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

[Leahs Mom]

Leahs Mom just had to tell you i just did my first copy paste into my word thingy all by myself...

Thank you.

Yay!!!!

 

[stonykill]

DANG! I can't keep up anymore

 

[smyers32]

Now that we're back on track here, I have a question! When I let everyone out this am, one hen stayed on the roost for awhile so I took the opportunity to catch her and inspect her a little. She is sooo light! I guess I just never really thought about a chicken being underweight, but she must be! So how do you fatten up a chicken? And in the same vein, how can I determine what is the appropriate body composition. I picked up one other hen, I call her 'big momma' because she is huge and has the fullest fluffy orpington feathering. Big Momma had considerable more meat on her chest, I could still feel the keel easily, but it wasn't like holding onto an axe blade like the skinny bird. Skinny bird looks the roughest of the bunch feather-wise also. And she seemed to smell bad.

She doesn't look dirty, but she smelled dirty and I did spot a couple mites when I checked around her vent. I checked a couple others and didn't see any sign of mites anywhere. Is it possible for only part of the flock to have mites? I checked several last week and dusted the 2 that showed mites and a third that just looks scruffy w/ DE. I always thought that if one had them, they all would. Some of them look beautiful and the picture of health now, they have really made major improvements in the month that I've had them. But there are 2 or 3 that just aren't looking better at all. What's the deal?? There are at least 2 that are laying every other day or so, but I haven't done the butt check yet to figure out who it is. But I did lock up the 3 best looking hens the other day and got one egg from them and one egg from one of the 3 scruffy hens outside the coop. So I don't want to cull just based on looks.
They get FF twice a day(started a week or so ago) and free range all day, though most are not very interested in actually foraging, ACV in the water, free choice OS and occasional BOSS and kitchen scraps. I gave them a suet cake today, but of course the more well conditioned birds chased the scraggly birds off and chowed down themselves. But I know when I want to put weight on a horse and improve overall condition, I add fat to the diet. Works for horses, and it certainly works for people! Figured it was worth a try. But I don't want to overdo it either. Is there a recommended "dosage" or frequency of feeding for a high fat food for chickens? I was thinking maybe 3x a week?

Ok so that was a lot of questions.

edit: I should add these are buff orps, and from what I understand should be pretty meaty under all that fluff. I'm thinking even big momma might be slightly on the light side for the breed.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yay!!!!

Okay now tell me how to get those cute icons to where I can use them.

 

[Beekissed]

Now that we're back on track here, I have a question! When I let everyone out this am, one hen stayed on the roost for awhile so I took the opportunity to catch her and inspect her a little. She is sooo light! I guess I just never really thought about a chicken being underweight, but she must be! So how do you fatten up a chicken? And in the same vein, how can I determine what is the appropriate body composition. I picked up one other hen, I call her 'big momma' because she is huge and has the fullest fluffy orpington feathering. Big Momma had considerable more meat on her chest, I could still feel the keel easily, but it wasn't like holding onto an axe blade like the skinny bird. Skinny bird looks the roughest of the bunch feather-wise also. And she seemed to smell bad.

She doesn't look dirty, but she smelled dirty and I did spot a couple mites when I checked around her vent. I checked a couple others and didn't see any sign of mites anywhere. Is it possible for only part of the flock to have mites? I checked several last week and dusted the 2 that showed mites and a third that just looks scruffy w/ DE. I always thought that if one had them, they all would. Some of them look beautiful and the picture of health now, they have really made major improvements in the month that I've had them. But there are 2 or 3 that just aren't looking better at all. What's the deal?? There are at least 2 that are laying every other day or so, but I haven't done the butt check yet to figure out who it is. But I did lock up the 3 best looking hens the other day and got one egg from them and one egg from one of the 3 scruffy hens outside the coop. So I don't want to cull just based on looks.
They get FF twice a day(started a week or so ago) and free range all day, though most are not very interested in actually foraging, ACV in the water, free choice OS and occasional BOSS and kitchen scraps. I gave them a suet cake today, but of course the more well conditioned birds chased the scraggly birds off and chowed down themselves. But I know when I want to put weight on a horse and improve overall condition, I add fat to the diet. Works for horses, and it certainly works for people! Figured it was worth a try. But I don't want to overdo it either. Is there a recommended "dosage" or frequency of feeding for a high fat food for chickens? I was thinking maybe 3x a week?

Ok so that was a lot of questions.

edit: I should add these are buff orps, and from what I understand should be pretty meaty under all that fluff. I'm thinking even big momma might be slightly on the light side for the breed.

I highlighted some questions and points in your post that I will address. I invite other OTs to chime in because this is just MY take on the situation.

Question #1. There are many ways to fatten up a chicken but I think the most important thing is to find out why they are not in good condition in the first place. Not correcting that problem and just adding more fats and proteins to the diet is just throwing money down the toilet. Any reasonably healthy bird should stay in good condition on free range and regular laying ration feed, no matter the actual fat content in the mix. Correct that original problem and they should just fatten up on what you are feeding...if the rest of the flock stay fat on it, why not this bird?

#2. Yes. Sometimes mites will be on some of the chickens but not all. This can eventually change the longer the mites are present in any chicken in your flock until they are all infested.

#3. Some high fat feed formulas will tell the recommended feeding ratio on the bag like Calf Manna Pro. Not sure, but I assume the rest are the same. You can add fats to their diet with regular cooking oils, suet, bacon grease, lard, etc. and just give it in small amounts at first and see how your flock tolerates it. The people who show can best advise you on how to put more fat and conditioning into chickens but it still won't help much if you don't get rid of the source of their problem.

Points in the post:

I'm not a fan of nor have ever used the DE, so cannot reliably discourse on the merits or lack thereof, but can tell you that plain old wood ashes dusted deeply into the skin of all my flock had most of the flock mite free within a few days, with a second application getting the remaining three still having them. I also combined this with applying NuStock on any mite eggs or lice nits at the base of the feathers around the vent.

Give the FF time to work some magic..they've only had it a week, so give it some time to get some probios into their systems and to change the pH and nature of the intestines and their function. Patience is needed when using more natural approaches to care...not like high powered shot or pill.

BOs, when fed plenty of feed, will prefer to eat if from the trough instead of going out and hunting for it. Wrong breed to expect great foraging instincts, though DragonLady has some breeder quality BOs that seem to have retained that natural instinct. If you really want them to forage they have to be a little more hungry....only feeding in the evenings will increase foraging desires, as BOs are used to having their tucker.

The problem with trying to increase the fat and nutrients to the poorly BOs is that it will increase the weight gain on those who are already fluffy..and may lead to digestive or reproductive issues.

I'd add the suet like you are doing, wait for the FF to correct some wrongs, dust with something more effective than DE, use some Nustock as needed and also get some ashes in the nest boxes, NS or neem oil on the roosts. Then start paying attention to coop and soil balance to prevent further infestations.

That's just my take on it....other OTs may present you with more options in treatment. Let us know how it all turns out and what methods you used and the results?

 

[HiddenChicken]

On the Three Sisters method of planting, traditionally that used dent corn, harvested at the end of the season for corn meal, not sweet corn harvested pretty early and eaten fresh. That used pole beans havested as dried beans at the end of the season, not picked as green beans. That used pumpkins or winter squash, harvested at the end of the season, not zucchini or summer squash harvested every other day.
That does not mean you can't use sweet corn, pole beans as green beans, or zucchini or summer squash for this. I regularly plant winter squash with my sweet corn. But I think you need to realize what you are doing and why you may get different results than you might expect.
You'll probably pick the sweet corn before the green beans start to produce. The dead stalks will probably still support the bean vines though a lot of sweet corn does not typically grow as tall as dent corn. If you pick your variety of sweet corn you can take care of that. And just be careful when you harvest the sweet corn and the green beans to not break down the corn stalks. The beans will not set nitrogen to help this year's corn crop but they will help replace what the corn used for next year's crop.
When you are harvesting the beans or corn, you can have squash vines all over the place. Be careful to not step on them. It can be done, just be careful.
There is a reason traditional methods become traditional. They tend to work. Occasionally it might help to know some of the details though.

That's great news! I already have some heirloom dent corn that I'm planting next year anyway, so I will just make sure to plant dry-use beans & pumpkin with it. No problem!
So excited to try this!!!

 

[HiddenChicken]

I would not base your decision on my experience unless you are on a hot, dry, wind-whipped prairie above 5000 ft elevation I also did not have hen helpers at the time, which may have alleviated some of my bug issues. I know the method has been used successfully by many, it just did not work for me the year I tried it.

Yup! Gonna give it a go!

 

[galanie]

I can tell you about DE. It might help but don't count on it. Often it does not.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Bee,

What's your foundation for saying "something more effective than DE", when you've never used it?

I put a little less than a tuna can in the coop whenever I change bedding (coop floor is 3' x 6'). No bugs, no smell and no moisture.

Just wondering and trying to learn. If there's something that's better and cheaper I'd like to know about it, but I'm pretty satisfied with DE so far.

 

[HiddenChicken]

My son tried this this year ...despite the drought his corn grew large & had cobs ...we gave it no fertilizer ...just water ..the beans didnt do real well...they got lost in the weeds ..his idea to not weed .LOL the squash did take its own route across the garden ...we had one acorn squash that grew up on a corn stalk ..very amusing

Squash is like the "great wanderer." It gets around...lol