I live just outside the limits of a small town and don't have any real close neighbors. Don't know what it would be like if I had more close neighbors that were feeding the wild birds.

may I ask information on fermented food? Wher & how?
Explain? Please?[/QUOTE]
I first read about fermenting chicken feed here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds

This blog has a page with a good summary for beginners if you don't want to wade through the long thread, tho it does have a lot of good info. http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

In a nutshell you moisten the feed with water and add either unpasturized apple cider vinegar with it's mother or some whey from yogurt. The bacteria sort of predigest the food and in the process make some nutrients more available. The bacteria are also good for the gut and help with the digestive process, which also increases the amount of nutrients available to the bird. Folks are reporting reduced feed usage on average about one fourth to one third the usual amount. ***You leave some feed in the bucket to innoculate the next batch, so normally you do not have to keep adding the whey or vinegar each time. After awhile your bucket of fermenting feed will smell like vinegar and the longer you keep it going the better it seems to get.

Fermented feed reduces pasty butt and cocci in chicks. It eliminates the diarrhea and stench of CornishX meat chicks. People are reporting an increase in the size of the egg yolk and many will be keeping records this spring to see if bigger yolks lead to bigger chicks.

Being moist it is harder for the birds to scratch the feed out of the feeder so less is wasted. Being moist also means that the finer bits swell up and stick together so they get eaten too.

You can ferment any kind of feed or grain.

Some chickens can be reluctent to eat it in the beginning, but if that is the only thing offered they will eat it at least in a day or two and after that they are pigs at the trough. I have birds swarming me when I open the gate, jumping into the bucket before I get all the way into the pen, even tho there is a little bit of feed left in the trough from the day before. My chicks get it from the first day.

 

[maryhysong]

You are fortunate for your rural location, I'm envious for that. I wouldn't even mind people feeding the wild birds (use to feed them myself), but I think most of it ends up going to non-native birds at the detriment of our native wild birds (at least here in town). The chickens do go crazy over the fermented feed, don't they? That would certainly encourage the chickens to eat it up before the wild birds get it.

That is exactly why I don't feed the wild birds. It only seems to be breeding English sparrows, a hundred of them to a pair of cardinals or jays, dove or quail. Actually if changing my feeding method and routine had not stopped the sparrows I was seriously considering looking into sparrow traps.

Yes the chickens love the FF, My older birds dove right into it from the beginning and my day old chicks get it from the beginning. Really helping them shine.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Chickens love mice, if they can catch them. Cool, I just noticed the problem so hopefully they will take care of it. I am seeing them mostly at night when they sleep though. Between the mice and the sparrows, I go through a lot of food!

Sadly at night chickens are sleeping. I have seen video of chicken sleeping with mice raiding their food. Back to box mouse traps, they work, kind of. I made a mouse trap once, that worked. I duge a hole put a bucket in the hole with about an inch or so of water. i took a 3 PVC black pipes, they were scrape pieces I think they were more the 1-1/2". I put a piece of plywood I had, a little larger then the bucket and hole, from the center of the wood I hunge a string, knotted up packed with Resses candy (mice love chocolate and peanut butter). The bait was more then an 2 inches above the water (not critical, high enough that a mouse can not reach it when in the water). I put the wood on the PVC pipes then covered it with a little dirt. The mice smell the Resses, goes in the pipe fallers in the bucket........ I had a couple of live mice on top of a buch of dead ones in 2 nights and one day. The Resses was gone, I think the string was to thin for them to climb. I' sure there is an easier way to catch mice. Oh, it works with gophers and one moles. But for them just the hole in the ground, bucket and water. They were after the water. I just remembered, mice love gum, bubble gum will constipate them..... A painful death, if you know what I mean. But bubble gum might do the same to chickens, so it may not be an option.

 

[notinoz2007]

i wanted to chime in on fermented feed. i read the same thread and parts of that blog and feed my chickens ff as well. nothing but good results here, their molt seemed less stressful and their feathers look very vibrant. i also feed a little in the morning and in the afternoon with less overall grain/scratch total and all the birds are well fed and growing. the yolks are actually much bigger, and more round - my friends have even commented on that. i encourage everyone to scan the info and see if it will work for your particular needs.

 

[parentwarrior]

I have to say...LOL With all this talk of sparrows, I love sparrows. They actually make the best pets if you get them when they are young, imprint on them and hand tame them. I know, unbelievable but true. I had one I rescued and syringed fed that would sleep in my silk tree at night, full set of wings so he could fly. He would only go to the places in the house I exposed him to when young, never any other rooms or places. Never would he land on the kitchen counter, I didn't show him that it OK when young. When I had food he would sit on my shoulder staring at my mouth waiting for me to share. He was so interactive and moody at times because I didn't know the rules, sparrow bird rules. Like he has to be in his 'night night' spot at dusk. He would have a hissy fit if the door to the bedroom was closed because he slept in our bedroom at night. He would throw a fit until I opened the door. He sat with me in the evenings when I watched TV. I would sit with this pink pillow on my lap, my dog on one side and my sparrow on the other. It was so funny, they would spat about each staying on their side...LOL It was the coolest pet! I don't have him anymore, he got loose outside one day. He was in heat and mad at me because I wouldn't get in his nest (thought I was his mate) so he followed me out the door to chase after me. I know, weird. They are a crazy pet but fun when they are hand tamed.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I have doves were I am, few sparrows right now, and I haven't seen a house finch. I found a scattering of dove tail feathers in my covered chicken run to dy. when the door is open they go in, Clare, Vony, and Lucy chase the doves away in the yard. When they see a dove in their run I know they will charge the run. But I didn't see any thing. I wonder if one of them caught one? I would have loved to see that. [the 2 Americana's & RIR]