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

[Pozees]

I had no idea Bee was gone. Yes, Al, I do miss her, I wondered why I hadn't seen anything from her, but thought perhaps she had other issues to attend to and that she would soon return to regale us with a new tale of adventure!

Disagreements are supposed to be learned from, not used to haze someone off a discussion board. Very sad.

 

[MagicChicken]

Is it just me or does anybody else of us regulars who call this thread home, Miss Bee ??. I know I do !!! it seems like I am a little numb and not as much fun anymore. I think it's a terrible thing what those people did to her over on a thread she started and was a driving force in. All I can say is I'll be watching them when they rear their horns here as I am sure is their next target. Sometimes these Huggers need a good

.

I hope the new posters do go and read and understand the first OP post, that thin skinned Unicorn & rainbow ideals is not what were about here.

Miss Bee a lot, but you've been doing well Al! Hang in there. That other thread moved so fast I couldn't keep up. There is so much need for information on a straight, common sense approach to chicken-keeping, the unicorn and rainbow crowd ate it up. Which was a good thing until the Bee-idolizing cult began to develop. Then things got really weird. I was expecting BYC paparazzi to show up at her place any minute. Between the lionizing and people taking stuff out of context, I don't blame her for disappearing. Hope she is ok. Watch out, Al, the paparazzi will be after you next! Your rooster-flogging skills may come in handy for other things...

Quote:
Would you PM me with the source of your feed, Maryhysong?

I've been looking for non-GMO feed that has animal protein. It's nearly impossible to find. I was under the impression that organic feeds couldn't have mammalian or poulty by-products in them, and the ones that do have animal protein mostly have fish meal. I haven't seen a chicken take a fish out of my pond yet, but they can strip a turkey carcass faster than I can. I think the rationale for no animal products in animal feed is a not-necessarily-rational fear of "mad cow" type disease transmission, but I've been wrong before.

GMO's didn't surface on my radar until recently, when I started to find references to fertility and hatchability being reduced by GMO feed. That gave me pause. Not sure how reliable those references were, but I like having options about my food supply. If we don't ask for non-GMO products it won't be long before they are no longer available. So I've started to ask, to help maintain diversity in the feed products available. It's hard to raise old-fashioned, no-nonsense chickens if the feed is new-fangled and weird. Just saying.

Sarah

 

[al6517]

Al,

Have you ever smoked jerky on your Big Green Egg? Just put a batch on mine that has been curing for a couple days. It's what my nephews ask for for Christmas every year.

I don't have a green egg, I hear they are pretty cool. I just have regular smokers, I mainly do my jerky in dehydraters though, beef and an all time favorite of mine is duck and goose jerky, you should try it............ awesome.

 

[al6517]

Quote:


When conditioning them for shows or a myriad of things I use the barrels for I prefer the sand. It last forever and is better for keeping them clean and good for their feet and leggs, poop doesn't build up at all it get's well degraded as they scratch it in, no smell. my friends who have barrels use sand and said it was the way to go and so I did it and they were right. I don't however use sand in any other pen's though as I prefer straw hay for that.

 

[LOVEIGEE]

Is it just me or does anybody else of us regulars who call this thread home, Miss Bee ??. I know I do !!! it seems like I am a little numb and not as much fun anymore. I think it's a terrible thing what those people did to her over on a thread she started and was a driving force in. All I can say is I'll be watching them when they rear their horns here as I am sure is their next target. Sometimes these Huggers need a good

.

I hope the new posters do go and read and understand the first OP post, that thin skinned Unicorn & rainbow ideals is not what were about here.

I MISS BEE MORE THAN ANYONE KNOWS AL! MAKE HER COME BACK.......YOU, FRED, DAWG AND BEE ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD.....I TRUST YOUR ADVICE......AND I MISS MY FRIEND IN BEE!

 

[maryhysong]

Miss Bee a lot, but you've been doing well Al! Hang in there. That other thread moved so fast I couldn't keep up. There is so much need for information on a straight, common sense approach to chicken-keeping, the unicorn and rainbow crowd ate it up. Which was a good thing until the Bee-idolizing cult began to develop. Then things got really weird. I was expecting BYC paparazzi to show up at her place any minute. Between the lionizing and people taking stuff out of context, I don't blame her for disappearing. Hope she is ok. Watch out, Al, the paparazzi will be after you next! Your rooster-flogging skills may come in handy for other things...

Would you PM me with the source of your feed, Maryhysong?

I've been looking for non-GMO feed that has animal protein. It's nearly impossible to find. I was under the impression that organic feeds couldn't have mammalian or poulty by-products in them, and the ones that do have animal protein mostly have fish meal. I haven't seen a chicken take a fish out of my pond yet, but they can strip a turkey carcass faster than I can. I think the rationale for no animal products in animal feed is a not-necessarily-rational fear of "mad cow" type disease transmission, but I've been wrong before.

GMO's didn't surface on my radar until recently, when I started to find references to fertility and hatchability being reduced by GMO feed. That gave me pause. Not sure how reliable those references were, but I like having options about my food supply. If we don't ask for non-GMO products it won't be long before they are no longer available. So I've started to ask, to help maintain diversity in the feed products available. It's hard to raise old-fashioned, no-nonsense chickens if the feed is new-fangled and weird. Just saying.

Sarah

Sarah I just realized I typed meat scrap; it is actually fish meal. sorry about that confusion. sometimes my brain and my fingers are not on the same wavelength. I suppose all I was really thinking was animal protein. Since others may also be interested here is the website link for the company, http://montanaflour.com/

What happens here is a group of people go in and purchase enough to get the best freight rate and have a drop off point with a fork lift to unload the truck, then everyone comes and picks up their feed.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Ooops. Must be Walt or Fred. We were talking about them pages and pages ago in this thread.

Around here duck goes on sale for next to nothing right after the holidays. I always get three or four. I might try making some duck jerky.

 

[al6517]

Well MC as I said sometime ago I custom mix my feed, i use several different things but it's mainly just a few different types of commercial feeds dpending on what I am doing and then several different grain seeds.

I try to buy animal based protien feed but can't hardly find it in what I like as a base feed, so I just supplement and along with my mixes provides me with a decent variety of feeds for different uses year round. Not sure about the GMO sources either, and I haven't seen fertility issues either or anyhting out of the ordinary pop up. That's not to say there isn't an issue but just that I haven't seen anything yet so I try no to let it get into my head just yet, not enough room in my tiny head for all that fancy book learnin cypherin LOL. I may however have eatin a large dose of GMO over the years cause I now seem to be a bigger butthead than ever heheheheheheeee LOL LOL.

 

[al6517]

Ooops. Must be Walt or Fred. We were talking about them pages and pages ago in this thread.

Around here duck goes on sale for next to nothing right after the holidays. I always get three or four. I might try making some duck jerky.

I get my duck & geese meat from the birds I hunt and kill, I am a big waterfowl hunter. I do only use the puddle duck group for jerky as the divers are just way to rank to jerk out. It's a cool thing me and the guy's have when we are in the blinds cold and freezing shivering our tails off we consume mass quanities of each others jerky. we all have to make it so we have enough for all of us LOL, we just use the breast meat though and when we are finished making it you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between duck jerky and beef jerky but there is a slight difference. very very tastey if I do say so meself.

 

[al6517]

So hang on for a few minutes folks I am going to run out and feed real quick then I'm back.