Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

People do raise swans but the cost on average is about $250 or more each. You need a nice big pond for them as well. There was a guy fairly close that had some a few years ago. He had a nice pond his house overlooked several years ago. It's unusual to see swans here naturally. They tend to migrate near salt water. I think most people who buy swans have them pinioned so they stay put.
I got wormer out for the peafowl and the turkeys last evening so hopefully that will stop any further losses. The white peafowl I brought in is still alive surprisingly and I actually saw it drink last night. It still isn't eating though. I scrambled some egg while ago hoping it would try it but so far it hasn't. Poor thing. I sure hope it gets it's appetite back soon or all the help in the world won't keep it alive.
I cleaned out the brooder yesterday but didn't wash it down or add new shavings yet. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to put the birds that are in there. Of course within an hour the floor was a poopy mess. I sure wish I had another pen to put them in. I got another bin set up for the newly hatched chicks. There were a dozen of them if I counted right. Half of them are chocolate bantam orpingtons. So that gives me a dozen total of those now. I don't really like bantams but thought I could use those in a breeding program for LF Chocolates. I did pre-buy a few LF chocolate chicks though I'll get in spring. I guess the bantams will be my back up plan now. I traded eggs for turkeys.

 

[Trish44]

I guess everyone is busy with Christmas shopping & decorating this time of year. We had my son & future DIL here this weekend as well as our granddaughter, so we were busy with them. I'm glad they finally were able to get here. They will be back for Christmas also, but we don't know when yet.

I think swans are beautiful, but they are huge birds, I would think you would have to have a big place to keep them.

I started my birds back on the FF after the weather got above freezing again & my birds sure are happy about that, they like the FF so much better than the dry food now. They ate the dry when they got hungry, but you could tell they preferred what they had been eating.

Danz, I just hadn't really thought about capillary worms before, usually you hear people talk about other types of worms in birds like round worms or tapes. I think I will mix the last of my Rooster Booster wormer in with the feed today & worm again. Congrats on the chocolate Orp chicks, I hope they do well. My Cream Legbar chicks are starting to try to fly around the brooder in the house so I'm wondering if I should try to move them out to the growout pen while it's warmer for a few days. We're supposed to have 50 & 60 degree days up until Friday. They just turned a month old yesterday & are about twice as big as the lavender Orp chicks I have in there.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Hello everyone! I finally have some free time to post a quick note. I was overwhelmed by work the last couple of weeks. It was issue after issue and I can honestly say that this is one of the worst years in the 17+ yrs I've been with this company. But the software did get shipped out (after calling the vendor twice to put the master DVD on hold and recalled them with a new one sent). I spent 6 hours from 12:00am to 6:00am Sunday morning to get it electronically posted. I survived on 2 hours of sleep yesterday but did get a lot of much needed chores done the rest of the Sunday.

OK. Boring work stuff aside, I haven't had a chance to catch up on all the post except for the few from yesterday (Danz, so sorry your peafowls are not doing well). I hope everyone's birds faired well with the cold snap we had a week ago. I didn't lose any to the cold so that was a blessing. I moved the rest of the 10 weekers out to the main coop yesterday since it was so nice. I cleaned out the brooder and planned to sanitize it when I slow down some before I hatch some mutts in the Spring to replace some of the layers that are too old to lay. Since my goal is to get eggs from them, I'm OK with having mutts. The ducks are doing well, despite the pool being taken away from them. Speaking of pool, I emptied it a while back and put it in a horse stall to dry. It went missing. I really can't imagine the wind blew it away because there is only 1 opening to the South. I think someone took it. I can always get another one but not knowing how it went missing is a bit unsettling for me.

Well, it is official now I have the pups staying on my property full time. Their owner came by and asked me if I can keep them. She doesn't want them any more, claiming that they pull all sorts of stuff and piling them on her yard. Then they took off and when she tried to get to them. I asked her if she wanted me to pay her for the pups and she said no. She said if I don't want them she will take them to the humane society on K-96 and Hillside. So I decided to keep them. Yes, they do like to pile things on the lawn chair and what not but I don't have much stuff laying around for them to do so. Mostly just woods, branches, etc. The only thing I hate to see them do is they drag our shoes out to the yard from the garage. I took care of the problem by putting the shoes away in a more secure location. They never bother the birds (that I'm aware of), especially now I've enlarged the pen area (increased the size by 25%) and make it more secure with welded wire around the metal horse/cattle gates. But they do eat me out of the house!!! They can eat! Holy cow! I really need to see what I can do with their food to lower the cost because they are pups and will be growing bigger, eating more! I've an appt with the vet and will be taking them in to get spayed. They will get a full health check as well.

I better get back to work. Support call volume has gone up and I need to make sure my products are not the cause.

Enjoy the warm temp for the next few days. The cold weather will be back on Thursday, unfortunately.

ETA - Hechicken, I'm glad your duck came back. Those birds sure have a mind of their own.

Trish - Glad to hear your grandbaby is doing well. A January baby... that's very nice because it is after the holiday and everyone can just focus on the baby. I didn't realize how expensive baby stuff are any more since I didn't need them for quite a number of years now. I do, however, need to go look at a co-worker's baby registry at Toys 'R us. The baby shower is sneaking up on me.

 

[chicken danz]

I dunno Trish. If you have a heat lamp you could put on them at night maybe they'd be okay. It's still might cold out there at night.
Well I think the white peachick is going to die. They always seem to have that last burst of doing better but all of a sudden he isn't trying to sit up any more. I couldn't get him to eat or drink even with a syringe. It makes me want to cry. I just hope I got the others treated soon enough and I don't loose any more. Of all the birds to loose. I lost my purple and my white. The two I wanted the very most! There's a gal in OKC that has a trio of purples for sale I might consider buying after the first of the year. Not that I need them.
It sure would be nice if I had divine knowledge about every thing and could instantly see if something was going wrong with a bird.
This has been a year from h**l with birds. Right now I wish I only had some mutt chickens and nothing to worry about.
I'd love to go back to FF for my birds but I still haven't come up with a way to keep it from freezing other than putting it in DH's shop, which was a pain in itself. I had an old heat tape I was going to wrap around the barrel but it didn't work any more so I guess I'll have to come up with some new idea.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety glad you took a minute to drop in. I'm sorry you're having to work so hard these days. I feel like I am but sure not getting much done. I spent an hour and a half trying to hang rain lights on my front french doors today. If they had just put hooks on top of each tube it would have been simple. I have a mess of straight pins and fishing line hanging them. It's not dark enough yet to see how they are going to look.
I got DH to work on the breaker box for the trailer so I could move chicks out there today. He's not done but so far he's not having any luck with it at all. He's only managed to get one outlet working so far. He hooked up all the 12 gauge wires which should have been the outlets. The only thing left is 14 ga which should be the overhead lights. I am wondering if they used the wrong gauge wire to hook up stuff to code. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I was just really wanting to be able to run some heat to one room for these chicks. I guess it's better to find out now if the darn thing won't function right than to run a trench and wire and find out then.
When the old box was in there I know the heater fan at least ran. But of course I took the heater out so it wouldn't explode with chick dust.
It was beautiful out today. Not overly sunny but at least it was nice and warm. I could so use many more days like that.

 

[Trish44]

Hello everyone! I finally have some free time to post a quick note. I was overwhelmed by work the last couple of weeks. It was issue after issue and I can honestly say that this is one of the worst years in the 17+ yrs I've been with this company. But the software did get shipped out (after calling the vendor twice to put the master DVD on hold and recalled them with a new one sent). I spent 6 hours from 12:00am to 6:00am Sunday morning to get it electronically posted. I survived on 2 hours of sleep yesterday but did get a lot of much needed chores done the rest of the Sunday.

OK. Boring work stuff aside, I haven't had a chance to catch up on all the post except for the few from yesterday (Danz, so sorry your peafowls are not doing well). I hope everyone's birds faired well with the cold snap we had a week ago. I didn't lose any to the cold so that was a blessing. I moved the rest of the 10 weekers out to the main coop yesterday since it was so nice. I cleaned out the brooder and planned to sanitize it when I slow down some before I hatch some mutts in the Spring to replace some of the layers that are too old to lay. Since my goal is to get eggs from them, I'm OK with having mutts. The ducks are doing well, despite the pool being taken away from them. Speaking of pool, I emptied it a while back and put it in a horse stall to dry. It went missing. I really can't imagine the wind blew it away because there is only 1 opening to the South. I think someone took it. I can always get another one but not knowing how it went missing is a bit unsettling for me.

Well, it is official now I have the pups staying on my property full time. Their owner came by and asked me if I can keep them. She doesn't want them any more, claiming that they pull all sorts of stuff and piling them on her yard. Then they took off and when she tried to get to them. I asked her if she wanted me to pay her for the pups and she said no. She said if I don't want them she will take them to the humane society on K-96 and Hillside. So I decided to keep them. Yes, they do like to pile things on the lawn chair and what not but I don't have much stuff laying around for them to do so. Mostly just woods, branches, etc. The only thing I hate to see them do is they drag our shoes out to the yard from the garage. I took care of the problem by putting the shoes away in a more secure location. They never bother the birds (that I'm aware of), especially now I've enlarged the pen area (increased the size by 25%) and make it more secure with welded wire around the metal horse/cattle gates. But they do eat me out of the house!!! They can eat! Holy cow! I really need to see what I can do with their food to lower the cost because they are pups and will be growing bigger, eating more! I've an appt with the vet and will be taking them in to get spayed. They will get a full health check as well.

I better get back to work. Support call volume has gone up and I need to make sure my products are not the cause.

Enjoy the warm temp for the next few days. The cold weather will be back on Thursday, unfortunately.

ETA - Hechicken, I'm glad your duck came back. Those birds sure have a mind of their own.

Trish - Glad to hear your grandbaby is doing well. A January baby... that's very nice because it is after the holiday and everyone can just focus on the baby. I didn't realize how expensive baby stuff are any more since I didn't need them for quite a number of years now. I do, however, need to go look at a co-worker's baby registry at Toys 'R us. The baby shower is sneaking up on me.

I'm glad you stopped in for a minute, it sounds like you have been really busy. Congrats on acquiring the GP pups, I hope they work out well for you. It takes some maturing on their part, they're just like any other puppy they have to get through the puppy stage. GPs naturally are kleptomaniacs anyway. Mine will go & find pieces of trash to bring home, they used to be worse when they were younger, but still do it at 2 years old. If there is a piece of trash that has a little food smell left in it they will bring it home & chew it up in the yard. It's not so bad though to put up with in relation to the value they have with chasing off predators every night, they're out there working all night long.

Yes baby stuff is really expensive these days. We were kind of shocked when we went to buy a high chair for the baby as our contribution & had to pay $150 for it. Of course it's a 3 in 1 & will be useful for years because it converts to a booster chair eventually, so I think it's well worth it, but still kind of shocking. I gave them a box of baby clothes that were used & was told Dana doesn't have a problem with used clothing since they outgrow them so fast, so that was good to hear. I used to go to a local used children's clothing shop to buy my son's clothes & took some in as well because they just grow so darned fast they don't wear them out.

I dunno Trish. If you have a heat lamp you could put on them at night maybe they'd be okay. It's still might cold out there at night.
Well I think the white peachick is going to die. They always seem to have that last burst of doing better but all of a sudden he isn't trying to sit up any more. I couldn't get him to eat or drink even with a syringe. It makes me want to cry. I just hope I got the others treated soon enough and I don't loose any more. Of all the birds to loose. I lost my purple and my white. The two I wanted the very most! There's a gal in OKC that has a trio of purples for sale I might consider buying after the first of the year. Not that I need them.
It sure would be nice if I had divine knowledge about every thing and could instantly see if something was going wrong with a bird.
This has been a year from h**l with birds. Right now I wish I only had some mutt chickens and nothing to worry about.
I'd love to go back to FF for my birds but I still haven't come up with a way to keep it from freezing other than putting it in DH's shop, which was a pain in itself. I had an old heat tape I was going to wrap around the barrel but it didn't work any more so I guess I'll have to come up with some new idea.

I took the four cockerels out today during the day & brought them back in this evening when I was done with feeding. At least they got to stretch & run around for a few hours. They were kind of scared in there because the other chicks are quite a bit older & picked on them some. If they were in there permanently I'm sure they would figure out the pecking order. I think I'll just take them out during the day for the few days we're going to have warmer weather. I didn't take the two pullets out, I am kind of protective of them since I really need those for breeding. I have 5 cockerels, so I have my choice of which ones of those to use.

I'm sorry about your peafowl. I agree it has been a year from h**l this year with the birds, I sure hope next year is better for you & me both. You spend so much money trying to get these birds going & time & then no matter what you do you still lose some. It really can get discouraging sometimes when you think you have done everything you should have & still have losses.

Tweety glad you took a minute to drop in. I'm sorry you're having to work so hard these days. I feel like I am but sure not getting much done. I spent an hour and a half trying to hang rain lights on my front french doors today. If they had just put hooks on top of each tube it would have been simple. I have a mess of straight pins and fishing line hanging them. It's not dark enough yet to see how they are going to look.
I got DH to work on the breaker box for the trailer so I could move chicks out there today. He's not done but so far he's not having any luck with it at all. He's only managed to get one outlet working so far. He hooked up all the 12 gauge wires which should have been the outlets. The only thing left is 14 ga which should be the overhead lights. I am wondering if they used the wrong gauge wire to hook up stuff to code. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I was just really wanting to be able to run some heat to one room for these chicks. I guess it's better to find out now if the darn thing won't function right than to run a trench and wire and find out then.
When the old box was in there I know the heater fan at least ran. But of course I took the heater out so it wouldn't explode with chick dust.
It was beautiful out today. Not overly sunny but at least it was nice and warm. I could so use many more days like that.

I hope you can get the wiring figured out on that trailer so you can at least use it for something. That's such a waste to have that big thing sitting there & not be able to put it to use.

I got out this afternoon while it was so nice & got my litter turned over in the main coop & more pine shavings put in there. Then I went around & put some fresh straw in some of the pens that I had been needing to get some in. The ducks were just so happy when I put some in their pen, they were all comfortable in there quacking away sitting in their cushy straw. It gave some of the chickens something to do picking around in it this afternoon. I put fresh in the nest boxes as well. I still have some young birds that aren't laying yet using the nest boxes to sleep in & they're pooping in them. That's really aggravating because I don't like messy nest boxes. I keep cleaning it out & it keeps getting back in there. Hopefully they will start laying soon & stop that. The ones that lay in them don't do that, it's just the young pullets before they start laying that do it.

I had to go out & cut the fence this afternoon that was out close to the goat pen that was here when I came. It was some sort of pen that is really useless & I need to take it down but haven't gotten to it. That silly goat Patches just doesn't learn, she got her head stuck really good this time & I had to cut the fence to get it out. I was looking for them & I knew something was wrong when only Penny came running when I called them. She sounded distressed so I went looking for Patches & saw her with her head stuck in the darned fence. I'm going to try to get my DH to help me take it down because it's hooked to wood posts all around with fence nails. If it wasn't there then the goats would have a much clearer place to browse out there with no obstructions.

Oh HEChicken I have to tell you what Penny did when my son was here over the weekend. Sunday he was playing with my granddaughter with her new radio controlled truck he had bought her & had the trunk of his car open. He wasn't thinking anything about it & came in the house & left the trunk open. He got a picture Dana sent him from outside where she was playing with the animals of Penny inside the trunk of his car. Oh he wasn't happy about it at all! I told him you don't leave anything open around here.

 

[HEChicken]

I hope everyone enjoyed the marvelous weather yesterday as much as I did! I spent a lot of the day outside and it was so nice to have the fresh air without feeling beat down by the cold. There wasn’t even any wind yesterday!

I’ve been having a problem with Safari where it crashes as soon as I start to reply. I’ve reported it to the BYC officials and they said they’ve had other reports as well so they are looking into it. But – its one of the reasons I’ve been so quiet. So many times I started a reply and got half way into it, only to have Safari crash and by the time it came up, I didn’t feel like retyping everything. The work around I am using now is I type everything in Word, then put it on the clipboard, go back to the forum, and hit reply, paste and submit as quickly as possible, because one time it crashed even in that short space of time! That is how I am typing now….

A few days ago I saw an amazing video. This guy in Vermont started with 200 chickens 15 years ago and has NEVER bought them grain. He keeps donkeys and mules and his neighbor keeps cattle. He also found a local restaurant that was willing to give him their food scraps so he used his mule and cart to go and pick them up every day. Then, he would pile everything up in compost piles and turn the chickens out on it. Well, per the videos of his operation, it looks like he is a commercial compost producer, as there were long rows of 4-5’ high piles in varying stages of decomposition as far as the eye could see. The video showed the chickens scratching through it and were clearly finding a lot to eat. Then they panned the camera over to a “finished” pile of compost and he said once it is done, the chickens lose interest in it, so it is ready to be hauled off and used. I suspect he is selling the compost but as a “by-product” he has also sold thousands of dozens of eggs and all without ever buying grain for them.

I know most of us can’t replicate this but it got me to thinking. I am not ready to start a commercial compost farm, but I do have access to as much horse manure as I want to haul away so the last couple of times I’ve been to the barn, I’ve loaded up a couple of large buckets of the stuff. I dumped two buckets out, one on top of the other, to create a pile that was about 2’ high, and stood back to see what they thought. There was immediate interest – in fact, the pile was swarmed by both turkeys and chickens. Sure enough, in addition to scratching, they were pecking at it and seemed to be finding plenty to eat. Within 30 minutes, they had the pile completely flattened out (the guy in the video must do it by the dump truck load to keep it from getting spread flat in no time). I left and went back to the barn and this time loaded up 3 buckets. By the time I got back it was 4-5 hours after I had dumped out the two buckets, and the birds were STILL congregated in that area, working it over. I guess it must contain some really good stuff! I dumped the 3 new buckets in the same spot and left. By the time I went to do bedtime lock up, less than an hour later, the new pile had also been completely flattened. I’ll be curious to see if they return to work first thing this morning.

Anyway, I just thought I’d throw this out there for anyone who lives near a cattle or horse operation and has access to free manure. I figure the organic material isn’t going to hurt my chicken yard – what the birds don’t eat will eventually break down and add nutrients to the soil there. Any grains they don’t find and eat, if they sprout, will either be eaten as a sprout, or grow and be mowed down next time I mow. I can’t really see a downside here. Oh – I should add, that you probably all know the horse manure is in balls we call “horse apples”, but when I go to fill the buckets, I try to gather the stuff that was pooped out a day or two ago and been walked on in the meantime, so it is somewhat pulverized. Horse apples tend to dry out and turn into horse rocks and I didn’t want to be tripping over those, in the event the chickens weren’t interested in them. So by getting the stuff that is pulverized, they’re more likely to scratch through it, I think, because its been broken down enough they can find the undigested grain hidden in it. And, whatever they don’t eat, the particles are small enough to just fall down into the grass and eventually be absorbed into the ground. That’s my hope anyway…..

I didn’t mean for that to get so long. Tweety, I’m so glad you were able to stop in for a minute and see us. I had been wondering how you were doing and figured work must be really busy for you at the moment.

Trish – that is hilarious about the goats and the car! Mine seem to be ever so slowly growing. Smoky is really turning into a billy goat now. He makes these grunting sounds that sound more like a pig than a goat, and he butts and pushes against me every chance he gets. I use that against him though, as, in case Gem is pregnant already, I try to get her some special grain made just for pregnant goats, every day. I can’t give it to both of them because Smoky, ever the gentleman, butts her out of the way to get the lion’s share for himself. So, everyday I have to try to not only separate the two of them, but separate Gem from the sheep as well, since the goat feed contains copper and that will cause the sheep to abort. So, while Smoky is busy head butting me, and focused on that, I am usually able to get Gem into the temp pen and close the gate, and from there it is simple to dump the scoop of feed in her feed pan. Then Smoky gets mad that he was “tricked” again, and tries to find a way in to to take it from her. For some reason I never feel sorry for him….

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken, if you have egg customers I sure wouldn't let them know your chickens are eating horse apples. It wouldn't bother me, but some people would be really grossed out. Mine eat mice but I sure don't tell my customers. Know what I mean? The farmers I know that have chickens and don't feed chicken feed, let them eat the feed and whatever from the other animals. I believe in putting stuff back to work, but just the same I can't imagine how much health you might sacrifice if you didn't feed them regular feed as well.
I'm glad to hear everything is okay. I've been kind of wondering if all was well since you didn't post like normal. It's been so darned quiet here lately.
I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I need something that will clean up after the chickens!...besides mice! I do so much better on feed when I can feed fermented feed. But with the loose stuff they waste a ton. I often dump the bowls and put it in other bowls like for ducks and such hoping one bird or another gets some good out of it.
You also pinpointed why I got tired of goats. Pushy billy goats that bully every thing else...etc etc. I'd probably still have goats if I had someplace to take girls to be bred. But I can't handle having billies any more. Maybe you'll have twins. That would be excellent. I do wish I had a milk goat.
Trish that is so funny! Did you get a picture of the goat in the trunk?
I had a call this morning from someone wanting a couple new hatched chicks for a broody hen. She's been sitting for a long time and hasn't hatched anything. I've only been hatching the most expensive birds and not very many. My next batch is due on Christmas day. I need to candle those. I threw in a couple of buff orp eggs in that batch and if those are good I could sell them on the cheap. I don't really have any thing else I want to get rid of right now or don't need.
Well DH got the other wires hooked into the box and found out that all the outlets are on one circuit and all on 14 gauge wire. That is SOOOO wrong in the terms of wiring. It's not wonder mobile homes burn down!!! I am only going to run 15 amps out there for now so I shouldn't over load it. I think I will have an oil heater and maybe one lamp out there max. Hopefully this is a temporary situation any way so I can use my brooder house for the new chicks once I get it cleaned and fumigated out. I need to do some work out there plugging vent holes and a couple other places where mice have chewed in. Then maybe I'll get the birds moved out there today or tomorrow.

 

[HEChicken]

Well….all of my egg customers are at the barn and I already told them! They didn’t seem fazed in the least. I honestly can’t imagine why it would bother anyone (I know you’re right and it would) because the way I see it, once it goes in one end and is processed through, it is completely repackaged. Refurbished. Whatever word you want to use. Its not like they’re going to find pieces of horse apple IN an egg LOL. And, since parasites are for the most past species specific, I don’t even worry about them picking up worms from the horse poop.

My dogs go out to the barn and LOVE to eat the horse apples. That does gross out the other barn ladies who always tell them to quit. Yesterday my horse stopped to poop while I was riding and my dog was right behind, waiting for him to finish, and licking her lips in anticipation. Another barn lady told her to stop and not eat it but I can’t for the life of me figure out why. The poop of vegetarians generally doesn’t smell that foul and all that is in the poop is a little grain and a lot of hay, grass and other greens that have been semi-processed. Since horses are not ruminants, an awful lot of what comes out doesn’t look any different than when it went in, so if the dogs want to use it as a source of vegetation, I say, let them have at it!

Danz, you should see that video – here is a link to it: The chickens in it appear to be in very good health and according to him are producing eggs at a great rate which I would see as an additional sign of good health, so I wouldn’t worry about them not getting what they need from it. Chances are, what they are getting is actually better than what is in commercial feed, since they have access to all kinds of bugs that are working the compost, in addition to the vegetable matter and some grains as well.

http://youtu.be/-W_WPMm8Bxw.

This morning I had to go within a mile of the barn so I stopped by and grabbed another 3 buckets worth. The birds are out there now, going to town on the new stuff. It is really rewarding to watch them.

Do you remember a few weeks ago I talked about my cuddly chick? Well, I hate to identify favorites as it seems like it is putting an X on them to let the next predator or illness know which bird to target. About 10 days ago I went out to lock up at bedtime and that little chick was sitting under the chick creeper, not making any attempt to go into the coop. It had been one of those bitterly cold days and I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t want to be in the relatively warmer coop, tucked up with her brothers and sisters. I picked her up and put her down near them, then watched as she staggered over to them. Something clearly was not right, and I figured it had to do with the cold. It was supposed to get super cold again that night so I carried her up and put her in the 3-season room with the broody silkie who fortunately let her snuggle up to share body heat. She stayed there for a week and a few days ago seemed well enough to return to the coop. However she will never really be the same again. I think on that bitterly cold day she got too cold and her feet got frostbitten – it’s the only thing I can think of, though why it would happen to one and not the others, I don’t know. Her toes are now kind of misshapen and crooked and while she can walk, she doesn’t do it easily. She lurches along a little bit, appearing to lose her balance from time to time. This is affecting her self-confidence and she doesn’t want to get in there and compete at the big feeder with the others. Fortunately she has remained my cuddly girl and lurches over to me every time I go out there. In fact, yesterday, I wound up dumping a bucket of horse manure on her because she was right under my feet and I couldn’t see her with the bucket in the way. I picked her up and dusted her off and then realized she feels really thin. I think she hasn’t been eating much due to not wanting to compete, so now she is getting the special treatment. Whenever I am down there, I pick her up and put her IN the feed bin so she can eat to her heart’s content, all by herself. When she’s filled her crop, I lift her out and set her down in front of the waterer and keep the other birds at bay while she drinks her fill. Can you tell this one is getting special treatment because she is so sweet?

 

[Trish44]

I hope everyone enjoyed the marvelous weather yesterday as much as I did! I spent a lot of the day outside and it was so nice to have the fresh air without feeling beat down by the cold. There wasn’t even any wind yesterday!

I’ve been having a problem with Safari where it crashes as soon as I start to reply. I’ve reported it to the BYC officials and they said they’ve had other reports as well so they are looking into it. But – its one of the reasons I’ve been so quiet. So many times I started a reply and got half way into it, only to have Safari crash and by the time it came up, I didn’t feel like retyping everything. The work around I am using now is I type everything in Word, then put it on the clipboard, go back to the forum, and hit reply, paste and submit as quickly as possible, because one time it crashed even in that short space of time! That is how I am typing now….

A few days ago I saw an amazing video. This guy in Vermont started with 200 chickens 15 years ago and has NEVER bought them grain. He keeps donkeys and mules and his neighbor keeps cattle. He also found a local restaurant that was willing to give him their food scraps so he used his mule and cart to go and pick them up every day. Then, he would pile everything up in compost piles and turn the chickens out on it. Well, per the videos of his operation, it looks like he is a commercial compost producer, as there were long rows of 4-5’ high piles in varying stages of decomposition as far as the eye could see. The video showed the chickens scratching through it and were clearly finding a lot to eat. Then they panned the camera over to a “finished” pile of compost and he said once it is done, the chickens lose interest in it, so it is ready to be hauled off and used. I suspect he is selling the compost but as a “by-product” he has also sold thousands of dozens of eggs and all without ever buying grain for them.

I know most of us can’t replicate this but it got me to thinking. I am not ready to start a commercial compost farm, but I do have access to as much horse manure as I want to haul away so the last couple of times I’ve been to the barn, I’ve loaded up a couple of large buckets of the stuff. I dumped two buckets out, one on top of the other, to create a pile that was about 2’ high, and stood back to see what they thought. There was immediate interest – in fact, the pile was swarmed by both turkeys and chickens. Sure enough, in addition to scratching, they were pecking at it and seemed to be finding plenty to eat. Within 30 minutes, they had the pile completely flattened out (the guy in the video must do it by the dump truck load to keep it from getting spread flat in no time). I left and went back to the barn and this time loaded up 3 buckets. By the time I got back it was 4-5 hours after I had dumped out the two buckets, and the birds were STILL congregated in that area, working it over. I guess it must contain some really good stuff! I dumped the 3 new buckets in the same spot and left. By the time I went to do bedtime lock up, less than an hour later, the new pile had also been completely flattened. I’ll be curious to see if they return to work first thing this morning.

Anyway, I just thought I’d throw this out there for anyone who lives near a cattle or horse operation and has access to free manure. I figure the organic material isn’t going to hurt my chicken yard – what the birds don’t eat will eventually break down and add nutrients to the soil there. Any grains they don’t find and eat, if they sprout, will either be eaten as a sprout, or grow and be mowed down next time I mow. I can’t really see a downside here. Oh – I should add, that you probably all know the horse manure is in balls we call “horse apples”, but when I go to fill the buckets, I try to gather the stuff that was pooped out a day or two ago and been walked on in the meantime, so it is somewhat pulverized. Horse apples tend to dry out and turn into horse rocks and I didn’t want to be tripping over those, in the event the chickens weren’t interested in them. So by getting the stuff that is pulverized, they’re more likely to scratch through it, I think, because its been broken down enough they can find the undigested grain hidden in it. And, whatever they don’t eat, the particles are small enough to just fall down into the grass and eventually be absorbed into the ground. That’s my hope anyway…..

I didn’t mean for that to get so long. Tweety, I’m so glad you were able to stop in for a minute and see us. I had been wondering how you were doing and figured work must be really busy for you at the moment.

Trish – that is hilarious about the goats and the car! Mine seem to be ever so slowly growing. Smoky is really turning into a billy goat now. He makes these grunting sounds that sound more like a pig than a goat, and he butts and pushes against me every chance he gets. I use that against him though, as, in case Gem is pregnant already, I try to get her some special grain made just for pregnant goats, every day. I can’t give it to both of them because Smoky, ever the gentleman, butts her out of the way to get the lion’s share for himself. So, everyday I have to try to not only separate the two of them, but separate Gem from the sheep as well, since the goat feed contains copper and that will cause the sheep to abort. So, while Smoky is busy head butting me, and focused on that, I am usually able to get Gem into the temp pen and close the gate, and from there it is simple to dump the scoop of feed in her feed pan. Then Smoky gets mad that he was “tricked” again, and tries to find a way in to to take it from her. For some reason I never feel sorry for him….

My chickens go through all of the rabbit droppings I bring out & dump from their trays, they seem to have a great time digging through & there isn't that much left after they get done, at least of the droppings, they don't eat the pine shavings. My next door neighbor when he was alive had horses & people always asked him why he didn't have that much to clean up & he told them his chickens cleaned it up. He said people gave him weird looks when he said that, but it was true. There is a lot of undigested grain & stuff that goes through that the chickens can use again I'm sure. Chickens are scavengers, they will eat just about anything. I'm sorry about your special chick, that's strange.

Danz, I didn't, but Dana got one, maybe I can get her to send it to me & then I can share it. My son sure didn't think it was funny, but Dana got a kick out of it.

Well as a matter of fact I need to go move my car out & clean out rabbit trays, so I'd better go get to it. Everybody have a good day!