Colorado

[Ashdoes]

I have read about pumpkin seed as well. I bet I could get a couple big ones from the farmers market here in Falcon. Thanks for the idea

 

[trsturself]

I have read about pumpkin seed as well. I bet I could get a couple big ones from the farmers market here in Falcon. Thanks for the idea

Yep, I think I mentioned this a few pages ago. I just bought a large bag of pumpkin seeds to feed the goats, horses, chickens, and dogs. I read somewhere that they should be deshelled, but before this bag I've always just give the pumpkin/squash to the chickens whole. I have not seen any worms but we are still battling the lice.

 

[Minchi]

I have read about pumpkin seed as well. I bet I could get a couple big ones from the farmers market here in Falcon. Thanks for the idea

No problem, it makes a nice treat for the girls and it good for them.

At least it is something you can get easily this time of year and cheep.

Yep, I think I mentioned this a few pages ago. I just bought a large bag of pumpkin seeds to feed the goats, horses, chickens, and dogs. I read somewhere that they should be deshelled, but before this bag I've always just give the pumpkin/squash to the chickens whole. I have not seen any worms but we are still battling the lice.

I wonder if they would be fine with the seeds as is, since they eat them raw okay? Thanks for the back up, good to have feedback from more then one person.

 

[alebuela]

Someone on this thread posted that a mix of pumpkin seeds and cayenne pepper was the best for de-worming, but I don't know in what proportions. The poster said the cayenne heat was not a problem.

On another matter, I have three pullets around 26 weeks old, and not one of them seems to be laying any eggs. They are EE, SS, and BCM. Since I am not outside with them most of the day, and they free-range in my little back yard, I am now wondering if there are always signs of an egg eater. I have looked everywhere for evidence, but have found nothing - no shells, yolk or anything else. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing that all three pullets could be so delayed in their egg laying.

My bantam chocolate orpington has been in molt and quit laying about 7 weeks ago, and my two others - another EE and a polish - at 14 weeks, are too recently added to account for the lack of eggs.

So now what? Any suggestions? Is it really likely that all three of my older pullets are so slow to lay eggs?

 

[Mtn Margie]

Possible ideas....
Molting chickens benefit from protein to help grow back the feathers. Temporary egg eater....
They are not laying eggs in the nest box and some other creature has figured out where they are laying outside and is taking the eggs
You have an egg eater and could try increasing their protein for a few weeks and see if that helps, up to at least 20%
If you are already feeding that much then I suppose isolate the chickens into a smaller area and check, check, check.
Sometimes the new chickens won't start laying till after the daylight starts to lengthen again. It is pretty freaky how that works.
Good luck. Are you getting any egg song out of them? Bright red combs?

 

[Ashdoes]

So, all my chickens are alive and well today, after the horse wormer. They're happily scratching through the straw, rabbit droppings and newspaper we transferred out of my newly fenced and seeded side yard. I've been wanting grass for a while now, but couldn't do a large area and did not want any water wasters. We fenced in a 1200 sq ft area, and I planted "meadow grass" from wildflower farm. It's an Eco grass, that eventually will only require small waterings in times of severe drought, it grows slow but once it's tall, it falls over like in a beautiful meadow. I'm really hoping it takes, because I refuse to get sod that requires daily water.
I did the buttermilk today, mixed with the Feather Fixer feed, which I had to switch to because a couple of my girls are already molting. I have a one year old Cochin that's bare back right now...she looks a little funny with her black pin feathers coming in. I'll be picking up pumpkins tomorrow, we were just too busy today. Also, I found making my own batch of buttermilk was fairly cheap...1 gallon of whole milk, the cheapest they had and a quart of buttermilk. Sat on the counter for 24 hours and was nice and thick this morning. The girls drank it up, no issues. I'm not a fan of it, so I didn't try it, but was told a few times that it works. I hope my chickens are done with worms for a very long time...

 

[alebuela]

Thank you Mtn Margie. I just realized that it could be the squirrels that are in the backyard most of every day. They've been eating grapes, after they ate my peaches, after they ate my raspberries. .. They also love to nosh on the chickens' food, and why not eggs!!!??? I will really have to schedule more frequent egg hunts during the day. Now it's just two or three.

And if not the squirrels, then one of your other suggestions might be the key. Thanks again!

 

[trsturself]

So my friend's chickens are staying with us while they look for a place to live. They are in the separate area we were going to use as a breeder pen. It has a coop about 7x7 and an attached, enclosed run. Last night was their first night. I checked on them when I put my flock away and they were all huddled on and under a tree branch in the corner of the run. I couldn't get in the run to move them all inside (20+). DH gets home around 11 and about a half hour later says, "Oh, I meant to tell you when I got home, your goats sounded weird, you might want to check on them." So I go out on the back patio and shine a flashlight out there. I see two eyes over by the chicken's run looking back at me. Far enough away to be out of the goats area and on the far back corner of the chicken run. I tell DH to come out with me. We go out there and the goat is inside the chicken run. Don't know how she got there but I figured that must've been why she was making odd cries and they eyes I saw. So I let her out and go back inside. This morning I went out to let my flock out and feed/water everyone, and saw one of her birds dead in the run. I figured it was stress. After all they just made an 8 hour trip in the back of a moving van on a warm day. It was outside of my reach so I left it until my friend could get here and her daughter could climb the fence and get it. Later in the day DH goes around the other side of the run to do something and calls me and says, "it wasn't a stress death". He is tall enough to step over the interior divider so he went in and got her and her head had been ripped off. We found the spot where it happened. Looks like something reached through the fence and grabbed her and tried to pull her through.
Luckily it was an older hen and not a favorite so they weren't totally bummed.

We put expanded metal about 4 ft up the base of their run today to prevent it from happening again. We went out tonight and picked up each bird and put them through the pop door so they'll figure it out. 3 birds were already in there and 3 had made it into our side and were roosting with our birds (lol), so hopefully the rest will catch on tomorrow or the next day.
DH hung the dead bird to a post within shooting range of the house and keeps checking on it hoping to catch whatever it was (no luck yet). I'm guessing raccoon even though I've never seen any around here. Our other predators are fox and coyote. We also have skunk but I'm leaning toward raccoon. What do you think?

Here is a pic of what could be the scat. Note DH ran the drag (chain link fence) over it before we noticed.

 

[Double Kindness]

We got pumpkins this past Saturday at wardel's chicken swap

I got a bunch of pumpkins for $20

and a meat rabbit doe, this is Grace, a new zealand white x silver fox born in April, I'll get her studded with a nice 16lb nzw buck in December, and picking up a pregnant nzw in 3 weeks.

my bf built me a big cage for her yesterday. We're going to attach it to the fence tonight.

and my dp meaties are doing great!

The rain is back today/last night. Something is munching on my 'special medical plants'. I stocked up on 300 lbs of feed. Set out mice traps. We sold a closed loop hydrocarbon extraction system this past week, and had a few record breaking extraction (51.2 grams and 56 grams from 250 grams of nice flowers) & we're getting geared up for the secret cup mountain this upcoming weekend. We're going to do a lavender and a Russian sage extraction this week for giggles.

The whole hog has been ordered. New 315w cmh system bought. Seedlings coming up. Now rabbit droppings to add to my garden. We're planning out spring planting, and in a week or 2 we're going to plant grapes again (but better critter proofing).

Hopefully white bresse ship today or tomorrow. Ugh. Still waiting for my friend's ayam cemani chicks to hatch to pick out my last 6 chicks before no mas animales until spring time, my bf did a whole sketch comedy thing on it yesterday with our 24 year old adopted son and our friends. He "literally put his foot down". He said after the bresse and ayam cemani and 2 more rabbits, no more animals until March.

I can live with those terms. That will bring me to 60 chickens, 2 greyhounds, 3 rabbits, and 1 Duck (my bf's nickname is Duck lol).

Since our son is basically useless to help, only the one rabbit cage got built yesterday, instead of all 3 + new brooder box for the bresse/cemani but we'll probably do that tonight easily enough (brooder box at least).

Tomorrow hopefully I can pick up my last batch of chicks. I cleaned out the barn this weekend and organized everything to fit the 2 giant brooder boxes, and chicken er, feed, straw, hay etc. If worse comes to worse, the brooder box are made out of 2 closet doors and hardware cloth and are good enough sized that we can probably house the bresse, cemani and haffies in the barn until spring. Or in 1-2 months when the dp meaties are gone, we can move them out to that area if we can't get the new coop and enclosed run finished.

I am waiting until spring to get muscovy ducks, cortunix quail & cornish x. We really need way more property to do what I want.

And after we get animal housing done, then to build a 50 gallon moonshine still. Gosh, I'm whooped!

 

[Mtn Margie]

Trsturself- it does look like coon scat. They can climb too, and pry and bite things apart to get at their food. Nasty, smart little? creatures they are!