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

[Nomibear]

DragonLady, Those are some beautiful birds!!
Bruce, I was also trying to find where you had posted your feed recipe, but can't seem to find it. Could you repost? Or PM me?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Miss Lydia, There is a very old article from 20 years or so ago in a Florida newspaper about a true event involving a Dachsund.
The dog went missing out of the yard. A while later he came back smelling awful and all dirty. The next day the neighbor found a huge alligator, dead right behind the yards. It looked like he had swallowed the dog whole and the Dachsund clawed his way out and found his wayhome. Thats a very big dog in a little body.

Thanks for sharing, if we lived in Fl. I would stop trimming their nails. He thinks he's a Rottie.

 

[Pozees]

I'm glad my thoughts were somewhat helpful. This is rather an "axe to grind" subject for me. I truly love chickens and chicken keeping. I'm frustrated, as an old curmudgeon, that people are cursed with such lousy birds. It's bad enough that people take up the "hobby" and haven't a clue about chicken behaviors or flock keeping and have no facilities in which to keep birds in a healthy, normal way, then, to add insult to injury, get such crummy advice from folks that are novices themselves and finally, the real topper is that they get such lousy birds that that whole thing collapses into armageddon.

Once a person becomes adept, to a degree, in chicken keeping, I believe they deserve better birds. I also believe that really good birds enhance the whole experience in positive ways. I don't want to see really good birds wasted by being stuck in a bad environment, with a goofus flock keeper, but good flock keepers just need good birds. I just cannot describe the difference such birds make.

Apologies for the rant.

It comes through in everything you write. Thank you for the time and advice you give us.

I detect no need for apologies.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! Me neither....love everything Fred has to say on this forum. Genuine and sincere every time.

 

[Pozees]

Oh, geez! Don't get me started on GMOs...I'm with you and it's of my biggest pet-peeves ever! Monsanto should be called monSATAN.

But, I digress...

Because I hate GMOs so much and don't want to eat anything associated with it (when possible), I feed only organic layer and scratch to the chickens...for organic eggs and meat. And according to my feed bag, the corn is organic. I'm just frustrated with them not eating it as it's half of an expensive bag of scratch!

Well, I just hope their pickiness wears off....little spoiled brats.

For what I paid for it, i might have to gather up the corn and eat it myself! (yes...very much kidding...)

I was just discussing this last night with DH, as I have been spending increasing amounts of time thinking about the best way to stop feeding corn, as it is impossible to know whether one is really getting non-GMO. He suggests we plant some next year, bless his heart, and we probably will try, but could never water enough to feed the flock through the year, at least not in any substantial percentage. I have handmixed scratch using cracked corn, whole wheat and whole oats, and they like it okay but don't scramble for it the way I would expect them to, so I'm sure the cracked corn is GMO and I probably won't add it again. Will try some BOSS, not sure what else. They get FF every morning, except this weekend it's supposed to drop into the teens overnight so I may cook them some cracked wheat and steel cut oats for breakfast

 

[delisha]

Quote: cook?

 

[Beekissed]

 

[thedragonlady]

I was just discussing this last night with DH, as I have been spending increasing amounts of time thinking about the best way to stop feeding corn, as it is impossible to know whether one is really getting non-GMO. He suggests we plant some next year, bless his heart, and we probably will try, but could never water enough to feed the flock through the year, at least not in any substantial percentage. I have handmixed scratch using cracked corn, whole wheat and whole oats, and they like it okay but don't scramble for it the way I would expect them to, so I'm sure the cracked corn is GMO and I probably won't add it again. Will try some BOSS, not sure what else. They get FF every morning, except this weekend it's supposed to drop into the teens overnight so I may cook them some cracked wheat and steel cut oats for breakfast

Try some plain old WILD BIRD SEED.

 

[normanack]

I was just discussing this last night with DH, as I have been spending increasing amounts of time thinking about the best way to stop feeding corn, as it is impossible to know whether one is really getting non-GMO.  He suggests we plant some next year, bless his heart, and we probably will try, but could never water enough to feed the flock through the year, at least not in any substantial percentage.  I have handmixed scratch using cracked corn, whole wheat and whole oats, and they like it okay but don't scramble for it the way I would expect them to, so I'm sure the cracked corn is GMO and I probably won't add it again.  Will try some BOSS, not sure what else.  They get FF every morning, except this weekend it's supposed to drop into the teens overnight so I may cook them some cracked wheat and steel cut oats for breakfast  

There was an article by Maggie Koerth-Baker in Popular Science recently exploring the possible impact of climate change on different crops. Apparently of all the major crops, corn is the only one that is not easily hybridized/modified/transmogrified to be tolerant of higher temperatures than we currently have. Food for thought, so to speak.

 

[Melabella]

Danny, my mini Dachshund who dreams of one day being an LGD

That is one cute dog! Love his markings!