Colorado

[suncatcher]

Hmmm, might work with the Magpies, supposed to work with anything that pecks and eats the eggs. But, knowing Magpies, and that they love to dumpster dive, they might enjoy the mustard!

Wow, that is early, or late to have chicks, folks are looking though, I put an ad on CL, and have had more people interested than I did all summer!

 

[WendyGeisler]

HI All,
Went out and bought a case of canned dog food. I'll start supplementing tomorrow. We collected 2 eggs today. Ugh.

 

[WendyGeisler]

http://www.southernagrarian.com/building-a-roll-away-nest-box/

 

[WendyGeisler]

 

[WendyGeisler]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/287684/new-rollout-nest-design-picture-heavy-edited-1-21

Ok I am piling up links to show my husband, wonder if I can talk him into building one.

 

[suncatcher]

Those look very simple to make! Thanks, keeping the links in case I ever need to build one!

 

[Mtn Margie]

As far as protein sources, I personally steer away from large amounts of dog or cat food just because of the ingredients list (chicken parts, preservatives, high fat, etc.) I just shop the "must sell now or else" area for inexpensive meat deals and stick with the known ingredients. If you make friends with the butcher, there are always dog bones to be had..........

 

[Ashdoes]

Feather fixer from Nutrena has super high protein, and has really helped my flock. They stopped picking on my Cochin girls, and the Wyandotte with a sad bare back, finally has feathers.
I also wanted to say, your Red Star is a sex-link yes? I had the same problem with my "Golden Buffs" and then read an article about sex-links needing way more calcium then other breeds. We were ready to cull her, she kept laying the thinnest shelled eggs, which caused the other chickens to go crazy trying to eat them. I put a larger container of shells out, and in less then a week we stopped getting smashed eggs.

 

[WendyGeisler]

Well...this morning I took out 2 cans of chunky dog food. Also have a large container of oyster shells out. The girls always have oylster shells too. We have a 20lb bag of them. I found one egg in the community box. I will go out at lunch and check again. If I am not finding eggs, I think they must be eaten.

 

[suncatcher]

Does anyone here feed their hens their egg shells back to them crushed up? I read somewhere that you should boil them first, but is kinda hard when you do scrambled eggs instead of a boiled eggs. Just curious.......


Also, where did the spell check go? I don;t see spell check anymore in the reply box. lol