At last, happy chickens!

[Chicken.Lytle]

My chickens have been very angry with me lately because of confinement and lax treat delivery. Today I redeemed myself by letting them free range a bit. Oh the chickeny joy !

Do you have to make amends when you annoy your flock?

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

See! My post is invisible!!

 

[hallerlake]

I try to let my girls free range for a few hours most days. They do love it. If I try to put them back in too soon, they refuse to go in, even for cracked corn and BOSS.

Chicken.Lytle :

My chickens have been very angry with me lately because of confinement and lax treat delivery. Today I redeemed myself by letting them free range a bit. Oh the chickeny joy !

Do you have to make amends when you annoy your flock?​

 

[gryeyes]

Chicken.Lytle :

See! My post is invisible!!

Oh, ye of little patience!

I am so very glad I don't get snow around here, so my flock can free range all the time. However, we've had rain and everything gets muddy and mucky and my chickens are.... they look like little ragamuffin kids. Like nobody cares enough to make them take baths. Or is too poor to afford bathing water. *sigh*

But they still get mad at me for other reasons, and I have to redeem myself with hand-fed treats.​

 

[magicpigeon]

Mine get PO at everything. The usual treatment is a small amount of RECTOGESIC with their layer pellets. HAHA, revenge

 

[juliawitt]

OK, here is another mention of BOSS. I am trying to up my girl's protein. They are molting, it is cold and light is down. They look terrible and I have seen feather picking/eating. I do not like the brand of commercial feed my husband picked up, so even though it has 16% protein, I believe the feather picking is a result of the need for more protein. What is BOSS and where do I get it? Went to the feedstore yesterday, and they had no idea what I was wanting. Gave them a flock block, some cottage cheese with cooked oatmeal. Would love to try BOSS during this stressful time for my girls but where do you find it?

 

[pinkyglory123]

Well it is in the teens here maybe 32 on a great day, wind is howling, we have had snow. my hens free range all day everyday. Only locked in at night. Sometimes the wind blows them sideways so they don't always end up exactly where they were heading for but they generally find a sheltered spot even in the worst weather to sun, get out of the wind, roll in the dust. Even my chicks which are about a month and a half follow mom out but are pretty sensible and prefer to sun inside together. They are not like us-they are built for the weather. mine are on flock raiser because of the chicks and are laying like machines with no vices. Chickens like to be chickens except the NH hen who likes to get in the car. They are usually pretty content to go in on their own when dusk settles although they watch me thru the windows when I leave and arrive. Chickens like to be chickens and love to free range. They are adventurers, explorers always looking around the next corner.

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
BOSS is Black Oil Sunflower Seed. It's available just about anywhere that carries livestock feed or seed for wild birds. I usually get it at the feed store b/c it's a bit cheaper there than the hardware store. I just have to buy it in bigger bags at the feed store.

 

[Judy]

I buy it in my grocery store, and it's always in pet stores and usually in WalMart. I believe it's sold mostly to people with bird feeders for wild birds. I recently read on here it's only about 20% protein so that's not much of a boost, though. Another thing to look at is game bird feed, sometimes as high as 25%. You can feed layers most any feed if you provide oyster shell so they can boost their own calcium. Molting birds really don't need the calcium anyway, as a rule, while they are molting, because they don't lay.

I believe most of these pecking and picking and feather eating problems are due to too little space. Chickens are foragers, and it is stressful on them not to have the space to do this, and 10 sq ft of grass-free run just isn't going to do it, IMO.