The pigeon feeder is gone thankfully. They moved away this summer.
They look like interesting chickens, and their being heat tolerant will be a big plus for you.
We're going to need pictures when the Fayoumis arrive!
No pigeons out here, but there are lots of wild birds. I do like watching them, but hope they don't spread diseases.
Opinions needed--someone here said that you can feed eggshells to chickens for calcium. I eat a lot of omelets, and have been rinsing the shells well, letting them dry, and saving them in a jar to feed to the chickens. Someone on another thread said they won't feed eggshells from store bought eggs because the chickens are fed and treated with things that might not be good for them, and some is probably present in the eggshell. People feed chicken to their chickens (would not do that, that is just wrong), and the meat of those chickens probably has pretty much the same bad stuff as the eggshells. Would you or would you not feed shells from store bought eggs to your chickens? And if you feed eggshells, wouldn't the edges be sharp and hurt their throats, or do they need to be powdered?
I mash the shells up a bit and toss onto the oyster shell pile and my flock loves them but...have you ever dropped an egg outside? My flock always ate the whole thing, shell and all. They broke it up themselves so they are well equipped to deal with it either way.We're going to need pictures when the Fayoumis arrive!
No pigeons out here, but there are lots of wild birds. I do like watching them, but hope they don't spread diseases.
Opinions needed--someone here said that you can feed eggshells to chickens for calcium. I eat a lot of omelets, and have been rinsing the shells well, letting them dry, and saving them in a jar to feed to the chickens. Someone on another thread said they won't feed eggshells from store bought eggs because the chickens are fed and treated with things that might not be good for them, and some is probably present in the eggshell. People feed chicken to their chickens (would not do that, that is just wrong), and the meat of those chickens probably has pretty much the same bad stuff as the eggshells. Would you or would you not feed shells from store bought eggs to your chickens? And if you feed eggshells, wouldn't the edges be sharp and hurt their throats, or do they need to be powdered?
Oh, i definitely DON'T want to know what I've spent this far!!
Ugh, speaking of which, i see rat droppings outside again. I suspect it's my neighbors leaving dog food outside. I have some bait stations on order.Excellent thoughts for half coffee capacity
I have shoes I wear only in my backyard and typically don’t let anyone out with my flock for the reasons you’ve mentioned. When I moved here we also had a new neighbor move in across the street. Come to find out he was dumping literally pounds of pigeon feed in his yard every day for the wild pigeons. I had a huge problem with them coming into my yard to eat chicken feed and once the people moved away it was even worse. There were easily 20 pigeons that died in my yard last summer alone. Eventually they were unable to fly so if I could catch them I’d throw them over the wall to the front yard and hope one of the neighborhood cats would get them. Otherwise they eventually couldn’t walk either. I called to see if I could get a necropsy on one of them but covid prevented it so I ended up putting down my entire flock of chickens. The only other place I ever got actual birds from was someone here and she doesn’t have issues in her flock. Otherwise I hatched my own eggs or eggs from people I trust. The difference is that her chickens are kept in a run, mine aren’t.
I am outside well before sunrise on a regular basis and I’m hearing a lot more roosters around the neighborhood, so there are quite a few people around here keeping chickens. If wild birds visit them, then come here they can spread disease. Rodents as well. Shoot even the wind can carry Marek’s in the dust and dander. This is why I really wanted to try out the EFs. They are supposed to be heat hardy and have disease resistance to Marek’s among other things.
I used to feed parrots that needed feather repair a scrambled egg with its shell mashed into the eggs. I did that even with males, and their feathers would start coming back. So as far as shell jagged edges, they will peck them down. I give my chickens a small scoop of oyster shell and grit with their feed on their morning bowl. (Totally regret starting up the morning bowls)!!We're going to need pictures when the Fayoumis arrive!
No pigeons out here, but there are lots of wild birds. I do like watching them, but hope they don't spread diseases.
Opinions needed--someone here said that you can feed eggshells to chickens for calcium. I eat a lot of omelets, and have been rinsing the shells well, letting them dry, and saving them in a jar to feed to the chickens. Someone on another thread said they won't feed eggshells from store bought eggs because the chickens are fed and treated with things that might not be good for them, and some is probably present in the eggshell. People feed chicken to their chickens (would not do that, that is just wrong), and the meat of those chickens probably has pretty much the same bad stuff as the eggshells. Would you or would you not feed shells from store bought eggs to your chickens? And if you feed eggshells, wouldn't the edges be sharp and hurt their throats, or do they need to be powdered?
