Delawares from kathyinmo

[Zanna]

That would be amazing if you could. I looked up ordinances where I'm located and I can have six and no roosters. If this trade goes through we are getting some barred rock, EE and Sussex but I don't think I will end up keeping them long term.

To be honest the past couple days have been really rough on me. I would love to have some of Kathys birds but I don't know how long I'm going to be here. If I end up staying here for a few years, I'll miss out on breeding them because I have no rooster. It's just frustrating, and depressing.

Just keep in touch and if/when you are ready just let me know. My birds will be out of the breeder pens and back on free-range probably within the next six weeks. The free-range flock has other breed roosters in with it so to breed again I have to wait 2 - 3 weeks after putting the hens in with the designated Cock before collecting eggs to be sure the chicks are from the correct Cock. Leslie has only the breeding Delawares together year round so we should be able to come up with something between the two of us.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Just keep in touch and if/when you are ready just let me know. My birds will be out of the breeder pens and back on free-range probably within the next six weeks. The free-range flock has other breed roosters in with it so to breed again I have to wait 2 - 3 weeks after putting the hens in with the designated Cock before collecting eggs to be sure the chicks are from the correct Cock. Leslie has only the breeding Delawares together year round so we should be able to come up with something between the two of us.

Yes. I'll always have a "breeding pen" of Delaware females, and they will always have a Delaware male in with them to remind them to eat and go inside when the hawks fly over and go to bed at night and wake up in the morning and show them the nesting boxes and all that other important leadership stuff that needs doing out at the coop.

Speaking of. Here is Mr. Fatty reminding the females to keep it clean today.

 

[finnfur]

Yes. I'll always have a "breeding pen" of Delaware females, and they will always have a Delaware male in with them to remind them to eat and go inside when the hawks fly over and go to bed at night and wake up in the morning and show them the nesting boxes and all that other important leadership stuff that needs doing out at the coop.

Speaking of. Here is Mr. Fatty reminding the females to keep it clean today.

Looks like spring break !

We do the same with the teenagers growing out before free range - we mix DE and sulfur flour and no mites or bugs - works great

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Looks like spring break !

We do the same with the teenagers growing out before free range - we mix DE and sulfur flour and no mites or bugs - works great

Great minds. That is a mixture of peat moss, sand, and feed-grade sulfur powder. The birds love it. They also love the deep bedding, the gravel floor of the feed room (after they've carefully dug down under the gravel), the path to the chicken coop, the soil under every tree and bush ...

 

[rancher hicks]

Great minds. That is a mixture of peat moss, sand, and feed-grade sulfur powder. The birds love it. They also love the deep bedding, the gravel floor of the feed room (after they've carefully dug down under the gravel), the path to the chicken coop, the soil under every tree and bush ...

What is feed grade sulfur powder. I totally like the idea. Is sulfur powder okay for the compost pile?

 

[caychris]

Im trying to get a good dust bath mix. So how much of this sulfur powder do you use in something like that small swimming pool

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

What is feed grade sulfur powder.  I totally like the idea. Is sulfur powder okay for the compost pile? 

Im trying to get a good dust bath mix. So how much of this sulfur powder do you use in something like that small swimming pool

Here is a link to the source of this stuff. We bought a couple large buckets of the stuff and use it to dust the birds. Shipping was half the cost.

The dust is very fine and will make your laundry smell like sulfur for ages and ages. You've been warned. It also seems to bother some people's lungs, noses, throats and eyes ... so protective gear when dusting a lot of birds with it is a good idea.

Yes, it smells a bit like toxic waste, but it's "feed grade" and very likely the stuff they put into feather-fixer type poultry feed (at the rate of like 3 lbs per ton) as a oral miticide (is that a word?). So in theory you should be able to sprinkle a little on their feed, too. A LITTLE.

We don't measure when making a dust bath ... we just sprinkle it on the top of the other ingredients then stir it up as well as we can. Then we periodically refresh. I also sprinkle it on the roosts and all over the one wood coop we have.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=sulfur10

There is also supposed to be a type of mineral-rich white clay (from Arkansas or somewhere "foreign" like that) which is more effective on external pests than DE or other clays. Wish I lived there to put that into the dust baths. Our soil here has a lot of red clay in it and the birds love dusting in that. I'll try to look the "good kind" of clay up later.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/poultry-lice

That link will take you to a page that discusses three "natural" treatments for poultry lice: Sulfur, DE, and kaolin clay. It says kaolin clay is the most effective.

What is kaolin clay? http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/311676/kaolin

I gather it is found in Georgia ... where it is refined to use as an orchard spray approved for Organic farming.

It is also known as "china clay" and can be found, you guessed it, in China.

Probably the unrefined stuff would be good for dust baths? Might contain more aluminum than is perfectly desirable? It turns red when iron is introduced. And so on ... according to the Internet.

 

[finnfur]

Many in the past used the sulfur in a old sock to apply it around pants legs etc to keep the chiggers and ticks off - its a very old know treatment.
Googlr it - Sulfur flour

 

[finnfur]

I got our Sulfur flour local - it was either TSC , Southern states or local grain,seed feed place.-

I also mix it with DE and dust all the nests and places they wallow dust bath