Chickens almost exclusively eating scratch

[3KillerBs]

Can you use BleedStop or QuickClot on chickens?

You can, if it keeps bleeding after you pull the feather, but a bird's blood feather is directly connected to it's circulatory system with blood flowing in the quill of the feather (it will be red when you look at it).

That's why you have to pull the accidentally cut feather -- then the blood vessels will naturally collapse and seal.

 

[MrsEarthern]

@3KillerBs Thank you!

 

[MrsEarthern]

You can, if it keeps bleeding after you pull the feather, but a bird's blood feather is directly connected to it's circulatory system with blood flowing in the quill of the feather (it will be red when you look at it).

That's why you have to pull the accidentally cut feather -- then the blood vessels will naturally collapse and seal.

Can I ask one more thing, my uncle said I could just trim the hairy stuff at the end of the primaries almost up to the tip of the shaft so they can't catch a breeze but that it would take longer than a straight shear.
Is that accurate to your knowledge or should I just stick with the regular method?
Red would be what is removed per my uncle's advice.

 

[3KillerBs]

Can I ask one more thing, my uncle said I could just trim the hairy stuff at the end of the primaries almost up to the tip of the shaft so they can't catch a breeze but that it would take longer than a straight shear.
Is that accurate to your knowledge or should I just stick with the regular method?
Red would be what is removed per my uncle's advice.
View attachment 3269331

I personally cut right at the edge of the coverts -- avoiding any blood feathers and starting with 4-6 of the outside primaries -- because my more determined flyers are lightweight birds who take more clipping to ground them.

You can do the clipping bit-by-bit until you figure out how many feathers you need to clip to keep the birds inside their fence.

 

[LaFleche]

Take care to clip just one wing per bird which will throw them off their equilibrium.

A second person holding the bird will make it much easier.

 

[MrsEarthern]

Update: They are eating the pellets from the gravity feeder pretty consistently again, have resumed small amounts of scratch and protein rich treats. I was also able to get some Flockraiser crumbles, have been adding about a cup of that to the usual pellets the last few days.

Since resuming scratch and treats, my pullet hasn't been trying to escape as often, and the others only try when she gets out. Lately it's just been to get into prime dust bath spot just outside the run, and if she hangs out there everybody else is content in the run. She's also the dominate flock member. Today she laid her first egg.
The girls are getting some beautiful iridescence in the barring on their saddle feathers, photos don't do them justice.


Lavender- my muddy blue girl


Darkwing- my barred girl.

 

[MrsEarthern]

In honor of our first two eggs, the kids helped me make Too Much Chocolate Cake - Half Turtle! Check out how orange our yolks were! They are noticeably smaller than the "extra large" store bought eggs, but not by as much as I expected.
Brown eggs ours:


Top/Left ours, Bottom/right store bought.

 

[3KillerBs]

In honor of our first two eggs, the kids helped me make Too Much Chocolate Cake - Half Turtle! Check out how orange our yolks were! They are noticeably smaller than the "extra large" store bought eggs, but not by as much as I expected.
Brown eggs ours:
View attachment 3286352

Top/Left ours, Bottom/right store bought.
View attachment 3286353

I am now in the habit of weighing eggs for all recipes.

 

[saysfaa]

I am now in the habit of weighing eggs for all recipes.

That is a better solution than mine.

I put more eggs in than the recipe says. I often did that even when I used store eggs. It doesn't matter for what I make. I'm sure it does matter for some recipes.

 

[3KillerBs]

That is a better solution than mine.

I put more eggs in than the recipe says. I often did that even when I used store eggs. It doesn't matter for what I make. I'm sure it does matter for some recipes.

I often do throw in another egg when I know that the added moisture and protein isn't going to screw things up.