Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Correct me if I'm wrong ( Fancy would know) but corn is a " Hot feed " meaning it will increase body metabolism and make the girls hotter. This is why cracked corn is fed to race horses

Corn has little nutritional value. It is said to change eye colour in birds and most showies avoid like the plague.
In my search for ' natural ' chick starter I found that most of the organic products are essentially crushed corn . That is a problem especially with silkies as they are renowned for being lousy at absorbing vit E and suffering wryneck as a result. Corn is likely to make your birds fat and unhealthy, I call it crack for chickens.
Oats are what we use to give the boys some extra spring in their step. Corn , barley and sunflower for fattening up.

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/CornAndSilkies.html

 

[Kleonaptra]

Not sure sorry. Just curious why such a long lockdown? Is that a duck thing? I thought it was last 3 days.

Duck lockdown is about 5 days. They take a really long time to pip and a good 24 to 48 hours to hatch. Its maddening.

 

[Kleonaptra]

Correct me if I'm wrong ( Fancy would know) but corn is a " Hot feed " meaning it will increase body metabolism and make the girls hotter. This is why cracked corn is fed to race horses

In horses, yes. It makes them hyper and raises energy levels. Usually not in a useful way, and its not often fed in a balanced diet

 

[Fancychooklady]

The troops are finally home. A successful campaign , 8th at aus champs in the junior ring fourth overall at nationals and some beautiful clear rounds all round. The boys are happy to be home eating green grass again. Lucky me, I get the washing.

 

[Anniebee]

Again - great posts and much information, thanks to all.

Re : Ice for chickens. If one has no room left in freezer, half fill a zip lock bag which will flatten out - make sure zip is securely closed, and place carefully on top of something flat ( if there is room !! - a lot of shuffling to do that in my over stuffed freezer ). Freeze the water kind of flat, and it is then easily broken with a meat tenderiser / hammer ... to put in chicken water. I can't even fit a flat ice ball tray in !

Re : Corn .. it is very strange - not one of my 3 girls will eat it - when they get scratch mix. !! Do they know something ? The wild birds clean it up. My two big girls eat everything except the corn, but little Mindy - she avoids both corn and the tiny shells and shell grit. Flatly refuses to eat those. So I grind up their own eggs shells and mix it solidly with cheese .... for more calcium.

She should get enough calcium in her layer pellets, but has laid a few soft shells over time, and in particular 3 of them now in the past 2 weeks. So I endeavour to 'make' her ingest more calcium with the cheese / egg shells, and NO scratch mix ( she pigs out on it, and it fills her up ) ... so - if she wants to eat - she has no choice but to eat her layer pellets and the little handful of cheese she gets, every other day. Then she lays nice firm eggs with the hardest shells you could possibly imagine. Has always taken several hard cracks with a knife to break the shell. ( perhaps she uses too much calcium in the good eggs ?? ).

Here is little Mindy Araucana - a better look at her in this photo.




And Mandy Welsummer .... announcing --- " EGG NOW LAID - Whew "



Molly RIR was impossible --- all she wanted to do was fly up to peck and investigate the camera.

I think she was trying for a selfie. !!

So will get a new one of her very soon, I hope. ( when she's not looking ).

Cheers folks -------

 

[Fancychooklady]

Again - great posts and much information, thanks to all. Re : Ice for chickens. If one has no room left in freezer, half fill a zip lock bag which will flatten out - make sure zip is securely closed, and place carefully on top of something flat ( if there is room !! - a lot of shuffling to do that in my over stuffed freezer ). Freeze the water kind of flat, and it is then easily broken with a meat tenderiser / hammer ... to put in chicken water. I can't even fit a flat ice ball tray in ! Re : Corn .. it is very strange - not one of my 3 girls will eat it - when they get scratch mix. !! Do they know something ? The wild birds clean it up. My two big girls eat everything except the corn, but little Mindy - she avoids both corn and the tiny shells and shell grit. Flatly refuses to eat those. So I grind up their own eggs shells and mix it solidly with cheese .... for more calcium. She should get enough calcium in her layer pellets, but has laid a few soft shells over time, and in particular 3 of them now in the past 2 weeks. So I endeavour to 'make' her ingest more calcium with the cheese / egg shells, and NO scratch mix ( she pigs out on it, and it fills her up ) ... so - if she wants to eat - she has no choice but to eat her layer pellets and the little handful of cheese she gets, every other day. Then she lays nice firm eggs with the hardest shells you could possibly imagine. Has always taken several hard cracks with a knife to break the shell. ( perhaps she uses too much calcium in the good eggs ?? ). Here is little Mindy Araucana - a better look at her in this photo. And Mandy Welsummer .... announcing --- " EGG NOW LAID - Whew " Molly RIR was impossible --- all she wanted to do was fly up to peck and investigate the camera. I think she was trying for a selfie. !! So will get a new one of her very soon, I hope. ( when she's not looking ). Cheers folks -------

Calcium carbonate is more readily absorbed by the hen. Soft shells are the danger signs that hen is at risk of perosis and also a precursor for possible egg breakage in the chamber. It's only a couple of dollars for 150 200 g bag . Certainly one of the easiest problems to address in poultry. http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/calcium-the-key-to-beautiful-eggs-and-healthy-hens/

 

[appps]

Hubby raised an interesting question. If these hatch and are boys would there be any reason not to use the rooster to fertilize the eggs of the hen from the same breeder that hatched last year? (Probably have same father but imagine chances same mother would be slim?)

Can't keep a rooster but wondering if we could drag out getting rid of one till it was old enough to fertilise eggs. How long after australorps start crowing would they become fertile?

 

[Fancychooklady]

Hubby raised an interesting question. If these hatch and are boys would there be any reason not to use the rooster to fertilize the eggs of the hen from the same breeder that hatched last year? (Probably have same father but imagine chances same mother would be slim?)

Can't keep a rooster but wondering if we could drag out getting rid of one till it was old enough to fertilise eggs. How long after australorps start crowing would they become fertile?

Generally not recommended , that is breeding siblings . Line breeding allows pullets back to father and cockerel back to mother but sibling to sibling increases the likelihood of defects, ( crossbeak, angel or split wing etc........). You might get away with it for one generation.
Most Roos will be ' working 6-10 months , they can be a little brutal with the hens at first and some will take a while to work out which end is the ' business end ' .

 

[appps]

Generally not recommended , that is breeding siblings . Line breeding allows pullets back to father and cockerel back to mother but sibling to sibling increases the likelihood of defects, ( crossbeak, angel or split wing etc........). You might get away with it for one generation.
Most Roos will be ' working 6-10 months , they can be a little brutal with the hens at first and some will take a while to work out which end is the ' business end ' .

Ahh that's interesting. When we got our favorelles one had a cross beak and the breeder had bought eggs from Another better known breeder to start his flock. He actually said something about not thinking she had given him her best stock as they hadn't bred as well as he had expected. Maybe he was breeding hens and a rooster from the same hatch.

If I do get roosters I might email and ask her if she is still using the same rooster as last year as she did say something when I ordered this time about now only having a black rooster with them.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Ahh that's interesting. When we got our favorelles one had a cross beak and the breeder had bought eggs from Another better known breeder to start his flock. He actually said something about not thinking she had given him her best stock as they hadn't bred as well as he had expected. Maybe he was breeding hens and a rooster from the same hatch.

If I do get roosters I might email and ask her if she is still using the same rooster as last year as she did say something when I ordered this time about now only having a black rooster with them.

Most breeders will change Roos every second year. I had comb issues with my silver laced Wyandotte, so I have new blood now.