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

[Anniebee]

Haha sounds just like me bricks, planks, bungee cord, rope and tarps. When Mia said Nana your backyard is great but it looks like a junkyard, We stood back and thought yeah it is. Hence all the building and renovating. Plus Paul seems to get it that we will have more chooks. (avairy birds) Its not us it's the rest of the world.

LOL .... From the sounds ( and looks ) of it, you have an excellent set up there .... perhaps more ventilation might be needed, but I think from a previous post you are working on that.

And yes, it's not us - it's the rest of the world who do not understand chookies.

Wonder what Mia will think of the new chookie digs, and Nanas' new non-junk yard. .........

Chooks ...

 

[Fancychooklady]

p.s. ... to the above re : ( MyHaven's post  ) .... 

Just noticed that Fancy has posted at the same time I did ........ and I agree with her.  

Fits in with what I was saying about 'various stages of feeding' ... which Barastoc seems to have a good handle on. 

If ever I were to change my chicken feed ( for my 3 laying chickens - whenever that might happen again after moults ?? ) .... I would consider the Laucke.  Sounds good.  

Meanwhile, being my 3 are all in their own version of moulting  !!    which is  difficult to keep tabs on, even with only 3 chickens !! .... I up the protein for them ... not overly, but a few times a week ( a smallish amount of hard cheese grated, plus cooked, roasted or baked  goodies containing protein, plus yoghurt, cottage cheese etc ).   Just purchased today, some dog food roll ( no preservatives ) to give to Ruby, which is lamb and vegies.  A top of the range product, not cheap -  (Ecopet),  and my 3 girls will get small amounts of that in the coming weeks as well, mixed with rice, oats and greens.   Just enough ( I hope ) to maintain more proteiin in their diet.   

Cheers .......  ( more shortly which I hope gives a few people some giggles )..... 

Here's the barastoc book. Interesting that whilst they list a anticocidiant they don't name it.
The pullet grower and finisher however is nice and low in calcium. Too much calcium in the early months can cause calcium deposits and bone deformity.

http://www.ridley.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Chook-Book.pdf

 

[LuckysMum]

Its school holidays so the girls are here everyday. We have moved the vege garden to the fence (it was 6x1.5 m now its 6m x 900) so the backyard has opened up more we got rid of one small shed.
So now there's heaps of room for chasing chickens. They each have their favourites and they love to chase the aussies and cuddle them. We have planted fruit trees and berry bushes and with egg collecting they don't want to go home. Not to mention Bear they love him. The girls got a puppy 2 weeks ago so I thought they'd stay home more but no, we get a phone call Nana can we come over. I think its nice for kids to appreciate were their food comes from. I just wish I could have more animals. One day maybe.

 

[LuckysMum]

Here's the barastoc book. Interesting that whilst they list a anticocidiant they don't name it.
The pullet grower and finisher however is nice and low in calcium. Too much calcium in the early months can cause calcium deposits and bone deformity.

http://www.ridley.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Chook-Book.pdf

So much to consider. I have had chooks for more than 20years and didn't worry about anything. Just fed them what I hoped was good feed and scraps. Never had problems with pests (touch wood) or sick chooks. I have had them die but I think that's more because I've mostly had ISA or Highline and they are not bred for longevity.
Having said that I am hand rearing these and they have become more like pets than egg layers. Just as well because I don't think we'll be getting the amount of eggs we're used too.

 

[User395221]

They did NOT have a clue.

My big girls were alsoindifferent when I opened the packet I got, but the next day I offered them again and they took them then.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Anniebee, My fussy little blighters won't accept anything other than fresh, live mealworms. They turn their little beaks up at the dried ones. Too spoilt they are, though if you want to see the dark side of a d'uccle, give it a mealworm. Beatrice goes from being sweeter than sugar to a vicious little killer in less than a second when there's some up for grabs. Funny but scary too lol. I occasionally get the giant ones as a treat for the larger girls, it's interesting to watch how they eat them. They'll grab it, smack it against the ground to knock the head off.

Today's treat though was more grass clippings to dig through from mowing along the side of the house. Hours of fun.

 

[sjturner79]

Fancy I was just looking up our feed we use Red Hen form Laucke. When I looked up the chick feed it says to start feeding them pullet mix after 6 weeks.  The lady were I get my feed from has chickens (you can see them) and she says to keep them on the chick feed for a lot longer she said Lucky could still eat it as that's what the other were on. The youngest chicks are about 8 weeks now. I'm now thinking of getting pullet mix for them all.  Would love some input if anyone has other thoughts.
Thanks

I always stop buying starter when the chicks have full wing feathers, and will stop feeding it them when I run out or 2 weeks later, whichever is first. It is best to avoid feeding laying pellets to any chook thAt is not likely to lay an egg in the next 2 weeks, however it is fed to working roosters because you can't feed them separately.

 

[satay]

Thanks for that  I will go tomorrow and get the grower.  The lady said the chick starter had the coccidiosis preventer in it. But I have always cleaned up the poo regularly right from when they hatch. So really they should be alright.  

Thanks Anniebee I will check out the link.

I use laucke mills Starter and then the grower.

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Very interesting reading on the feed and hormones/antibiotics, thank you.

I have some fish in my ponds that are probably around the 5 year old mark and yep, I am attached to them also

Not only do we do chicken head counts here, we do goldfish head counts also

While the new coop and run does not have as many ‘check that it is locked’ places as the old one did, I do confess to getting half way up the path after checking everything is locked and going back to check again

kat79 I hope your hen is OK now.

Fizzybelle yep, I do know the good quality of Martyn’s items and hope I did not give the impression that I thought otherwise. I can not fault his great service and prices. His large live meal worms are so much bigger and cheaper than the only place I have found them locally. Unlike the live meal worms though, I do not think he actually processes the crickets, just distributes them. Dusty, who was the only other one who seemed interested in them and ate them with KiKi, had diarrhoea for a couple of days. Again, this could all be a huge coincidence but I may have got a bad batch. Anyway, the little Diva’s and Princesses get live and dried meal worms and were not that keen on the crickets, so I will err on the side of caution with the batch I have and not hand them out. Hubby agrees that it probably was not the crickets but the ‘what if it was’ thought and the possible consequences if it was, is enough for me to not continue to feed them.

Anniebee my girls do not love the dried meal worms as such but they are a good back up for when the stocks of live ones are running low. Also, while we give them a couple of live meal worms each intermittently during their free range time, we do throw a hand full of dried ones on the lawn occasionally, al fresco

Anyways, I think they eat the dried ones because they were introduced to live ones first. Martyn’s recommends adding a dash of cold press extra virgin olive so that the dried mealworms look ‘life-like’ to the birds’ but I have not personally needed to do that.

Well, it was a long day and when we got to the football, no seats and we had to stand and while I am not what I consider old, long sitting stints on buses and trains and standing on hard concrete to watch the game has left me with a few aches in the ankles and knees today, it was so worth it though .. we won!

Got home to find the girls nicely tucked up on the roosts, safe and sleeping. My son said he did not hear a peep out of them and hopefully the morning free range made up for being locked up in the afternoon.

Once again, the neurotic side of me sent hubby out to check the girls first thing this morning and all was well. A couple more days and hopefully the paranoia will wear off.

Plans for today are to get the grocery shopping done early [closed tomorrow] and then home to scrub the coop floor and clean out the large fish pond [a bit of gunge build up on the bottom, leaves etc, has actually reduced the depth of the pond].

Of course, I will have lots of little helpers/advisors while doing the outside chores

 

[Fancychooklady]

I always stop buying starter when the chicks have full wing feathers, and will stop feeding it them when I run out or 2 weeks later, whichever is first. It is best to avoid feeding laying pellets to any chook thAt is not likely to lay an egg in the next 2 weeks, however it is fed to working roosters because you can't feed them separately.

Yep, plenty of people feed layer to mixed flocks, to the detriment of the bird. Viscerial gout is something I've had to deal with. It is safer to feed a lower level of calcium and offer calcium carbonate as ' free take ' for the layers.
Starter feeds that contain amprolium are fed for 6 weeks as a way of building the birds immunity , more of a preventative. You can feed it for a longer period of time but according to the science , any less than 6 weeks renders it ineffective .
I personally don't feed medicated chick starter anymore , but I keep a packet of amprolium on hand for treatment , touch wood, haven't had to use it.