Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[BCMaraniac]

My ex had the nerve to suggest that I might not be pregnant by him because he was over seas when calculations showed when I should have gotten impregnated. His had lasted at least 10 days! The boy is his spitting image so I had the last laugh!

You might have ovulated early too.........hard to say.....I can understand why he is your ex if he made that kind of an accusation......like you were just waiting for him to ship out so you could move a boyfriend in.......good men are hard to find.

 

[Beekissed]

I know this isn't the right thread to be posting in but I'm going to anyway; I have 13 girls all around 6 months of age and I have been getting 5 - 6 eggs per day lately with all of the girls acting and doing normal chicken things. They free range during the day, are fed FF and all have been acting normal. Up until yesterday that is; I noticed one of my black stars, who is always very active and one of the top layers, was kind of acting depressed and keeping to herself. After a day or so it seemed like she was acting better so I let it be. This morning when I let them out to free range she came out but went off by herself and stood alone, with head tucked in her wing. She's definitely not acting normal that's for sure. I noticed her butt is messier than normal too. However, two of my BR's have had messy butts the last couple of days but they are still acting normal. The other thing is , they aren't eating their FF like they normally do... Usually when I put that stuff out it is gobbled up within minutes but the last few days I can fill their trough with FF during the day and the next day it is still half full. Even while free ranging thy ALWAYS cleaned the FF dry. To note, I recently (1 week ago) added a 5 month old rooster to the flock, he too seems to be acting normal with no signs of illness. I got him from a man with a small flock who ended up with. 4 roosters and of course e wanted to get rid of some. I'm worried about the black star and am wondering what I should do to treat her. I have separated her from the flock and given her some dry feed and ACV water. Could this be vent gleet or something , coccidiosis, etc ? What should I do about the other two BR's or have messy butts but otherwise seem to be acting normal ? Also, I am now only getting about 3 eggs per day, down from 5 - 6. I find this a bit stressful and am hoping that someone can offer some advice. I don't understand what's going on or why their appetites aren't what they used to be.

It will depend on your approach to livestock health what you want to do about this. I can only tell you what I would do. Wait...watch...do nothing yet. See how things develop. If the one hen is seemingly suffering or continues to hunker down by herself, cull her. Then just watch.

Egg laying is always slow at this time of the year, so not having the high egg yield could be coincidental. Just watch and see how it all goes. If you feel like that's too passive, you can add some fresh garlic to your FF, feed some pumpkin seeds or dose with castor oil for a mild antihelmintic and health tonic.

If your approach is to medicate at the first sign of anything suspicious, someone else can advise you on that, as I don't have any experience with giving medications to chickens for various illnesses.

 

[Beekissed]

Y'all talking about rainwater reminds me of when I was a kid. We collected our household water in a cistern. Sometimes the water was hauled from town and some of it came from the roof. One time we had been gone a few days and when we got back there were a bunch of mosquito larvae floating around in a big jug of drinking water in the fridge. LOL Finally they ran water lines out here and a few years later mom got us hooked up to it. I was probably about 10 years old. Those "skeeter larvee" were not half as dangerous as what all is in "clean" water now days!

You got that right. When we first moved out to the homestead, the only water source was a spring some distance away from the cabin. We had to tote water in gallon jugs and buckets from this spring for all things. At certain times of the year we would have to filter out the "wigglers" from it with coffee filters...and it was really good drinking water. We consumed quite a bit of it, cooked with it, canned with it, etc.

Our current well is spring fed, but very deep(200 ft) and runs about 40 gals to the hour between two slate/shale seams in the strata. Good, cold and clean as the earth can make it.

 

[beverly evans]

A RR is a red broiler bird, supposedly better at free ranging and raising on pasture than the CX...they don't finish out as large and I've heard mixed reviews about their supposed hardiness and ranging abilities.

The others you mention are hybrid production layers.


Our place doesn't have a street and the tree cover pretty much prevents the GE feature from pinpointing much about the house, but I've no doubts they have their ways to spy upon us all the same....but...they get what they richly deserve at that point.

Somewhere, in some spy station, a group of people are using their films of me in shorts as motivation for their company fitness program. I feel like I'm doing something~in some small way~ to better humanity by this exposure and so will bravely continue on in my efforts.

That really ;made me lol! I feel the same way. I have the last, make that next to the last, one story on our block. It's an old neighborhood withclay soils therefore lots of cracked slabs so now when sold they all come down. To prevent slab problems their prevention is to make the slab 2' thick and then they add 2 or 3 stories on top of that. So my privacy fence is useless! Me and my chickens are on display. I am going to plant non invasive bamboo along the fence when I can afford it. And if a satelite snoop wants to get an eyeful it will probably give him heartburn.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

It will depend on your approach to livestock health what you want to do about this.  I can only tell you what I would do.   Wait...watch...do nothing yet.  See how things develop.  If the one hen is seemingly suffering or continues to hunker down by herself, cull her.  Then just watch. 

Egg laying is always slow at this time of the year, so not having the high egg yield could be coincidental.  Just watch and see how it all goes.  If you feel like that's too passive, you can add some fresh garlic to your FF, feed some pumpkin seeds or dose with castor oil for a mild antihelmintic and health tonic. 

If your approach is to medicate at the first sign of anything suspicious, someone else can advise you on that, as I don't have any experience with giving medications to chickens for various illnesses. 

Thank you, Bee ... I don't want to medicate... It's definitely not my first choice of action. I have separated her from the flock and she still seems a bit feisty.. When I picked her up she pecked me and when I put her in the crate she ate some dry feed and seemed more alert. Any suggestions on what may be causing the runny poo on her and the two BR's ? Here is a photo from this morning on one of the BR's butts

 

[Beekissed]

Onset of lay can cause more runny butts at first as the vents are more "open" and the poop doesn't have that nice, quick delivery that it once had with the nice, tight vent. The only bird I have laying right now has a black streak down the middle of her white bum for the same reason. Granny always said the birds with the messiest butts were her best layers and I believe her...those with the largest eggs and most frequent laying seem to have messy butts more often than the birds that lay less steady and lay smaller eggs.

Go out tonight and take that bird off the roost and give that butt a whiff...if it's a strong, almost like a dead animal odor, it may be gleet. If not, and it just smells like plain ol' chicken poop, I wouldn't give it a second's thought. If it's gleet, I'd just cull her...if she develops something like that on the good probiotics you are feeding, there is no helping her at that point unless you medicate and be prepared to medicate her again when it comes around again.

Look at her vent..is it nice and loose, open a bit? Could be the cause and due to laying steady.

Back off on the amounts of FF you are feeding and see what happens..they may just be getting more than enough nutrients and need less total feed right now. Feed amounts fluctuate through the seasons, so be ready to adjust those according to flock needs.

Please let us know how this goes along? It should be interesting to see what happens...

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Thanks for the info, Bee... I'll grab the Black Star and the two BR's tonight and give their butts a sniff and see what it smells like.

I'll definitely keep ya'll posted on this and thanks so much for the information, very much appreciated.

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote: Beverly,

To put multiple quotes in one post, click the "Multi" button on each quote until you've got them all, then click the "Reply" button. All the quotes should show up on the post and then you can respond to each one.

As for the reposting of "quotes within a quote" (like mine above that has both yours and TWs in it)....that is a setting you have to set.

Go up to the top of the page and click on "My Profile"

You will see, to the right of your name, two bars, one says "Edit Community Profile" and the other "Edit Account Details"

Click the "Edit Account Details"

The second item from the top with a checkbox next to it is "Remove Nested Quotes in Replies"

This should NOT have a check if you want all the quotes to be shown (like the one above that I quoted from you and also includes TWs). It should have a check if you just want the post quoted to show and not TWs original quote.

There are other settings there that you might want to take a look at while you are there.

 

[NotAFarm]

I know this isn't the right thread to be posting in but I'm going to anyway; I have 13 girls all around 6 months of age and I have been getting 5 - 6 eggs per day lately with all of the girls acting and doing normal chicken things. They free range during the day, are fed FF and all have been acting normal. Up until yesterday that is; I noticed one of my black stars, who is always very active and one of the top layers, was kind of acting depressed and keeping to herself. After a day or so it seemed like she was acting better so I let it be. This morning when I let them out to free range she came out but went off by herself and stood alone, with head tucked in her wing. She's definitely not acting normal that's for sure. I noticed her butt is messier than normal too. However, two of my BR's have had messy butts the last couple of days but they are still acting normal. The other thing is , they aren't eating their FF like they normally do... Usually when I put that stuff out it is gobbled up within minutes but the last few days I can fill their trough with FF during the day and the next day it is still half full. Even while free ranging thy ALWAYS cleaned the FF dry. To note, I recently (1 week ago) added a 5 month old rooster to the flock, he too seems to be acting normal with no signs of illness. I got him from a man with a small flock who ended up with. 4 roosters and of course e wanted to get rid of some. I'm worried about the black star and am wondering what I should do to treat her. I have separated her from the flock and given her some dry feed and ACV water. Could this be vent gleet or something , coccidiosis, etc ? What should I do about the other two BR's or have messy butts but otherwise seem to be acting normal ? Also, I am now only getting about 3 eggs per day, down from 5 - 6. I find this a bit stressful and am hoping that someone can offer some advice. I don't understand what's going on or why their appetites aren't what they used to be.

The addition of a young, possibly "randy", cockerel could disrupt the flock and cause some "stress" and therefore affect the laying of the young pullets. The other thing could be that he brought a "bug" with him that your flock is reacting to.

Ditto what Bee said about examining them.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

The addition of a young, possibly "randy", cockerel could disrupt the flock and cause some "stress" and therefore affect the laying of the young pullets.  The other thing could be that he brought a "bug" with him that your flock is reacting to.

Ditto what Bee said about examining them.

Thank you for the info, NAF... I'm going to see what I can find tonight after they are on the roost. I sure hope this is nothing serious.