Okay, so here's the backstory.
2 birds, 1 roo who might eventually become dinner, but no guarantees one way or the other. 1 hen who was adopted from a friend particularly because the roo needed company while the rest of our flock develops*. Both mature but fairly young (about a year for both of them we think).
What the heck do we feed them? We bought the broiler crumbles for him, before we realized exactly how lonely he was and that we needed company for him *before* our chicks reached outside stage, so right now they're both getting broiler crumbles, with yogurt (and I'm going to be baking the shells from the hatchings today to feed them for calcium, and have ordered my oyster shells for her today) to supplement her for calcium, but.. Should we put them both on layer, or finish up the broiler and stop being all twitchy? They are also free ranging (today is their first day outside all day, let them out this morning, and hopefully they'll come home tonight, just as they have after a few late afternoons out the last few days) and they are honestly not eating a huge amount of their feed at all either way, so maybe I should see the feed as a rather supplemental until winter hits and the cricket and so on population drops?
* For those following the drama that is my learning to be a chicken momma, no, we did not quarantine them. He had been in quarantine for two weeks prior to us getting him (after he was taken in the rescue) and Parvati is from a friend's flock, who takes very good care of her birds, and though it is possible she is sick, we decided that given the circumstances we would go ahead and take a deep breath and give him company sooner rather than later. So if you see this and have been following this, I know that we are breaking a cardinal rule of chicken keeping, which normally I would not do, but given the circumstances, it seemed the lesser of two evils.
2 birds, 1 roo who might eventually become dinner, but no guarantees one way or the other. 1 hen who was adopted from a friend particularly because the roo needed company while the rest of our flock develops*. Both mature but fairly young (about a year for both of them we think).
What the heck do we feed them? We bought the broiler crumbles for him, before we realized exactly how lonely he was and that we needed company for him *before* our chicks reached outside stage, so right now they're both getting broiler crumbles, with yogurt (and I'm going to be baking the shells from the hatchings today to feed them for calcium, and have ordered my oyster shells for her today) to supplement her for calcium, but.. Should we put them both on layer, or finish up the broiler and stop being all twitchy? They are also free ranging (today is their first day outside all day, let them out this morning, and hopefully they'll come home tonight, just as they have after a few late afternoons out the last few days) and they are honestly not eating a huge amount of their feed at all either way, so maybe I should see the feed as a rather supplemental until winter hits and the cricket and so on population drops?
* For those following the drama that is my learning to be a chicken momma, no, we did not quarantine them. He had been in quarantine for two weeks prior to us getting him (after he was taken in the rescue) and Parvati is from a friend's flock, who takes very good care of her birds, and though it is possible she is sick, we decided that given the circumstances we would go ahead and take a deep breath and give him company sooner rather than later. So if you see this and have been following this, I know that we are breaking a cardinal rule of chicken keeping, which normally I would not do, but given the circumstances, it seemed the lesser of two evils.
