Dixie Chicks

[hennible]

Looking good beer can
BC, snows here around Halloween but it doesn't stick most years until mid November. It's been strangely warm lately.
Archaic system beer can? Lol feet and inches? Metric? I use a weird mix of metric and imperial...
Got the pond drained, woo hoo! Think I'll dig it out a bit more and fill it one last time.

 

[BriardChickens]

Beer, looks good!

BC, here you go, its a work in progress, but you can just add whatever ingredients you've got handy (feedipedia.org is a great help). I try to use locally grown grains, so the nutrient makeup of some of the stuff on there will differ from what you would get in something grown further to the south. Also, I hope you like SI units =).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2-JYCQqMQ3jRmkweUMwY1FBWUk/view?usp=sharing

You should be able to download that from there, but if you're having trouble with it, PM me your e-mail and I'll send a copy to you.

This is awesome, thanks Vehve! Love the feedipedia link too. I think I am getting a good idea of my mix, right now I am mainly looking at protein content. I have wheat, peas and corn available to me, so I am thinking of the following ratio
wheat: 35-60%
Peas: 35%
Corn: remainder (depending on wheat, they never mentioned a percentage just "high")

According to feedipidea peas don't have much for nutrition for poultry so they don't suggest to go higher even though they have a nice amount of protein so I am not going in as high as I thought I would..

I am thinking a 40/25/30 and 5% alfalfa.

Seems like BC would think SI she's Canadian, but I think hennible said she uses the archaic system we do here, funny we were told the US was switching when I was a kid, they still haven't.
Those giants look huge, but I guess they are right when they say they grow their massive frame first and then fill out, the cockerels only weighed five pounds, sussex four. Giant pullets four and sussex three, the nicest looking sussex pullet was only two. Had to check the silkie rooster, over six pounds! And he's only a couple months older than them.

LOL, I grew up in Germany..

 

[vehve]

Ah, ein zivilisierter Land.

I'd keep the peas at a max of 20%, I think I remember reading somewhere that higher than than can cause problems. Not totally sure about that one though. I've used chicken feed concentrate and/or rapeseed pellet to up the protein usually. And if you feed vitamin and mineral additives, you don't need to worry that much about the other nutrients, but keep an eye on the methionine and lysine especially, those needs should be met. They're the most important limiting factors in poultry protein intake. Feeding them meat occasionally is also a good idea.

 

[BriardChickens]

it said you could go 20-35% for (field) peas @vehve Mine are field/seed peas. A nice mixture of different peas actually.

Where would one find the mineral supplements? I am also still feeding them the poultry grower diet (which was recommended as a layer diet for ducks). The grains/peas really just come down to cost cutting throughout the winter. We are in farmland/oilfield here so you can imagine what's cheaper... feed or seed?
I am also still supplementing crushed oyster shell.

We've had a number of killing frosts, so nothing grows any more. No snow yet, nor would it stick. We are hoping for another 2-3 weeks before it floats in.

 

[vehve]

I'd check some horse mueslils, you can probably find some with a whole bunch of minerals, and bag mixed with all kinds of other grains goes a long way. Also, poultry vitamins should be pretty easily obtainable. But you might find some sort of mineral supplements quite cheaply as well.

 

[hennible]

My ducks are laying eggs in the pond!!! Grrrr
I must have found 12 once I started cleaning out the mud/sludge at the bottom. One was a soft shell and it was like a scary black balloon... Stupid birds.... Oh and stupid me I'm digging it deeper

 

[Alaskan]

There is NO WAY!!!!

How could they be so ultimately stupid!!!

 

[hennible]

Oh sadly they are...
I'd like to think it's just sense I moved them, but the black balloon egg suggests otherwise.

 

[Ravynscroft]

So that means if there is "Smoke on the water" the balloons have burst then???

 

[perchie.girl]

My ducks are laying eggs in the pond!!! Grrrr
I must have found 12 once I started cleaning out the mud/sludge at the bottom. One was a soft shell and it was like a scary black balloon... Stupid birds.... Oh and stupid me I'm digging it deeper

this picture just made me smile... alot...

deb