Colorado

[Vitesse304]

Quote:
Your piglets are plenty old enough to be off milk. We give our little weanlings pig pellets which you can purchase at the feed stores.

You can even put them on an all stock feed and forage. Much cheaper than buying a pig specific feed. I think Nutrena Stock and Stable is on sale right now for $8 or $9 at Murdoch's. It sometimes goes even cheaper on sale, down to $6 a bag...

 

[ryan820]

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I have some of that! And will add it. I also tossed in a vitamin tablet we used a while back to give my original flock an extra dose of vitamins. Because one of my birds has just begun laying I'm hesitant to use anything that will make the eggs unusable for the next month.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Hey Ryan, you can also try some Poultry RX. It is a natural remedy that works pretty well. Colorado Animal Health carries it and so I think some feed stores would as well. Treatment for your birds would depend on why they were sneezing.., but I know that if it is viral, then all you can do is provide supportive help until they get better. If they have a bacterial infection, then antibiotics ASAP. They could be carriers of a virus and because of a new environment and stress, it has reappeared for a bit. Not sure this helped, but treat her like you take care of yourself when you have a cold.

 

[coloradochick]

Thanks CR and V

We'll definitely go get some Nutrena.
Another question...the feed we got is medicated with a tetracylcine I think is what it is for prevention of absess of the jowls or something like that. Anyway some of the chickens have eaten it and I'm worried it will hurt them. Any thought?

 

[bustermommy]

Hey Mtn Margie,

Excited about the chickens tomorrow?

 

[corancher]

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I don't think the medicated feed will hurt the chickens. Our chickens are always getting the medicated pig pellets.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Yes indeed! They get shipped tomorrow and will arrive Fri or Sat. I have already contacted my little PO Master and she was more excited than I. She will give them water and call me ASAP. They will come directly from the Denver PO hub. I hope all goes well. The brooder is all set up and ready.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Quote:
I don't think the medicated feed will hurt the chickens. Our chickens are always getting the medicated pig pellets.

I would think that if they ate enough to be dosed with the tetracycline, then the eggs would be iffy. There is an egg hold when you use tetracycline but maybe what they get from eating the pig pellets is not enough to worry about.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Hey, here's some organic swine feed, in fact organic feed of all types, not too bad of prices either.
http://www.highaltitudeorganics.com/What_s_Available_.html

 

[ryan820]

Thanks everyone for the ideas-- I'll have to look some of these things up. Vinegar, I'm told, is actually enjoyed by chickens and gets them to drink more water than they normally would. Can anyone else back this claim up?

So i sort of feel silly because I think I may have been over reacting. I suspected that one of the known older hens was the chicken that has been laying the eggs I've been getting but now, I believe its one of the younger ones.

So i ask... this morning when I found one of my hens looking lethargic and not looking well, is is possible she just couldn't pass her egg? I ask because later, when I went to get them in the coop before heading off to work in the afternoon, I found the same hen in question in the coop by herself, an egg had been laid, and the hen was looking energetic and fine-- as if she never had an issue. The sneezing very well could have been the typical clearing out of Colorado junk, no?

Anyway, got more forth egg today...but for your enjoyment, this is the egg I got on Monday. I looked at my girls and asked, "is this a joke? Not funny. Who did this?" LOL

I think the chicken may have sneezed before the egg was done.