TheGreatChickening
Songster
- Jun 28, 2022
- 52
- 195
- 106
**Background for people who like reading random nonsense:
After all of the easiest chickens (RIRs) surviving last year (until they intentionally didn't... Yummmmm), we decided we were totally equipped to raise the easiest poult to kill. (That was sarcasm or sardonic. I ain't good at grammer-jk)
5 days old. One is already dead (from a heart condition, we assume? Beak and legs turned purple on day 4; we listened to his heart and it was a MESS, and then he died).
The poults hate their 28% protein feed. They pick at it. They'll eat the weevils (which have seriously infested it - came that way). They'll chase the weevils and try to bite them out of each others' beaks. But that darn feed will NOT be eaten...
UNLESS we sit at the brooder and endlessly peck at the food with a finger. (Not endlessly, but two hour stretches - our attention spans are extensive, but we like being literally anywhere else after 2 hours). Even then, they eagerly peck at our moving fingers or half heartedly at the food until we stop.
*****************
**QUESTION:
These little haters will eat pea/egg yolk/feed mash of their own volition. They will fight for it. (4Tbs cooked and mashed dried peas, one boiled egg yolk, 3Tbs 28% protein weevil feed) Is this safe?
*****************
**more background for avid readers and people comparing all WBBT raising:
We started out with Magic Water
1/2 Gal water
2Tbs ACV
1/2C raw honey
2 cloves mashed garlic
Pine shavings for floor, covered with burlap initially to prevent pine shaving ingestion (to no avail - these turkeys literally do not want to live and will eat ANYTHING but the actual food given to them, unless it's a weevil or mash).
Food in a feeder, food on red paper on the floor, food EVERYWHERE (but the turkeys' willfully ignorant little faces - I'm not bitter).
AC turned off. Brooder lamp on mic stand (karaoke turkeys anyone?), coop at 98°F with some fluctuation pertaining to outdoor weather. Weather channel says it's 110°F+ outside (but both the outdoor thermometers say 95°F for all you conspiracy theorists).
After all of the easiest chickens (RIRs) surviving last year (until they intentionally didn't... Yummmmm), we decided we were totally equipped to raise the easiest poult to kill. (That was sarcasm or sardonic. I ain't good at grammer-jk)
5 days old. One is already dead (from a heart condition, we assume? Beak and legs turned purple on day 4; we listened to his heart and it was a MESS, and then he died).
The poults hate their 28% protein feed. They pick at it. They'll eat the weevils (which have seriously infested it - came that way). They'll chase the weevils and try to bite them out of each others' beaks. But that darn feed will NOT be eaten...
UNLESS we sit at the brooder and endlessly peck at the food with a finger. (Not endlessly, but two hour stretches - our attention spans are extensive, but we like being literally anywhere else after 2 hours). Even then, they eagerly peck at our moving fingers or half heartedly at the food until we stop.
*****************
**QUESTION:
These little haters will eat pea/egg yolk/feed mash of their own volition. They will fight for it. (4Tbs cooked and mashed dried peas, one boiled egg yolk, 3Tbs 28% protein weevil feed) Is this safe?
*****************
**more background for avid readers and people comparing all WBBT raising:
We started out with Magic Water
1/2 Gal water
2Tbs ACV
1/2C raw honey
2 cloves mashed garlic
Pine shavings for floor, covered with burlap initially to prevent pine shaving ingestion (to no avail - these turkeys literally do not want to live and will eat ANYTHING but the actual food given to them, unless it's a weevil or mash).
Food in a feeder, food on red paper on the floor, food EVERYWHERE (but the turkeys' willfully ignorant little faces - I'm not bitter).
AC turned off. Brooder lamp on mic stand (karaoke turkeys anyone?), coop at 98°F with some fluctuation pertaining to outdoor weather. Weather channel says it's 110°F+ outside (but both the outdoor thermometers say 95°F for all you conspiracy theorists).