BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[draye]

Dad will be released or evicted on Friday 23 provided he gets the okay from the medical staff after rounds on Thursday.  Getting discharged from any hospital requires a ton of paperwork and it is not likely they will be out of the facility before well into the afternoon on Friday.  The plan is for dad and Jason to stay at the hotel Friday night and leave out of NYC by mid morning on Saturday. 

                                                                                                                  Ariel

That is wonderful news, especially for him I reckon. I make a pretty good patient myself, but when I feel it's time I go home then I want to go and will beg to be released. I can get cranky though if I don't get my way.

 

[draye]

 To encourage the discussion to get back on track, what have we grown to be winter feed for the birds?

 Here we can have greens growing all year, less an unusual event.

 Pumpkins and winter squashes store well. The meat is a good source of vitamins. The seeds, minerals and energy. I think these compliment the greens well. Pumpkins are a dime per
dozen after Halloween.

 Sweet Potatoes are a good source of energy and vitamins, and are easy to store. So are potatoes, as long a they are steamed or boiled. Both of these can replace a substantial portion of grain, but they are lower in protein. It does take more protein to balance them

 There is variation in the possibilities, but generally it is accepted that the greens etc. be 20-30% of the diet. More or less depending on the rest.

 One thing the bagged feeds cannot provide is fresh greens or living plants. The winter squashes and greens would go a long ways towards keeping them sharp and fit through the dark days of winter while saving us a couple dollars. Both add color to the yolks to. Yellow to the legs of yellow legged breeds.

I don't raise anything much here for winter feeding, I don't have a lot of useable ground for much of a garden spot. I do fm have a little space for tomatoes plants in the spring. I had planned on sowing a few turnips but just never got around to doing that this year.

On feeding greens, squash, sweet potatoes, and the likes, my chickens will not touch ant if it unless its been cooked. I've thrown them handfuls at a time if grass that they seen to live and will eat that, but expect ally any greens they Anura their noses up at them. I've cooked them and put them in and they will go to town on it.

I've never tried the turnip in a nail thing. I may try that if I can get a hind if sine cheap turnips this winter.

Thanks for some of the suggestions.

 

[Ifish]

Got our first eggs today. 2 small brown eggs, one in the nesting box, and the other laid on the bedding under the roost. My daughter was so excited to find them.

 

[Ifish]

To encourage the discussion to get back on track, what have we grown to be winter feed for the birds?

Here we can have greens growing all year, less an unusual event.

Pumpkins and winter squashes store well. The meat is a good source of vitamins. The seeds, minerals and energy. I think these compliment the greens well. Pumpkins are a dime per
dozen after Halloween.

Sweet Potatoes are a good source of energy and vitamins, and are easy to store. So are potatoes, as long a they are steamed or boiled. Both of these can replace a substantial portion of grain, but they are lower in protein. It does take more protein to balance them

There is variation in the possibilities, but generally it is accepted that the greens etc. be 20-30% of the diet. More or less depending on the rest.

One thing the bagged feeds cannot provide is fresh greens or living plants. The winter squashes and greens would go a long ways towards keeping them sharp and fit through the dark days of winter while saving us a couple dollars. Both add color to the yolks to. Yellow to the legs of yellow legged breeds.

We grew extra sweet potatoes, neck pumpkins, sunflower heads, and a 75' row of Indian Corn for the chickens. The Indian corn will be decorations until the Christmas stuff comes out. Then it becomes chicken food. The sunflower heads are dried, and potatoes and pumpkins are in our root cellar. I also plan on sprouting alfalfa, wheat and rye over the winter, as well as our table scraps.

I threw them a big jack o lantern yesterday that we grew. They just loved it.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

It's Wednesday, so that means data day. Interestingly, their growth rate from week 5 to 6 increased again - perhaps the initial stress of moving outside, or the heat, suppressed their growth a bit from weeks 4-5? Interesting also to see a couple with a late growth spurt. The NHs aren't all that bad weight-wise - but I'll make the point again, that handling them, their body type is not a good one for meat, regardless of size/weight, whereas the NNs are little bricks. (I'm hoping to get some German NHs in the spring.) The abnormal NH's growth curve continues to drop off. I'll need to cull it at some point - there's not going to be much of an eating bird even if I let it go long... They are all getting harder to hold still for weights. Tank continues to grow into a monster, not only in absolute weight but in rate of growth. If there were more limited access points for food I'd almost wonder if he's outcompeting everyone for it (but there's lots of access and everyone can eat unmolested, and there's not any food fighting - at least not that I've been able to observe). A few NNs had cuts in their exposed neck skin that I believe is due to them all piling up and pushing and shoving in their sandbox/dustbath to sleep at night - on JessicaThistle's suggestion, I have removed the dustbath at night to get them to spread out their "chick pile" and decrease chance of injury (they have roosts, but are not sleeping on them). Sun's going down - I'm going to go watch them bed down to see how that goes. That would be a stupid reason to lose a chick if I can help it.





- Ant Farm

 

[ocap]

We condemn any violation of our perception of ourselves, or what makes us feel less significant etc. We view these things as offensive and wrong. As children we were raised to believe that we were the center of the universe, and any violation of that center is to be condemned. To rationalize how I can be the center of my universe and you think that you are the center of your universe, we must conclude that we are all the center of our universe. We are all gods of our own reality, and our standard morality is derived from within ourselves. We are our own standards, that may or may not be unique. Out of necessity, we conclude that there is no real standard for morality, and that each of us have our own. I do not want my own integrity violated, so I try not provoke yours. It is an insecure view. Ironically this even involves animals.

your post begs for a rebuttal..... so much is wrong headed....your comments should be limited to chickens.

 

[bnjrob]

They are all getting harder to hold still for weights.

- Ant Farm


We use two different ways to weigh chickens here. Use a bathroom scale, stand on it without a chicken, pick up a chicken and weigh holding the chicken, then subtract the difference. We also have a fish scale that we hang a cage from. Much easier than trying to get them to stand on a scale themselves.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

We use two different ways to weigh chickens here. Use a bathroom scale, stand on it without a chicken, pick up a chicken and weigh holding the chicken, then subtract the difference. We also have a fish scale that we hang a cage from. Much easier than trying to get them to stand on a scale themselves.

Very helpful ideas - I think these could work well once they're a bit bigger, but they're still small enough that that the cage would be difficult and the bathroom scale would lack sufficient precision. I also don't want to try to stand with them on a bathroom scale inside the tractor while all the rest of them are hopping on and off the scale with their poopy feet while pecking at my chicken shoes.

It's not that hard to to it with the dedicated poopy-chicken kitchen scale (shelf liner on top for traction). It has more to do with the fuss of there being so many and some of them getting worked up when being picked up. And the ones that have just been weighed for some reason always then want to get immediately BACK up on the scale while I'm weighing the next one. ("That wasn't so bad, actually it was fun - let's do it again!") Crazy chickens! When I use this method for my POL pullets, it works well as they are now more used to being handled and will stand still long enough for a reading.

I guess I was just commenting on the fact that the "babies" are getting pretty strong and I'm having to adjust my handling techniques (especially for Tank).

- Ant Farm

 

[gjensen]

your post begs for a rebuttal..... so much is wrong headed....your comments should be limited to chickens.

Of course some would think so. I understood that when I posted it. Some did not think so as well. You are welcome to PM me your rebuttal, but only if you are willing to read the response to that rebuttal.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Aaaaand, back to breeding for production...

Two questions:

1) What are the best ways to increase protein when adding carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes or turnips? In the "old" days per my old 1942 book on keeping poultry on scraps, where they were dealing with wartime rationing, there was a lot of fish scraps being cooked into submission and mixed with mash (don't really want to do that). Does one maybe switch to a game bird ration for a period time? Other supplement?

2) Unrelated question, probably answered here before but I can't seem to recall details - meat production data is straight-forward - you can weigh each bird. But what is the best way to track egg production (including beginning to lay again after moult) without trap nests? (I know you can track how long they are in mount and check pelvic spread, etc., but I figured the proof is in the eggs.) Perhaps if you have a sense of who lays what kind of egg, and the colors are different in a given coop? I saw a photo of a coop (sort of a "glamour shot," really), and there was this cute chalkboard with egg talley's for each (named) hen. I found myself asking "How on earth do they know?" The photo implied that each hen had her own nest (which doesn't really happen). It bugged me, and made me want to ask here again.

- Ant Farm