Dixie Chicks

[Amberjem]

Ok so I thought I would give a little update on the chicken tractor raised garden bed. So far the raised bed I had the chickens tilling and working in the chicken tractor on have jumped ahead in growth by leaps and bounds from the other beds...also have noticed a marked reduction of pests

 

[minihorse927]

hey @minihorse927
 we got a tractor supply store in town...went in to get a feeder for the turkey pen..and all they had was small chick feeders...spoke to the guy he said they didnt sell large feeders just toss the food on the ground that they naturally prefere to eat that way

uhg, they should have the 7lb, 10lb, and 30lb hanging feeders. Someone doesn't understand they waste feed when you throw it in the ground.


@Outpost JWB, when I have one with bumblefoot I will get the infection out the best I can by removing the scab and squeezing out what I can. Then I slab a gob of ichthammol drawing salve on it and throw a piece of old sock like you did. Your be amazed how much ichthammol helps. I had a duck that just had a horrid case of it and all I did was squeeze what I could out daily and finally the 3rd day I got a huge plug of infection that was probably 2 inches long and 1/3rd of an inch wide. After I finally got that out I rinsed the wound with hydrogen peroxide and gobbed ichthammol on. A week later she has stopped completely limping. The swelling is gone too.

 

[perchie.girl]

hey @minihorse927 we got a tractor supply store in town...went in to get a feeder for the turkey pen..and all they had was small chick feeders...spoke to the guy he said they didnt sell large feeders just toss the food on the ground that they naturally prefere to eat that way

idiots

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I am glad someone uses ichthamol..... its a great drawing salve and has anhalgesic properties too... Helps with pain.

Nasty stuff to get on clothes but I keep it in my first aid kit for the horse.

deb

 

[Amberjem]

uhg, they should have the 7lb, 10lb, and 30lb hanging feeders. Someone doesn't understand they waste feed when you throw it in the ground.


@Outpost JWB , when I have one with bumblefoot I will get the infection out the best I can by removing the scab and squeezing out what I can. Then I slab a gob of ichthammol drawing salve on it and throw a piece of old sock like you did. Your be amazed how much ichthammol helps. I had a duck that just had a horrid case of it and all I did was squeeze what I could out daily and finally the 3rd day I got a huge plug of infection that was probably 2 inches long and 1/3rd of an inch wide. After I finally got that out I rinsed the wound with hydrogen peroxide and gobbed ichthammol on. A week later she has stopped completely limping. The swelling is gone too.

I know right? he was totally giving me a story on how it was more natural for the chickens ect

 

[Amberjem]

idiots

I know whats worse he was totally convinced of what he was saying

 

[Beer can]

I got a 30lb galvanized hanging feeder from TSC on sale cheaper than the plastic one before we went on vacation. Only week I used it, I normally feed fermented. Probably use it again this winter.
Sure am loving those water nipples, 5gal in the small coop and 15gal in big coop, I can't even remember the last time I filled them up.

 

[CanuckBock]

I know whats worse he was totally convinced of what he was saying

Reminds me of the "feed stores" (and I use the term FEED loosely). Go there, to get fresh bags of starter...I need two types of landfowl (chicken & turkey/pheasant) and one fer waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans, ruddies)...rations. Three starters for what I raise here...what I bin raising for the past fifty dang odd years...

<<I'm old, I'm armed, and I wobble...so watch out, if'n I get stirred up enough to take a swing--likely more than one might go DOWN!
Duck...as in quack quack, eh.>>​

Go there and all they have on hand is chicken starter...with ampro. Young people at the counter...start telling moi...ME...how "Oh that's fine for all poultry"...like I am a newborn child, wet behind the ears, a green horn and I don't know dick squat about poultry...me...


Before I can even feel the hair on the back of my neck begin to rise and my temper go out the window...I stop dead, wipe my face blank, turn on my heel without even a word and I leave from whilst I came, tout sweet like. Rick looks at me strange as I return to the truck, empty handed (didn't even buy the chicken starter)...gonna go elsewhere...


The next time I see a chook happy to be wading thru a swamp, I'll feed it waterfowl food...the next time I see a domesticated duck happy to live in the jungle, I'll feed it junglefowl food...the next time I see a turkey eating an earthworm without risking getting blackhead, I'll feed the poor blighter chick mash...next time I want a turkey to ONLY grow up to be the size of a chicken (they need to grow, they need to be all they can be)...next time I only want my pheasants to have the plumage quality of a mush meat factory farmed swill egged WHITE BIRD, I'll feed it chick starter...yeh, then and only THEN may I feed ONE and ONLY one ration to all my different (did I say different?) kinds of birds.

Tufted Buff Gosling natural hatched from yesterday
​

Does anyone really want a goose egg to hatch out on its own without constant intervention and fear it will NOT quite make it to term and ends up dead in the shell--because it petered out all over that we never FED their parents right to make the good eggs to produce the good birds and onwards. To have those trace minerals and elements, vitamins and all those DIFFERENCES in the components for each ration show up on how well your birds replicate? Little wonder people can't hatch out their birds...or have birds live years and years, prosper and thrive against the odds...because we feed and water them properly so they can be all their genetics say they can be!

Wanna see me fume...tell me that it's OK to accept less than what we know is good for our birds. Make me settle because you as the vendor have settled and because you want one of a kind, fits all, no worries that YOU HAFTA BUY only from me because I am lazy and ill prepared and can't be bothered to offer up to us, the EDUCATED customers and consumers what we know is the best.

ONE SIZE does not FIT ALL and guess what...if'n it ever comes to pass that I can't buy what I know is GOOD for my stocks that I choose to own and keep (they figure I am their god because I supply all they need come heck or high water)...I'll get growing my own and doing it my way and completely go self-sufficient...don't need you, don't need to be force fed whatever you the supplier figures "I need."

Blows my mind...we humans have been keeping chooks for thousands of years and suddenly, all the improvements we have discovered along the way should get tossed and yet we still figure our poultry should give us an egg a day, hatch out our birds for us, care and raise them to do the same...generation after generation...not without the latest and greatest in technology thanks. I am not settling because that would compromise all the advances I have come to expect because I provide for my birds as best as I see fit.

Whatever...take yer hard earned money and walk...without a glance back or explanation...go elsewhere. And when there is no place to go, go within and do it yourself.


Last year I had volunteer oats come up thru all the composted bedding we were putting back to our land...so...I harvested up the plants and the birds loved the greens, grain and the whole experience...tasty tasty treaties, AND it cost no outside money to do it. Just my time, energies and delight to see how happy it makes them!

​

Got the land, got the gumption to prep her...growing my own oats this year...give it a whirl...be afraid...very...

​

Got my Gran's sickle hanging on my kitchen wall as a decoration...may have to employ it back to its original purpose...jest may! Learn how to hone the edge and go Grimm Reaper, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Amberjem]

ok maybe it's cuz we're older lol.. I am just glad someone gets that...and that IS exactly what I did was walk out and didn't buy anything I was going to buy there...as to the different kinds of feed please do not get me started.... I have to drive a long way off to get different feed... I just recently sourced a mill that sells feed to walk ins....managed to pick up some boss and grains...locally they wanted 50 bucks for fifty pounds of boss....never had any other grains in...

 

[minihorse927]

@Amberjem make a feeder! This is a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, a 3" 90° PVC street elbow, and some silicone! Cost less than $10 and holds half a bag of feed.