Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[delisha]

I know this has been answered but I can't find it.

Can you use layer crumbles to ferment? How about feed mill layer food, its nothing like store brought layer food. The consistency is more like crushed bird seed.

I ferment all grains and bagged feed. I even toss in spinach, cabbage and kale.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[NikkiMiChickie]

 If those are hatchery BOs they were probably hatched in Jan-April of last year.  Have they ever been wormed? Do they have bugs? Are they in a mixed flock? What is she feeding? Are they confined to a small coop and run? Usually the hatchery BOs are pretty good layers.

The guy who had the previously had used a commercial wormer on them over the summer. No signs of worms, or any other parasites upon inspection of birds & feces. Not a mixed flock, these are her first chickens. Just the 13 of them. She feeds a layer mix purchased from her local mill - I don't have any more details than that though. It's a custom mix by that mill, from what I understand. Not commercial feed such as purina, etc. And yes, confined to a small area she has created inside her horse barn. No run, but they do free range her yard irregularly (usually after someone gets home from work. She is reluctant to alow them out all day while no one is home bc of a close proximity to the road). And I agree, my hatchery BO is not my best layer, but she is a regular layer. It seems odd to me that she has no one laying.

It is a kit you get at the vets office. You open it and swab the inside of the chickens mouth, reseal it and send it off to the ST vets lab. The cost is not that bad..about 12.50 and worth it if she is planning on introducing more chickens.

Thanks for the explanation! I'll pass that info along to her

 

[NikkiMiChickie]

I know this has been answered but I can't find it.
Can you use layer crumbles to ferment? How about feed mill layer food, its nothing like store brought layer food. The consistency is more like crushed bird seed.

I ferment Bruce's recipe for a custom mix, which includes game bird feed, Boss, oats, and corn, and I think I have some alfalfa pellets in there. It's been so long since I mixed it that I no longer remember the recipe off-hand. Before doing this, I fermented my layer crumbles and added BOSS and alfalfa. No problem! You can ferment anything it seems

 

[Beekissed]

I know this has been answered but I can't find it.
Can you use layer crumbles to ferment? How about feed mill layer food, its nothing like store brought layer food. The consistency is more like crushed bird seed.

You sure can. You can ferment any feed ration you may have or design. I like the rations that are 50% milled layer and 50% mixed whole grains the best and this is what I normally feed in the winter months to cut costs. It has a better consistency, drains off easily if needed and seems to keep them fuller for longer...more content, somehow, then feeding 100% layer.

Question for a friend:
She received 13 free BOs in July from a friend of my dad's. I didn't want to mess with flock mixing, and I'm glad I didn't. Her birds are supposed to be less than a year old (probably a year old now though) and they've hardly laid since she got them. The most she's ever gotten were 4 or 5 eggs - and then back down to the usual 1-2 eggs. Recently, she's down to one layer, she can tell by the egg that it's the same hen laying every day, but has no idea which hen is laying it. She's ready to cull and get chicks in the spring, and I think she may take my little cockerel that just hatched. She's planning to cull only the birds with pale combs, and let the "healthy looking ones" stay on for winter, then see whether the laying picks up in spring. They haven't molted either, so the age estimate is probably right I'm thinking. I'm sure these are hatchery birds. They look nothing like dragon lady's!
Suggestions that I can pass along to her about choosing which birds to cull? I'm afraid she's going to kill her one and only layer if she doesn't separate them into dog crates or something to narrow it down. Hopefully BOs taste good!

This is never a good time of year to cull for laying. I agree that she should have more laying as this is their first year but then...they are BOs and aren't exactly super dooper layer breeds when bought from hatchery stock.

Tell her not to cull any until around March, if this is her chosen breed. By the middle or the end of March all birds who are laying, should be laying. If they are not laying by that time, it is likely they will never be good, consistent layers and need to be culled.

She might want to explore why she is keeping chickens and then choose breeds that are optimal for that purpose. If it's for a hobby that produces a few eggs for consumption needs, then hatchery BOs may fulfill her needs, though she may not be satisfied with their overall hardiness and production levels.

If it's for eggs and meat as a side effect of extra roos or retired hens, there are better breeds for a first timer to have that will be easier to manage and yield more of what she wants. Could be she will want to order a more likely breed for this when she orders.

This is an interesting observation. We hear about the national crisis of childhood obesity, how children today have such a high intake of sugary foods, and that the onset of puberty begins at younger and earlier ages. For a parallel in the animal world, it makes sense that if you reduce the sugar intake for chickens, you will delay the maturity of the chickens and the chickens will begin to lay later.

We have RIR, and thanks to this thread, they have been on the FF for 2 months, or so. They are approx. 20 weeks and have not begun to lay, but are healthy and happy, and eat really very little feed. They roam our yard, and are outside all the time. Here, in temperate So. CA, the worst we get is a little rain, and they love being outside in the rain, eating all the worms and bugs. I am content to have healthy chickens that will have a later onset of lay, and nominal feed costs!

I noticed that as well and was completely satisfied that the hens would mature more slowly as well. I know to folks waiting on their first egg slow maturity is agony but it is healthier for the chicken and will keep her in the production flock longer.

I feel good about doing the ff. I am using a little less feed, not quite 30 % less but noticeable. My chickens are c onsistant layers and healthy and active. They have missed a respitory illness they were exposed to recently and only 1 or two have messy bottoms, but its not very messy only a little bit. My chicken poo is nice and firm with none of the flock leaving messy poo. This is the biggest difference I've noticed. Before ff the majority had wet poo. The chickens are hatchery so after seeing all the beautiful chicken pictures I'm a little dejected on how mine look overall. I am on a dusty road and the run is dusty so I dont notice the shine as much but they are always dust bathing too. Their colors are brighter and their eyes are also bright. The eggs are heavy with very solid shells. Some people tell me they have a hard time breaking my eggs because the shells are so hard. The yolks are large and bright orange with firmness. The whites dont run.

I have 23 chickens now and 2 roos. I get 14-17 eggs per day. I have one young leghorn that stopped laying and never started again. Two old girls that nearly stopped laying when the temp dropped and I see 1 -2 eggs each a week from them. One has a very pale comb and has had a pale comb since I got her. Those three are my problem girls but they are active and healthy otherwise.

My biggest complaint is my BO, Honey, and one of my PR have a bald saddle area that has been like that for about a month. The PR is not getting better and growing in at all and the BO is growing in but super slow.

Over all the advise I've gotten from BEE and Bruce and Al and others has helped me stave off the problems my friends seem to be having. I walked my friend's coop the other day. She has a heat lamp to keep the water from freezing and at this time keeps the windows closed too much. We talked about ways to predator proof the windows and leaving them open all the time. We also talked about a crock pot to keep the water from freezing because the coop is too warm. I also made a diagram and copied Bruce's recipe for ff. She has had one sick chick and a respitory problem this fall. Sick chick is her problem and we plan to cull this month if no serious improvement. She used antibiotics to cure the respitory thing and it made sick chick worse. I think sick chick has a yeast infection in her body. So ff will help her a lot once she gets it up and running. My other friend is adding another 50 to her flock because she cannot supply enough eggs to her markets. She will end up with 100 chickens. She likes her naked neck the best, a daily layer. She has a varmit stealing eggs and cannot catch him. She has caught a bunch of birds and squirrels though. She is getting her new chickens from Murry Mcmurry hatchery. She doesnt do anything do assist diet except organic feed. She sells her eggs to organic markets and farmers markets. She would really benefit from ff but does not seem to be interested.

I'm really glad that there was not a serious outbreak of the chickens...I forgot whose they were but I was pulling for you on that!

L

Folks get used to a certain way of doing things and they don't want to change anything. It's sufficient for them and that's enough. To me it's like being able to buy premium, high octane gas for my car for the same price as regular. Who in the world wouldn't want the high octane?

But some people don't like change and some folks feel that their methods simply cannot be improved upon. To me, there is always room to learn and improve any animal husbandry method...I'm always searching for ways to improve what I already do and have, within the bounds of my budget.

Just like something as simple as using ACV in the water some of the time vs. using it all the time...that little move improved my egg's overall taste and clarity and my regular customers commented on it. My eggs were always good enough but that one little move put them over the top for taste and people could tell the difference, though I had not told them to expect a change. I didn't even know it could change things that drastically but was pleasantly surprised at the feedback and with my own impression of the improved flavor of the eggs.

It's those little things and improvements that, costing little money but yielding big rewards, that I love to add to my husbandry.

Some who are set in their ways will never try anything different and so will never see if it could change things...if good is good enough for them, then it just is. Simple enough and it is in their comfort zone...some folks have big difficulty moving out of that comfort zone.

 

[Eggcessive]

If those BO's are birds hatched last year in March or April, they are probably molting or coming out of one. My 2 BO girls born then are not laying for that reason.

 

[NikkiMiChickie]

If those BO's are birds hatched last year in March or April, they are probably molting or coming out of one.  My 2 BO girls born then are not laying for that reason.

Supposedly they were hatched this year, not last... But with free birds, who knows?!

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

Seems weird to have no newbies asking questions on this thread. Did I scare them off or did we just work our way through the whole newbie population and our job is done?

I know this is late..but I am reading, trying to take it all in!!..

..you guys & gals are great!!..

Seriously!!!

 

[Mountain Momma]

Ok, thanks Bee. Even though I thought it was good, it's always nice to have reassurance from someone else

Speaking of reassurance....I cleaned outthe fridge today and gave a lot to the chickens. Cranberries sauce, stuffing mashed potatoes and pizza and a little mac and cheese. Now almost all of them have a really big area at the bottom of their throat on their right side. Does this mean they over ate and will they be okay?
L

 

[Gargoyle]

I can see how Al would like 4 wives like the one he already has! She is a true heroin!

A true heroin for sure. A good wife is definitely addicting.

OK, I'd fallen 40 pages behind, I just caught up.
We get lots of free or almost free veggies from our garden, (or I should say our weeds), a nearby farm, grocery store leftovers, etc... we chop them up and feed them to our chickens each day. (chop them because, if a plant is stuck in the ground, they can tear off chunks, but if a big leaf is loose, they toss it around for a while trying to get a bite and then lose interest). The two older girls really like the veggies, the roo eats some, the two young girls are more just into feed and dirt.

I mix in some paprika and garlic powder each day, (and occasionally some cinnamon or regular pepper) those seem to be good for them and they like it; we have an ethnic grocery that sells the stuff pretty cheap (a 7 oz bag of paprika is $1.30 and lasts me about three months). I'd run out of garlic powder, and the store didn't have the large bottle I usually get. I was staring at the shelf, sorting through the minced garlic, chopped garlic, and smaller bottle of garlic powder, ended up picking up what I thought was the small bottle of garlic powder. Added it to the veggies for two days, then this morning I noticed I'd screwed up- I bought garlic salt, not garlic powder. The big girl who likes veggies the most; she probably eats as much as the other four combined. (she really scrapes the dish every day) Anyway, this morning she had really runny wet poop. Oops.

I made sure she ate some dried toast today, and she drank a lot of water today; she also ate very heartily, and by the end of the day her poop was getting firmer. I'm sure she'll be fine tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it was the salt that gave her diarrhea. I'd also given them a bit of leftover spaghetti yesterday, and that probably had some salt in it too.