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

[Beekissed]

Wow! Did I scare everyone off?

 

[loanwizard]

You will never scare me off woman

People are afraid to give advice now unless they have 100 years experience like Al.....

I am debating whether to start a 30 gal trash can with FF now or wait til spring for both the hogs and chickens.

I have 100 chickens and 10 hogs so a 5 gallon bucket I suppose would be a joke so to speak.

 

[Beekissed]

Wonder if a person could build a cooker out of a metal stock tank and keep a low flame under it to keep it warm during the winter...I know they used to cook potatoes for pigs over in Europe and they had big vats or cookers for this purpose.

From the results others and I have had with FF with the chooks, it might be worth it to try it for the chickens starting now and work out something for the pigs down the line. I fed 50 CX out of one 5 gal.bucket, so you oughta be able to keep 100 layers out of one easily. Though with the cooler temps it might be worth it to keep one bucket cooking in the house while you are feeding the other bucket down and switch them out.

I know that I don't think my old flock would have recovered so quickly if they hadn't had the rich probios in the FF...I think it would have taken them much longer to get on their feet, if ever.

 

[loanwizard]

Good point. I don't know about cooking it. Heat is energy and costs. Either my energy to cut wood, or my pocket to pay for artificial heat sources.

Can you ferment in cooler temps and when does fermentation stop? I know it does not freeze, but does the fermentation process stop at 60, 50, 40, 30, or what?

 

[Mskayladog]

I was reading the duck and geese thread a out aflatoxins. How concerned should us chicken folk be?

Thanks kim

 

[Kansas Prairie]

I was reading the duck and geese thread a out aflatoxins. How concerned should us chicken folk be?
Thanks kim

I called a feed business, and we all know feed guys know everything.

He said they inspected their corn under the Black ray ultraviolet lamp for a bright greenish yellow fluorescence in broken kernels. He said it can occur on all grains, fruits and vegetables if they are stored in temperatures that permit the mold growth and if they are stored in damp places where the mold and afatoxin can form. He said it can happens in the field if the kernels are damaged, but it usually a result of with poor storage conditions. He said the danger isn't any greater here than in past years of drought. there seems to more publicity because a wider area experienced drought this year. It is dangerous, if your animals seem depressed that's one of the first signs.

He also said even small amounts are very dangerous for rats, ferrets, ducks, trout, dogs, turkeys, cattle and pigs.

 

[Beekissed]

Good point. I don't know about cooking it. Heat is energy and costs. Either my energy to cut wood, or my pocket to pay for artificial heat sources.

Can you ferment in cooler temps and when does fermentation stop? I know it does not freeze, but does the fermentation process stop at 60, 50, 40, 30, or what?

I don't know...this is my first winter doing this. I know you can with a brined ferment but that doesn't apply here.

I was reading the duck and geese thread a out aflatoxins. How concerned should us chicken folk be?
Thanks kim

Never heard of them...is that when your exposure to the Aflac duck commercials reaches a toxic level?

Quote:
I'd say that avoiding keeping chickens in a hot, wet coop and run environment would be the key to avoiding it. Buy fresh milled grains that haven't been stored improperly and then store them properly at home.

Anyone else have anything on the Aflatoxin problem?

 

[Kansas Prairie]

I think the advantage we have in our area is we have drought often, so our mills and elevators test for aflatoxin. Over the years we've have many animals die in our area because of it. They act depressed, loose their hair/fur/ feathers and it goes down hill from there, it is ugly! One problem that can occur is if the corn/grain farmer has the corn and they can't sell it to a grain elevator or feed lot they can be tempted to bag it and sell it out of a pick up. Don't buy grain at a parking lot, even if it's bagged in a feed sack.

 

[armorfirelady]

If you have the basic software on your PC, you can sort of make your own little chicken manual by first pasting all the info into a single document and later creating your own categories and paste from THAT document and pretty soon you have yourself a nice little book you can print off of things you would like to remember or refer to later.

I have a little bit of OCD

.....I have a binder with all the print outs of OT advice, tags from food I purchased, items I purchased for coops, etc..........its so much easier to have a book at hand to look at. Its funny I love looking up stuff online but I like a PAPER copy to keep on hand for easy reference at home.

 

[seamsewnice]

Ah! True old-timers never get tired of mulling over the same old stories. I, too, was saddened when I thought you were going to close down this thread, Bee. It's good to know that you are going to keep it going. It must be a lot of work to keep up with and post all those replies, cause it's a real effort to keep up-to-date with all the new posts each day just reading. My Grandmother, who died at 94 lived with us, (she died in 1971) as I was growing up some of my first memories were of my Grandmother, I heard the same stories over and over about how her brothers always teased her, and how she was the youngest of 9 children, her mother could curl her hair on her fingers in ringlets. Of course, many more and we heard them over and over again, same old, same old...I never tired of listening to her tell those stories. I don't frankly think she had dementia either. She was a spunky old woman made bread 2 or 3 times a week (I never tasted store bought bread till I was a teenager, and thought somehow I was missing out on something.) She made dinner everyday (dinner was always served at noon). She dusted the house daily. She also helped with the dishes and with any food processing we were doing, right up till bout 6 months before she died. What I'm trying to say here is, true old timers keep mulling over the same old things and the listeners don't ever seem to tire of it!