Beginner Questions

[rosemarythyme]

If what I heard is true that chickens do not have taste, then I wonder how they distinguish good from bad, what to eat and what not to eat.

Meanwhile, I have tried five or six different vegetables--beets, cucumber, egg plant, carrots, bananas--so far they won't touch anything, and these things are still uneaten the next day. I'm wondering how I can vary their diets if they are rejecting all the vegetables I offer. Just keep trying?

I have to assume they can taste in some fashion, maybe not the same as us, as they definitely have food preferences.

Yes, just keep trying. If there's something specific you would like them to eat (like you grow a lot of it) then offer that as the only treat item until they try it and either reject it or begin eating it. Once you know if they'll eat it or not, then try the next one. Obviously continue to offer them whatever grain mix (corn, mixed grain, etc.) you're regularly feeding as usual.

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks for this. Back to the question of diet and the fact that here in the Dominican Republic the diet consists entirely of corn. which lacks sufficient protein, I have having success augmenting with a moistened dog food that has crude protein of 22%. At first, they wouldn't touch it. I thought I'd give them 24 hours without any other food and then cross that bridge. After a few hours, they ate all! And the next day, today, they quickly ate all! So I'm very happy about that.

In one of the lectures I listened to on the chicken digestive system I was informed that chickens do not have taste, at least now when they ingest. Mammals, of course, have a gag/vomit reflex which allows them/us to regurgitate, or just spit out, anything with a bad taste. If what I heard is true that chickens do not have taste, then I wonder how they distinguish good from bad, what to eat and what not to eat.

Meanwhile, I have tried five or six different vegetables--beets, cucumber, egg plant, carrots, bananas--so far they won't touch anything, and these things are still uneaten the next day. I'm wondering how I can vary their diets if they are rejecting all the vegetables I offer. Just keep trying?

It’s not true that they can’t taste. Chickens have a very well developed taste system and taste is important to them, though this wasn’t known until fairly recently. Here’s an article from the National Institutes of Health reporting on the latest research:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5951165/

The foods you describe might be physically difficult for chickens to eat, even if they like them. Like carrots or beets. Do you offer them whole? They are hard, and chickens don’t have teeth. They can’t peck into them easily. You’ll need to grate them, cook them, or otherwise process them in a way that renders them easier to eat.

What I do to get mine to eat tricky stuff like that is I put it in the food processor to shred it, then mix it with their chicken feed and some water, to make a clumpy mash with the consistency of wet sand. They love it and devour everything! If you don’t have a food processor, you can just shred the vegetables with a kitchen grater and mix them in with the corn, moist dog food and whatever else you feed them. It will all smell like food and they will be more likely to eat everything.

 

[Ridgerunner]

beets

Cook or shred them. Then be ready to panic. Their poop will come out bright red. That was quite a shock to me the day after I gave them cooked beet skins after canning beets. Red cabbage turns their poop fluorescent blue. So be slow to panic if you see something like that.

cucumber

Try letting it get overripe and splitting it lengthwise. If you grow them squash, pumpkin, and melons also work. They usually eat the seeds first, then the flesh.

egg plant

Never tried feeding them this, I'd think the texture might be a problem. I'm sure they'd eat it if you cooked it. Or split it and give them time.

carrots

Kind of surprised they won't eat them whole and uncooked. Their beaks can cut them up if they want to. But cooked should not be a problem at all.

bananas

Never tried bananas but I don't see why they wouldn't eat them. Maybe peel them?

Just keep trying?

Yes, just keep trying. Several times I've thrown stuff from the garden into the run, stuff like cabbage that they are supposed to love. They ignore them for a while but usually eventually eat them. Each year each flock is different. Some eat cabbage right away, some seem to prefer kale or broccoli leaves.

You might enjoy this story. One year I had about twenty 10-week-old chicks free ranging so they should have been used to various creepy crawlies. I dumped a small cup full of corn ear worms on a spot that had bare dirt near them when I was canning corn from the garden. Those chicks eyed that pile or worms for a bit. Then the braver ones started slowly moving toward that pile. Step by careful step and on high alert. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! They didn't run far and again started approaching step by careful step. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! This repeated 4 or 5 times before a very brave young cockerel got close enough to grab a worm. That's all it took, within 30 seconds that pile of worms was gone.

What you are trying to feed them is new. Give them time to build up their courage or curiosity to try it.

 

[3KillerBs]

When I toss pieces of hard vegetables into the run -- things like carrot ends, sweet potato trimmings, cabbage cores, and the like -- I find that sometimes they peck at them and sometimes they leave them alone until some bugs move in. At which point they eat the bugs.

 

[Tzippi613]

Hello, I am brand new and raising my first mixed flock. I'm wondering about how to tell two near-identical birds apart. Thanks in advance.

Leg bands, pecking, safety.

Being new, what I ordered from the local hatchery was one Buff Orpington, one Barred Rock, one Welsummer, and two Easter Eggers. I was hoping to get five different looking birds who might lay different colored eggs so I could more easily keep track of who is who and who is or isn't laying.

The very generous hatchery gave me an extra Barred Rock chick, who seems to be a pullet like the rest (though they're only four weeks old, I guess a too is still possible). Since they both had big white spots on their heads, I marked Jett with green Sharpie (not red, pink, or orange to avoid pecking), and left Bangle blank/white.

As they're growing, those spots are going to disappear into bars, and im thinking I'll use leg bands.

TL;DR: What I'm wondering is, if you put a leg band on one girl but not the rest, would they peck at it and bother her? Would it be better to leg band everyone?

 

[K0k0shka]

They'll start looking more different as they age, so even if the leg band doesn't work out for you, pretty soon you won't need it anyway. After they mature, their faces and combs start looking more unique. It's rare that two mature chickens will look completely identical. Even human identical twins grow different as they age, and those who know them personally can't be fooled. Same with chickens - if they are your chickens and you see them every day, you'll learn to tell them apart, and it will be easier the older they get, because their differences will grow as they mature.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What I'm wondering is, if you put a leg band on one girl but not the rest, would they peck at it and bother her? Would it be better to leg band everyone?

I use colored zip ties to mark mine. I tried the hard bands and did not like them for various reasons. I've used red and orange and never had any pecking issues at all with either the hard bands or the zip ties.

No matter what you use for a band they will not stretch, you need to regularly check the legs to make sure they are not getting tight. The legs grow and thicken even after they are grown so replace the band if it gets tight.

With the zip ties I cut off the tail so they cannot get it caught somewhere and tighten it up to put their legs in danger. and get a color that contrasts with the leg color. Black on a black leg or yellow on a yellow leg can be hard to see.

 

[3KillerBs]

They'll start looking more different as they age, so even if the leg band doesn't work out for you, pretty soon you won't need it anyway.

This depends on how observant you are.

With 2 Blue Australorps I could tell them apart because their builds are quite different and one has bad color. With 12(?) I can't pick out more than a couple individuals without looking at their bands.

My "Splits" -- Orpington x Wyandottes -- are almost exactly identical black birds with identical combs and only slight variations in size. I can tell the largest one at a distance IF they are together but otherwise I have to look at their bands.

I use colored zip ties to mark mine. I tried the hard bands and did not like them for various reasons. I've used red and orange and never had any pecking issues at all with either the hard bands or the zip ties.

I followed this advice and it's worked out well for me.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I also used colored zip ties for a while - but ultimately decided that I mostly didn't care. But most of my birds become dinner, anyways, with my preserving the largest and best colored (for me) and consuming the rest. That's different from how most BYCers "manage" their flocks.

I will offer that I regret not banding for age, which would make it easier to tell which hatching a bird was from (and thus, growth rate) when I have a hatching each month.

 

[Iluveggers]

@linuxusr You have received some wonderful advice!
The only thing I don’t think anyone has mentioned, is calcium intake. Although not necessary for young pullets, as they hit laying age, the ladies may need some to help shell strength. In the US, we can buy oyster shell to provide on the side and hens will take it as needed. If it is not available in thr DR, you might start saving eggshells once they are laying, wash them, bake them if possible, and crush them shells to as close to powder as possible. You can put this in a dish on the side in case they feel like they need calcium. The rooster will not need it. I don’t know if your regular feed has calcium as you said they don’t list ingredients. Good luck with your flock!