Australorps breed Thread

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Stan,
You are about 100 miles from DragonLady. After you visit her you can get on 77 N to 81 N and come see me outside of Martinsburg. You will be able to pick chicks from Urch, Tigercreek and Hupp Lines! Best of luck with retirement and your move. I know I am enjoying the hell out of retirement.
Kurt

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Everybody comes up with their special mixes and schedules for feeding. If it works for you then great, keep at it. If you don't know what you are doing then feed a good quality commercial feed that has all the protein, vitamins, and minerals that millions of dollars have been spent on to develop. Special mixes from mills are great, but what about all the vitamins and minerals needed for proper development. Over the years I have found that good quality commercial feeds along with free ranging works fine. Stan is right, too much calcium early causes a multitude of problems along with too much protein can also cause problems. Reading the feeding instructions from the feed company has worked for me. Hence, a well balanced diet just like raising your kids will yield proper growth. I feel we all over think feed when we should be thinking about fresh water, and security first. Over crowding and poor housing is another major problem within the flock. If not you will have a lot of disease and a lot of dead chickens. Proper management all around is the key to having happy and healthy chickens.
Just my thoughts, take it or leave it.
Kurt

 

[tigercreek]

Stan,
You are about 100 miles from DragonLady. After you visit her you can get on 77 N to 81 N and come see me outside of Martinsburg. You will be able to pick chicks from Urch, Tigercreek and Hupp Lines! Best of luck with retirement and your move. I know I am enjoying the hell out of retirement.
Kurt

Now that's a day trip for sure Kurt! It's 550 miles and 8 hours to your place from where I'll be! I'm sure it will be worth it though if I can get some of your famous Tigercreek chicks!! lol........stan

 

[ronott1]

Everybody comes up with their special mixes and schedules for feeding. If it works for you then great, keep at it. If you don't know what you are doing then feed a good quality commercial feed that has all the protein, vitamins, and minerals that millions of dollars have been spent on to develop. Special mixes from mills are great, but what about all the vitamins and minerals needed for proper development. Over the years I have found that good quality commercial feeds along with free ranging works fine. Stan is right, too much calcium early causes a multitude of problems along with too much protein can also cause problems. Reading the feeding instructions from the feed company has worked for me. Hence, a well balanced diet just like raising your kids will yield proper growth. I feel we all over think feed when we should be thinking about fresh water, and security first. Over crowding and poor housing is another major problem within the flock. If not you will have a lot of disease and a lot of dead chickens. Proper management all around is the key to having happy and healthy chickens.
Just my thoughts, take it or leave it.
Kurt

Yes, this is very true. Too much protein may even cause lower egg production.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I don't want to come across as a know-it-all RoseMarie. I just go by reccomendations from the feed mills and their research, along with what I learn from folks on BYC. Most say to give a balanced feed appropiate for the age and limit snacks like scratch and BOSS. A handfull a day is plenty of treats. Just like raising a child or any other animal....stan

oh no Stan you're fine, not a know it all. I was just wondering who comes up with it. I guess I could go to the game bird conditioner since I don't want to go the starter. Only thing the one I just got a few bags back was too high in protein for me so I had to cut it with scratch. Mine dearly love the grains and will pick those out and then go back and eat the other food later.

 

[MeanV2]

Got my first egg out of the nest box today. It was in with the fake eggs. I hope she is getting the hang of it!

I am still fairly certain it is only the one hen laying. I keep telling the girls she needs help but they pay me no attention at all.

Dan

 

[RoseMarie1]

Everybody comes up with their special mixes and schedules for feeding. If it works for you then great, keep at it. If you don't know what you are doing then feed a good quality commercial feed that has all the protein, vitamins, and minerals that millions of dollars have been spent on to develop. Special mixes from mills are great, but what about all the vitamins and minerals needed for proper development. Over the years I have found that good quality commercial feeds along with free ranging works fine. Stan is right, too much calcium early causes a multitude of problems along with too much protein can also cause problems. Reading the feeding instructions from the feed company has worked for me. Hence, a well balanced diet just like raising your kids will yield proper growth. I feel we all over think feed when we should be thinking about fresh water, and security first. Over crowding and poor housing is another major problem within the flock. If not you will have a lot of disease and a lot of dead chickens. Proper management all around is the key to having happy and healthy chickens.
Just my thoughts, take it or leave it.
Kurt

very good thoughts to Kurt. Mine sure is not over crowded that's for sure. They have loads of space in their pen and run and then almost 12 acres here to roam on when they are free ranging.

thank you for your knowledge.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Got my first egg out of the nest box today. It was in with the fake eggs. I hope she is getting the hang of it!

I am still fairly certain it is only the one hen laying. I keep telling the girls she needs help but they pay me no attention at all.

Dan

lol Dan well maybe they're like teenagers, and they will listen later in life.

Congrats on that first egg!!!

 

[MeanV2]

lol Dan well maybe they're like teenagers, and they will listen later in life.

Congrats on that first egg!!!

It wasn't my first egg, just my first one out of the nest box. She had been laying around 10 days but had been doing so in a corner of the coop! I hope she has it figured out now.

Dan

 

[DeesHens]

Hey Dan. My first laying BA, Peppa, has become a pro at laying in the nest box now. LOL Glad to hear yours has figured it out too.

I don't think my other BA, Bella, is laying yet. The interesting thing to me is that Peppa developed her comb & wattles a couple weeks earlier before Bella.
So I am thinking perhaps Bella is a couple weeks behind for egg laying. Does that make sense to anyone? I'm great at observing details like that but have limited knowledge.

Common sense is my best friend. hahaha. Seems like Peppa can lay an egg every 24 hours or so. Is that possible? 36 hours is normal right? They are still small sized ones though.
~Dee~