Consolidated Kansas

[MarcAustin]

Hello all! I've been off the board quite awhile with a busy summer but I have two issues that have cropped up and I need some seasoned advice. First off, my hens have started laying finally. I started off with chicks so no grown birds were around to offer any advice to the youngsters. I am finding eggs all over the place and at random. They do not seem to appreciate what the laying boxes are for. I tried twice to place a freshly layed egg with the presumed layer in the box, but over the course of a week no change. What am I doing wrong?
Secondly, i recently switched from Naturewise brand 16% layer crumble to the equivalent house brand from Orschelns. In addition to filling the trays daily, they have been getting 2-3 hours unencumbered free range time per day and I treat with mealworms and blueberries once a week and all's been well. With the new feed that aren't eating near as much and seem to toss it to the ground and complain. The new feed is in a pellet format whereas the Naturwise was crumbles. Otherwise all the ingredients are the same. How concerned should i be that they don't seem to be eating enough? I'd hate to waste a 50lb bag of feed, but starting to get nervous.
Thanks everyone for your input. If we newbies don't say it enough, believe me - we sincerely appreciate the veterans here.

 

[michelleml]

danz i only have buff orpington at this point but would like to get some blue laced red wyandottes and silver laced wayandottes. My all time want is a barred Holland I've been looking for some times but no luck.

tweetysvoice love the rooster. I've been collecting roosters for about 10 yrs and place them in my kitchen. Once i get it all un-packed i will share

 

[HEChicken]

Hi Marc, can you post a pic of your nest boxes? I'm not sure what advice to give because mine have always just pretty much laid in the nest boxes. I will find the occasional egg somewhere else but for the most part they knew what the boxes were for from the get go. Some people recommend leaving some fake eggs in a nest box to give them the idea so you might try that. Even the little colored plastic eggs you buy around easter time, or a few golf balls will work. The reason I suggested posting a pic is to see if there is something about the nest boxes themselves that might not appeal. They like a quiet, semi-dark, private spot. Their inclination is to lay somewhere "safe" because ultimately, the eggs are their potential offspring and nature tells them to raise their offspring somewhere safe. If they are really new layers they may just not have the hang of it yet. I sometimes find that a new layer will lay an egg or two elsewhere before she hits the nest box. I suspect the "sensation" of needing to pass an egg is so new to them that at first they don't recognize it, so the egg gets laid in the yard just as if it is a big poop. After a time or two, they start to recognize the signs of "labor" and head for the nest boxes to deposit the egg there.

On the feed....I haven't used the Orschelns store brand but have fed store brand from both TSC and Atwoods over the years and to my mind there shouldn't be much difference. Sometimes the store brand is a little dustier is all. Personally I prefer pellets to crumbles as there is less mess and waste so if I were you, I would stick with the feed you have. Once they get used to it, they will eat it. They won't allow themselves to starve.

Well, it is quiet around here this morning. I had a guy come and buy my whole flock of guineas at 6:30 this morning. I think they are going to a really good home. He already has guineas and talked to them so lovingly, using terms of endearment, as we loaded them into his crate. He was really excited to get some of the colors I had as he said the ones he already has are drab, boring colors. His friends sometimes ask him why he keeps such "ugly" birds but he said to him they are beautiful. So I think he is really going to treasure them and once he gets them settled in there, they'll have a good life. He has 40 acres that they free-range.

I'm kinda going to miss them. I enjoyed them, didn't notice the noise, and found them entertaining. And, after processing the one on Tuesday, it turns out I must have got the main instigator in the Cyrus chasing because the coop has been very peaceful ever since then, with the 12 remaining birds keeping to themselves. So if this guy hadn't shown up, I was feeling okay about keeping them. DH didn't love the noise but is pretty tolerant of all my hobbies so would never have asked me to give them up. But now that I've met this guy and seen how much he cares about them, I feel okay about them going to live with him. And, it is 12 fewer mouths to feed now and with feed prices going up, that will make a different too.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety, Love the rooster. I have a metal hen with eggs inside of her. They would be a perfect match. She resides on my dining room table. I like a more polished than country look for the dining room and kitchen but everyone that sees her says she is perfect. Michelleml, with buffies you could potentially even get more than one egg a day in their prime. But they do tend to go broody so I would snatch up a few more babies to have as a back up. Figure out how many eggs you normally use. My use fluctuates by season and how much baking I do so it's hard to figure. Then add how many eggs you want to sell a week. Divide that by 5 and that will give you an idea of how many hens you should need. There will be variables. You will use more feed and get fewer eggs in winter. marcaustin, yes it has been some time since you posted. Chickens just get pretty stubborn and lay where the heck they want. They do like a secluded spot to lay. I have more that like to lay under the nest boxes than in them. I just spend a lot of time on my knees gathering eggs. Most of them really prefer to lay really low which is really inconvenient. I tacked some sun shade cloth over the fronts of my nest boxes in my hen house for a while to give mine more privacy. It helped. It is down now but they still lay in those boxes.
Tweety that does sound like rooster activity between your silkies but don't give up yet. I have hens spare off every now and then and act the same way.

 

[Trish44]

marcaustin, I agree with Danz, if they're new layers it may take them awhile to get used to using the nest boxes, but they eventually will for the most part. I have a few hens that just like to lay in nests they make in the pine shavings, I guess it's not soft enough for them in the boxes, who knows. I keep messing up their places they lay though, so more are using my new nest boxes now. Changing things upsets them too, I had bucket nests up & some of them didn't like those, they were too crowded, so I made a 6 hole nest box for them. Just getting them all used to the new boxes has taken awhile & then they didn't like the nest pads I put in. I have picky hens, so then I had to take those out & just use pine shavings & they seem much happier. I have kept a fake ceramic egg in the nest boxes from the beginning & it does seem to help. I have Lakenvelders & they seem to get confused about where to lay if they don't have an egg there. I watched one after I had collected eggs one day & she had come in to lay. They had kicked the fake egg out of the nest & this hen just walked back & forth in front of the nests not being able to decide which one to pick. I finally put the egg back in & she went in to lay, silly girl.

I hope to go get some feed today to try for my birds from the gal sunflowerparrot mentioned who sells bulk feed. I saw some of it & it's really fine, so I hope my birds will eat it since the layers are used to eating pellets. I have always bought pellets because I think there is less waste with them. We'll see how this all goes, it would be nice if it works out because it will save me a lot of money.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Hey all! DH almost has the A/C finished up. He installed it into a wall and is trimming it out on the inside. Then he has to weather-proof it on the outside and done! Last night the craft room had A/C! Yay! I only cooled it down to 86 degrees but I'm sure that felt like a cold front had come through. Now I'll have someplace to put any birds that need a respite and I needn't shock DH with birds stacked in the BR and bath. I'm feeling very spoiled.

 

[Hawkeye95]

It's my birthday!! Anyway, going to be running around a bit today, so figured I'd jump on really quick.

This made me giggle! I have several friends at work that are both intrigued and grossed out by my chickens as well! But this reminded me of an awesome find I found at our Dillons store over the weekend. They had an isle of summer stuff on sale for 75% off.. This statue was reguarly 40 bucks, but I got it for 9.99!!! It now has a prominant place over my fireplace.. LOL

CUTE!!! Love this statue!!

Darnit.. that's what I was afraid of. I'll have to get rid of both of them if that's the case. I might have to find me another female then that's about the same age so the one single female isn't lonely. Funny how the extra one the Chooks threw in there because she was spray-legged is turning out to be the female of the three. Glad I took the time to fix her up right!

I've noticed my boys tend to square off and "fight". They all get along really well though, but they do enjoy the play time. I have a little cross beak pullet that I need to find a special home for. She is close to 3 months old. She is beautiful!! Big crest, perfect toes, etc.. Such a shame. The type of cross she has is supposedly not genetic, because the beak does not scissor or actually cross, but it all just turns to the side. I need to file her down a bit more, but she eats and drinks fine. She just needs a home that won't mind her defect.

Hello all! I've been off the board quite awhile with a busy summer but I have two issues that have cropped up and I need some seasoned advice. First off, my hens have started laying finally. I started off with chicks so no grown birds were around to offer any advice to the youngsters. I am finding eggs all over the place and at random. They do not seem to appreciate what the laying boxes are for. I tried twice to place a freshly layed egg with the presumed layer in the box, but over the course of a week no change. What am I doing wrong?
Secondly, i recently switched from Naturewise brand 16% layer crumble to the equivalent house brand from Orschelns. In addition to filling the trays daily, they have been getting 2-3 hours unencumbered free range time per day and I treat with mealworms and blueberries once a week and all's been well. With the new feed that aren't eating near as much and seem to toss it to the ground and complain. The new feed is in a pellet format whereas the Naturwise was crumbles. Otherwise all the ingredients are the same. How concerned should i be that they don't seem to be eating enough? I'd hate to waste a 50lb bag of feed, but starting to get nervous.
Thanks everyone for your input. If we newbies don't say it enough, believe me - we sincerely appreciate the veterans here.

What about buying those ceramic or wood eggs and putting them in the nest boxes? People say that golf balls work too. Maybe the nest boxes aren't in a place they like or are too open? I agree, take a picture and we'll have better advice for you!

I don't think you need to worry about their food, it sounds like with their free ranging, they will be eating less anyway. At least, I had a free ranging turkey and she eat very little food because she spent all day long hunting bugs and eating grass. Her crop was always full, so I think she was pretty healthy and plenty full.

Well, it is quiet around here this morning. I had a guy come and buy my whole flock of guineas at 6:30 this morning. I think they are going to a really good home. He already has guineas and talked to them so lovingly, using terms of endearment, as we loaded them into his crate. He was really excited to get some of the colors I had as he said the ones he already has are drab, boring colors. His friends sometimes ask him why he keeps such "ugly" birds but he said to him they are beautiful. So I think he is really going to treasure them and once he gets them settled in there, they'll have a good life. He has 40 acres that they free-range.

So glad that the guy was a nice guy and he will appreciate them. We can only hope that happens for all of our sales. I'm sure you feel better knowing that.

Hey all! DH almost has the A/C finished up. He installed it into a wall and is trimming it out on the inside. Then he has to weather-proof it on the outside and done! Last night the craft room had A/C! Yay! I only cooled it down to 86 degrees but I'm sure that felt like a cold front had come through. Now I'll have someplace to put any birds that need a respite and I needn't shock DH with birds stacked in the BR and bath. I'm feeling very spoiled.

YAY for AC!!!!!!

 

[sunflowerparrot]

For those of you that wanted to see the mowed cattails...

One area that has been mowed down.. this area just goes on and on...


Another area that has been mowed down.. further down are a lot of uncut and green cattails - also have another large area that is uncut and green.


Close up of what it looks like lying in the field


The little bit I threw in the coop about 3 weeks ago just to cover the hardware wire on the bottom. There isn't a lot right now due to heat, but come winter, I expect to have a lot in here they can nestle in and get warm.

 

[HEChicken]

Hawkeye - happy birthday!!!

Karen - that is awesome about the A/C. I agree with keeping the temp set higher. It is still way lower than being outside but if it is too cool it will be harder to transition them back outside later.

Sunflower - thank you for those pictures. Is the consistency soft or spiky? The reason I'm asking so many questions is I'm wondering about the cause of the bumblefoot in my birds. In three years at my old house I only had one bird with a bumble. Now after only a few weeks, I know I have two and I haven't even looked at them all. In researching causes, some of the possible causes mentioned are jumping down from high roosts, getting a thorn in them and so on. Basically, anything that causes an injury to the sole of the foot, because after that they are wandering around stepping in poop and its only a matter of time before infection enters a cut on the foot.

My roosts are at 2', 4' and 6' high. Naturally everyone wants to be on the 6' roost but due to space limitations, quite a few settle for the 4' roost. Now that the guineas are gone, I will probably have more chickens on the 6' roost as there will be more space. For bedding I am currently using shavings and my concern is that flying down from 6' onto shavings and hitting a sharp edge, might be what caused the initial cut that allowed the infection to enter. So I'm looking at alternative bedding (or perhaps taking out the 6' roost which would make birds less happy but maybe healthier).

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Sunflower - thank you for those pictures. Is the consistency soft or spiky? The reason I'm asking so many questions is I'm wondering about the cause of the bumblefoot in my birds. In three years at my old house I only had one bird with a bumble. Now after only a few weeks, I know I have two and I haven't even looked at them all. In researching causes, some of the possible causes mentioned are jumping down from high roosts, getting a thorn in them and so on. Basically, anything that causes an injury to the sole of the foot, because after that they are wandering around stepping in poop and its only a matter of time before infection enters a cut on the foot.

--- I'd say a mix - more like straw consistency. You are more than welcomed to stop by during the week at any time that is convenient for you if you want to just look/feel. You can get a hold of me at three one six 3 0 5 seven five five three