Consolidated Kansas

[tlzimmerman]

Wow thats comprehensive! (in a good way) In my first little run through ration I had distillers.

Soybean meal, at least for now, is coming in 40 pound bags, so I only have one coming at first. Thank you for the tip on rancidity. It is going to be my main source for protein with distillers being secondary. I did have distillers set at 1/8th the ration per weight which would be 250 per ton, I might back that back a bit and could replace the protein from it with some alfalfa or just increase the soybean meal. I haven't delved deep yet as I was hoping to get some input from this site before I finalized what I was going to feed them on the other side of the brooder. Soybean meal is my biggest expense right now though....so we will see. If distillers works in chickens like cattle I can see how it could "burn them out". It is a really really good feed source and the animals love it, but I am sure like in cattle moderation is a good thing. Gives me some experience to work with and things to think about and I appreciate that. I do know distillers is a good source of A, E, Thiamine and Riboflavin. I'll have to get out my better charts to see if I think I have enough of the other vitamins you mentioned.


I do have all large breed chickens coming, Barred rocks, buff orpingtons, and Rhode Island Reds, so that is good to know about hawks. My coop and run, when finished, should be about as close to Ft Knox as I can make it. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Trish44]

I may have mentioned it here before, but last summer I got 5 hens at a swap meet, that were not in the best of condition. They appeared to be burned out layers. I brought them home and isolated them from all my other poultry. They are the best layers I have. Most days I gather 5 eggs, but never less than 4. They now have nice feathers, and they sing constantly. I am considering putting a French Copper Marians rooster with them. Their egg-color is about a 2 on the scale of 4 being a deep dark brown. Has anyone on here have results of using a Marians rooster? I've had good results, with my Barred Rock/Americana cross. So far all have a barred feathering. and the 4th generation lay a nice blue egg, but not during the winter.

I have had Marans roosters before but like Danz said I think mixing with a lighter layer would just cause the eggs to be lighter & I have not had good luck with Marans roosters lasting long either. They just tend to get sick or have heart problems more than other breeds, so I kind of gave up on them. I do have a Black Copper & Blue Copper hen left in my laying flock but they just aren't the best layers. For dark eggs I really prefer the Welsummers, they're much hardier birds & lay nice dark sometimes speckled eggs. They're also very pretty to look at. The blue egg layers tend to not lay in the winter, that seems to be their break time, at least that has been my experience here. I have pure bred Ameraucanas as well as a few Easter Eggers in my laying flock & none have laid through winter & haven't in the past.

Hello from Western Kansas. I am Thomas, I would post up my thread I put in the into forum, but it had a link in it so its under review.

Anyone around here have any inexpensive fertile eggs I could buy? My daughter got an incubator for Christmas (part of this whole chicken ordeal is for her to have a farm project to learn on a bit). We would like to try to hatch a few out before we tried any of the more expensive pet chickens she wants. We have never done it. All my other chicks coming in a week are the large brown egg layer breeds, so would like to have something like that, don't care if its a cross or anything special.

Anyways hello, looking forward to meeting you all.

Welcome to our thread, we always like to see new people, feel free to post any time. We have a couple people on here out west, but most of us on here are in the eastern half of the state. @lizzyGSR would you have anything to help him out with? There are swap groups on Facebook if you're on there, but I'm not allowed to post the links for them here. If you send me a private message I can give them to you. The ones I run cover the whole state & some surrounding states. Surely there is someone who could help you out with eggs. I saw your post about feed, it sounds like you have a great resource there for grain, the rest of us are envious about that because we have to buy our feed. I would definitely get cheaper chicks to start out with to make sure they work out & make sure you have your setup predator proof. Everyone on here at some time or the other have experienced losses from predators. I have two big Great Pyrenees here for livestock guardians & another pup in training who is GP/Anatolian to help them out when he's old enough. We have a huge predator load here & I would not be able to keep anything here if it weren't for these dogs. We pretty much have every type of predator here that are in the state.

@chicken danz have you tried kelp for your chickens? I have been reading about it & am considering trying it for conditioning. It's supposed to be really good for them as well as other animals. It is pricey but you only use a small amount at a time.

 

[chicken danz]

Wow thats comprehensive! (in a good way) In my first little run through ration I had distillers.

Soybean meal, at least for now, is coming in 40 pound bags, so I only have one coming at first. Thank you for the tip on rancidity. It is going to be my main source for protein with distillers being secondary. I did have distillers set at 1/8th the ration per weight which would be 250 per ton, I might back that back a bit and could replace the protein from it with some alfalfa or just increase the soybean meal. I haven't delved deep yet as I was hoping to get some input from this site before I finalized what I was going to feed them on the other side of the brooder. Soybean meal is my biggest expense right now though....so we will see. If distillers works in chickens like cattle I can see how it could "burn them out". It is a really really good feed source and the animals love it, but I am sure like in cattle moderation is a good thing. Gives me some experience to work with and things to think about and I appreciate that. I do know distillers is a good source of A, E, Thiamine and Riboflavin. I'll have to get out my better charts to see if I think I have enough of the other vitamins you mentioned.


I do have all large breed chickens coming, Barred rocks, buff orpingtons, and Rhode Island Reds, so that is good to know about hawks. My coop and run, when finished, should be about as close to Ft Knox as I can make it. Thanks for the tips!

You're welcome. I hope I didn't sound I'm tutoring. I really don't mean to. Just trying to be helpful. Have you priced fish meal in place of the soy? If you aren't using your own crop it could be an option for an added protein source. All I have available from my own crop is corn. My co-op suggested next year I sell some corn and buy milo with the proceeds. I use a lot more milo than corn.
One added note of things I have learned from particularly @HEChicken , which made me research more. If you have a composted manure pile it's a great source of essential feed stuff for free range chickens. They love digging through it. They'll pick up bits of undigested grain as well as a smorgasboard of bugs which will boost their protein level. Plus if you use any of that composted manure on a garden the chickens break it down and make more ready for use on a garden.
Trish, I haven't tried kelp. It's high in amino acids but my poultry supplement and free ranging does a good job of providing those most of the time. It could really be a consideration for those birds that are penned and for winter.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Trish,
Where could I find the info on using Kelp? With my birds having to be penned more then I like I would love to ensure they are getting everything they need. I have started to soak scratch and sprout it for them hoping they like it will try it when it's done in a few more days.

 

[tlzimmerman]

I haven't priced fish meal, but I can't think it would be cheaper than Soy meal.......maybe. Soy is going to cost me $14 per 50 pound bag....which isn't bad but its a whole lot more expensive than $65/ton for distillers, which is my 2nd biggest expense. I know we have the feed tests filed from this batch of silage, I am thinking that since that is a whole plant chopped and fermented (ensiled) it will have a better/different nutrient profile than the grains. Our nutritionist makes our cattle rations though so I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head.

I might have to look into the vitamin profiles though of soy vs fish meals, depending on cost and if they could get it might be good to do both fish meal and soy meal, or more of one.

We do have ample manure, not close to the house though which is where the chickens will be (for obvious reasons). I have heard that chickens can pull a ton of nutrients out of the manure though. I am hopefully going to be moving to a new homestead/house in the next year or so and when that happens, I will be able to have the cattle and chickens in the same realm.

 

[rlh1]

This is my Silkie he and her chicks. She got them to go up onto the top roosting bar and they snuggled in for the night. I had no idea they would do that! This morning they were all safely on the ground doing their thing. I had no idea they would do that! LOL the others were all keeping their distance. She has turned out to be a great momma but that kinda scared me.

 

[tlzimmerman]

@chicken danz I've gone through your list, and looked at my feeds.......so far I think B is the only thing I am lacking, so I could either supplement there or I'm going to price fish meal, which I read is a pretty good source of vitamin B. Thanks for the information and making me go back through things, I am more confident in my ration than I was before!

 

[tlzimmerman]

Alfalfa looks to be a big source of vitamin B as well....and I have access to that. Adding it to the ration would fix me up I think!

 

[chicken danz]

@chicken danz I've gone through your list, and looked at my feeds.......so far I think B is the only thing I am lacking, so I could either supplement there or I'm going to price fish meal, which I read is a pretty good source of vitamin B. Thanks for the information and making me go back through things, I am more confident in my ration than I was before!

I have a B complex injectable made for cattle that I just squirt a little in their water now and then if I see any signs that they might be lacking. My feed supplement has some in it but sometimes it's just not enough. I've also found that the heavier the bird bred is, the higher concentration of B vitamins it needs.
One word of caution. If using alfalfa or other grassy products make sure it is ground very fine. If it has stringy pieces that can stick in their crop and "plug" it up. I always thought alfalfa would be perfect if you could just harvest the leaves.

 

[Trish44]

Trish,
Where could I find the info on using Kelp? With my birds having to be penned more then I like I would love to ensure they are getting everything they need. I have started to soak scratch and sprout it for them hoping they like it will try it when it's done in a few more days.

Just Google kelp for poultry & you should find lots about it. There are even some discussions on Backyard Chickens forums but I can't point you to any specific thing. I just did a search & came up with lots to read. I'm still looking for the most affordable source, it's not cheap but from what I read you only use a little bit at a time. I just want some especially for my breeding stock that are shut in pens all the time & don't get the things the free range chickens get. I think I can just add the kelp to my FF for those chickens I need to feed it to.