Colorado

[wsmith]

So I stopped by Bartlets in Falcon. Very impressed with their friendly atmosphere and customer service. Great prices too. I bought on bag of 20% protein layer feed. If the flock likes it, I will buy a bunch. I will get about $1 off if i buy a ton.

We stopped by there on the way to the Hanover-Elbert game. Elbert has beaten the Hanover girls in every game for nearly 15 years....UNTIL NOW! Hanover girls beat Elbert in Basketball 39-37!

 

[chlskt]

Thank you! I didn't even think to put an egg in there...duh! I'll try that first, then try the fermented food. Do you feed that anyway? I think I've read you feeding that before.
Does anyone know any other feed store that will have BLRW? Elizabeth is about an hour away and I really don't want to drive that far for 2 chicks, they are so beautiful!

Hummmm...  Just a thought, but maybe try finding a moment (or hour) this weekend and put an egg in the run.  Then just sit back and watch from a small distance.  I would think the culprit would show themselves... 

It might be telling you they need more calcium or protein.  How old are they and what breed(s) again?  If they are near/in molt they probably need protein.  Feathers are protein.  You can try increasing protein in feed either with a change in what you are giving, supplements (meal worms maybe), or try fermenting their feed, which increases the bioavailability of the protein in their food.  Fermenting is a pretty easy process once you work it out for yourself.  I use layer crumble and home mixed scratch, put it in a bowl/bucket with water and a splash of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, stir once or twice a day, in about 3 days you will have fermentation (bubbles, sour-ish fermenty odor, sometimes a white film on top) - you can even feed it just soaked the first day or two while the rest of the mix ferments.

If it's calcium offer free choice oyster shell, yogurt, etc.

If you already do all this and they are 2012 hens not in or near molt, it may be time to start over.

 

[chlskt]

Oh, and they are two showgirls, a silkie, and a sultan. We got them last summer around june/july so we really haven't gotten much from them in the way of eggs.

 

[samsr]

So, yesterday I looked in the coop and noticed a half of an egg, which tells me, someone is eating them.....
What do you all recommend, do I get rid of them all and start over, or is there anyway to find out who's doing it? Luckily, we only have 4 chickens and a turkey, so starting over is not a huge loss. Would explain why we haven't gotten eggs in 2 months, and I thought it was from the cold........

I have heard others on BYC have used the mustard egg method. Simply put you blow out an egg and replace the inside with mustard, then set it in the coop. It should be easy to find out who the egg eater is at that point. Apparently they dont like the taste of the mustard. It shouldnt take long for the perpetrator to stop.
Calcium and protein deficiency is a cause of this behavior also, as previously mentioned.

 

[dennarahl]

So, yesterday I looked in the coop and noticed a half of an egg, which tells me, someone is eating them.....
What do you all recommend, do I get rid of them all and start over, or is there anyway to find out who's doing it? Luckily, we only have 4 chickens and a turkey, so starting over is not a huge loss. Would explain why we haven't gotten eggs in 2 months, and I thought it was from the cold........

Is there any way that the eggs are getting broken before someone decides to eat them? Like not enough padding in the nest? When we moved our girls, the nest boxes were poorly designed and just the act of settling in the nest would break them. Then the girls would eat them. Once we redid the nests the breakage and eating stopped.

 

[dennarahl]

Grr.... I just cleaned the brooder and expanded the size a bit and now I've got a 3 week old idiot rooster alerting over it. For the last half an hour. If it were easier i'd turn the little idiot into a nugget....

On another note, I have more chicks coming next week! EE, barred rock, SLW, black star, and random pullets, most of them for sale if anyone is interested. I also have a few extra Narragansett and broad breasted white turkeys coming the first week of May. The minimum order was 10, but I don't need that many.

 

[Pozees]

So I stopped by Bartlets in Falcon. Very impressed with their friendly atmosphere and customer service. Great prices too. I bought on bag of 20% protein layer feed. If the flock likes it, I will buy a bunch. I will get about $1 off if i buy a ton.

We stopped by there on the way to the Hanover-Elbert game. Elbert has beaten the Hanover girls in every game for nearly 15 years....UNTIL NOW! Hanover girls beat Elbert in Basketball 39-37!

Woo hoo! Elbert has always fielded tough teams, that is great!

 

[Pozees]

Oh, and they are two showgirls, a silkie, and a sultan. We got them last summer around june/july so we really haven't gotten much from them in the way of eggs.

Well, you may not, they aren't really known for laying, they're more ornamental. Were they just-hatched chicks when you got them? They might only now be coming into lay. If you are able, maybe adding a couple of new hens this year known more for laying would provide some eggs and possibly encourage the behavior in your current girls.

 

[Pozees]

Oh, and fermented feed, yes I do feed it anyway. It allows the chickens to better use the nutrients in their food, resulting in decreased consumption (cost) and also less water consumption (labor). I still offer free choice layer crumble, which sometimes they eat and sometimes they don't, and free choice grit and oyster shell, which again seems to be used sporadically, although when I decreased the proportion of crumble to scratch in the fermented feed, oyster shell consumption went up quite a bit. I have gone back to about a 50% mix now. I have a plastic slotted spoon that I use to stir and scoop out the daily ration, and a dollar store plastic bowl with a colander nested inside it, which I now think I'm going to do away with. Once I started mixing it a little less soupy I found the consistency after "cooking" 24 hours is thick enough that I don't need to drain it. It is about the same as thick oatmeal. Oatmeal, by the way, is one of their FAVORITE treats, and if I cook it for myself I cook extra for them.

I've only been doing fermented feed I think about five months, but I am pleased with the results. I take an inexpensive plastic container out with me in the morning when I go to open the coop door, and they run down the ramp to get to it, and eat pretty steadily for about 10 minutes.

With Silkies/Showgirls/Sultans, if you try fermented feed you might have to trim back their topknots a bit if they start getting clumps of food drying on their head feathers that could interfere with vision or irritate their skin.

 

[wsmith]

So early this morning Beth turns over in bed and asks if our oldest son told me about the tiny egg he found today... I said no, we got home and were still too ecited about the girls win in Basketball. I asked her what color it was. She said it was brown! FINALLY our only dominique holdout has started laying!