bad or half-baked chicken advice you've received?

[flspnr]

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Does it matter what color?!?!? I'm planning on painting my new coop I'm building this week, and I don't want my RIRs going blind!!!

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[Daisy8s]

The advice on feeding no more treats or greens than chickens can consume in fifteen minutes is a result of detailed studies of productivity. If you are going for the most eggs; you will limit the intake of treats.

The advice didn't come from commercial feed manufacturers; it came from poultry and animal science departments at universities. The roads are littered with farms that failed because someone didn't worry about increasing productivity to cost ratios.

The top hen who is first in line when the compost is delivered daily is also my top layer. I'm getting an egg a day out of her right now. My personal experience, though admittedly limited, does not confirm that feeding something other than an exclusive commercial feed diet will impact laying at all.​

 

[Blue]

My mom once told me that when she was growing up she was told that if you have a hen that starts crowing, you need to kill it because it's bad luck. I have no idea where this old wive's tail originated, but it's pretty amusing. We did have a hen that started crowing after her flock rooster died. She stopped crowing as soon as we added a new rooster.

 

[Fred's Hens]

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I don't know about "bad luck" but it sure is annoying. Perhaps that is what gets them a trip to the stump with axe stuck in it?

 

[Jackie B.]

Free Range Chickens only need scratch. Told to me by a feed and seed store. Yikes.

 

[Blue]

Jackie B. :

Free Range Chickens only need scratch. Told to me by a feed and seed store. Yikes.

Actually, this can be true if you have enough forage available on your land to provide most of the chickens' nutritional needs. The birds would also need to free range pretty much all the time as well. I know an old farmer who runs his chickens this way, and we were actually discussing all feed vs. free range with only supplementary feed a bit earlier in the thread.​

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Actually, this can be true if you have enough forage available on your land to provide most of the chickens' nutritional needs. The birds would also need to free range pretty much all the time as well. I know an old farmer who runs his chickens this way, and we were actually discussing all feed vs. free range with only supplementary feed a bit earlier in the thread.

This something of interest to me as an animal nutritionist. When birds are at low abundance and quality of natural forages is high, I am unable to come up with any formulation that is commercial or custom that can match the natural forages. As the number of birds increases relative to available resources, either the birds must range farther or some nutrients (protein, energy, vitamins, or some minerals) become limiting before other nutrients. During winter, energy becomes limiting first and can be supplied by increased amounts of scratch or sunflower seeds. During early spring when first flush of green growth figures highly in forages available, then protein seems to be limiting since insects have not had a chance to emerge in any numbers and the plant parts consumed seem high only in water and carbohydrates. During summer and fall months, pattern not so clear but some feeds / feedstuffs can compliment natural forages as well as any complete diet, at least for short periods of time. Problem I have noticed is that nutrients of shortest supplier varies considerably over time but the variations may follow annual cycles.

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Some myths I have heard:

White eggs are healthier then Brown eggs (or vise versa)

Roosters make the eggs all bloody

Hen's wont lay egg without a Rooster

You can't eat a hens first eggs

 

[The Yakima Kid]

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The top hen who is first in line when the compost is delivered daily is also my top layer. I'm getting an egg a day out of her right now. My personal experience, though admittedly limited, does not confirm that feeding something other than an exclusive commercial feed diet will impact laying at all.

I never said feed only commercial feed to backyard chickens; my point is feeding for maximum productivity means limiting other feeds.

 

[satay]

sunny & the 5 egg layers :

Some myths I have heard:

White eggs are healthier then Brown eggs (or vise versa)

Roosters make the eggs all bloody

Hen's wont lay egg without a Rooster

You can't eat a hens first eggs

The one about roosters make the eggs bloody - My sister in law recently bought 15 acres of land and asked me if I had a rooster she could borrow. I said yes and you can keep him as I have extras. She said no I only want the rooster to hatch some eggs i don't want if full time or I'll get blood in all my eggs. (seriously?) I then explained to her that that was not true. Did she think I ate and sold bloody eggs all the time to people? Mind you this sister in law grew up on a farm... guess she must not have spent to much time in the kitchen when the eggs were used lol.​