Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

New FF Troops...!

Papa Roo was wanting in on feeding the babies...

They are all doing fine with the babies, other than getting stepped on now and then. Nobody tried to get me today, they even let me pick up the babies without a fuss. I wanted to clean and sanitize the feed pans, nope - gonna start off working on that immune system right off the bat. Wanted to be sure they knew where the water was - nope, mom surely knows they need water. I'm going to try to mind my own business as much as possible. I put 6 eggs under her - two (probably duds) disappeared and the other four hatched. She seems like a great mom so far. The two that didn't hatch might have been my fault. I was looking for guinea eggs for her to hatch but couldn't find any so I took all those eggs back out from the house and put under her. Don't know, those two might have been a little old...?

 

[RoseMarie1]

New FF Troops...!


Papa Roo was wanting in on feeding the babies...


They are all doing fine with the babies, other than getting stepped on now and then. Nobody tried to get me today, they even let me pick up the babies without a fuss. I wanted to clean and sanitize the feed pans, nope - gonna start off working on that immune system right off the bat. Wanted to be sure they knew where the water was - nope, mom surely knows they need water. I'm going to try to mind my own business as much as possible. I put 6 eggs under her - two (probably duds) disappeared and the other four hatched. She seems like a great mom so far. The two that didn't hatch might have been my fault. I was looking for guinea eggs for her to hatch but couldn't find any so I took all those eggs back out from the house and put under her. Don't know, those two might have been a little old...?

Too cute TW! You don't have DL n your pens? I thought you did.

 

[RoseMarie1]

OK I better get up off it and get to putting that welded wire up on the pen today. Dragging from these thyroids acting up but going to work at it as long as I can. The roo is out there crowing his little heart out. The birds are singing away and the sun just went down. Might be a cool day out there weather wise I hope. Got some of the windows open today. Did that yesterday to and it was nice out. OK got to go get started before I decide to go take a nap instead.

 

[Triple Willow]

Too cute TW!  You don't have DL n your pens? I thought you did. 

Well the ground keeps eating my deep litter AND for some reason (!) they scratch all the litter over to one side and leave the other side bare. I have to rake it back then within the next time or two that I come out is is the same way. I am going to move this coop they are in pretty soon so I was holding off on putting a whole lot more litter in there but I did add a bale of pine shavings yesterday. I'll be glad to get the new coop up before all the rain starts.

 

[Triple Willow]

I bought some American White Bresse this year, and am planning to breed them along with my Black Copper Marans.  I am seriously considering trying a cross between the two to see what I get there too......

I bet that would be a good cross. I hope to do some crosses next year to see what I get. I also want to cross my Australorps with Anconas and Leghorns and see what kind of layers come out. That is if I don't eat these bully Leghorn and Ancona roos first! They are awful!

 

[BCMaraniac]

New FF Troops...!


Papa Roo was wanting in on feeding the babies...


They are all doing fine with the babies, other than getting stepped on now and then. Nobody tried to get me today, they even let me pick up the babies without a fuss. I wanted to clean and sanitize the feed pans, nope - gonna start off working on that immune system right off the bat. Wanted to be sure they knew where the water was - nope, mom surely knows they need water. I'm going to try to mind my own business as much as possible. I put 6 eggs under her - two (probably duds) disappeared and the other four hatched. She seems like a great mom so far. The two that didn't hatch might have been my fault. I was looking for guinea eggs for her to hatch but couldn't find any so I took all those eggs back out from the house and put under her. Don't know, those two might have been a little old...?

You have a beautiful new family TW, and it is so hard not to mess with those fuzzy little chicks. There are SOME advantages to having an incubator brood....LOL.

Don't they recommend that the eggs be a week old or less when you put them in the incubator? I don't know what the recommendations are about broody hatched eggs.

 

[Triple Willow]

Y'all were talking about your dogs being egg thieves. We have a lonely little female Khaki Campbell duck. She is the only survivor of our big dog's puppy years. Since we have no drake, her eggs are obviously not fertile. If I can find them, I use them for baking - but otherwise the big dog usually gets to them first. I was so excited one day when I found this little hidden nest. It was so pretty.

She had found an excellent hiding spot, and you can see that she had put some really hard work into it. I think there were like 15 or more eggs in it total. I wasn't going to take any since this was smack in the middle of summer and I wasn't sure if they were still good or not. But, you guessed it, our big dog followed right behind me and ate EVERY single one of those eggs in one sitting. I actually felt so bad for our little duck. The breed is known for not being great mothers, but you could tell she was sad when all her eggs went missing.

She abandoned this nest after that, and I have deliberately not tried to find her new spot.

Pretty picture! Miss Khaki needs a husband!

 

[Beekissed]

Well the ground keeps eating my deep litter AND for some reason (!) they scratch all the litter over to one side and leave the other side bare. I have to rake it back then within the next time or two that I come out is is the same way. I am going to move this coop they are in pretty soon so I was holding off on putting a whole lot more litter in there but I did add a bale of pine shavings yesterday. I'll be glad to get the new coop up before all the rain starts.

Leave it when they scratch it up like that...I'll tell you why. I used to do the same thing...find it piled and rake it all back to look even. Then I discovered that the bugs like to live in the deepest, most moist parts of the bedding, so they finally dig through that litter, moving it all in the opposite direction in their search for critters. If you leave it in the place they raked it, the bugs will gravitate to THAT deep part and pretty soon the chickens will shovel it out and back to the original position. All that time I was working on it, if I had just waited they would have done it for me...over and over and over. They are "managing" their own deep litter and I'm now very content to let them do so! They are building up a pile to attract bugs, then eat the bugs and build up another pile...it's like a bug trap. Smart birds.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote:

I just watched a Cesar Milan episode about a dog like that and he took him to the "dog psychology center" and exposed him to all sorts of things in a calm and assertive manner

and the dog got much better but they still had trouble with him at feeding time. The woman had to stand next to him and keep telling him to eat. I wouldn't have done that...I'd have waited until his natural hunger kicked in and then he would eat. You never see a dog in the wild that is "too nervous" to eat.

I'd not cater to those nerves and such and pretty much expose him often to all the things that keep him nervous until he just has to accept them. If he used to be calm, he can again, he just may need less babying over it. A body can only react to so much fear before it shuts down and goes into a shock like state and then calm kicks in because it simply has to. If outside makes him nervous..no option..he has to be outside all the time until he learns to cope with the fear. Same with eating...there is a level of hunger that will drive an animal to eat even if someone is sawing their back leg off. Time to get primal on your little Bear and let him tough it out, learn to cope and be a dog outside in the yard.

Oh I don't baby him. If I am off and he goes out in the am he stays out for the day. Doesn't like it and stays on the porch but he copes. He is from the SPCA and I think he was negleted/abused before I got him at 10 months. He was so bad when i got him with anxiety. This change has no known reason. My son said he went after the alpha cat in the house a couple days ago when he got up in bed with my son & Bear. He has never done that. Max is alpha over all critters in the house. He bites if someone crosses him including the dogs. Always has. Bear didn't hurt him thankfully but its out of character for him. As for food Lily will push him out of the way when she finishes her food and he lets her. But at bedtime he happily eats double his serving of food. So that's when I feed him now. He also doesn't tolerate strange dogs anymore as well. Esp small yappy dogs. The dogs he knows he is fine with. I am thinking something going on inside that has caused the changes but he still looks good so time will tell.

I am cautious now when I take him out. He has nipped 2 people who have come in the yard. Both men. once when I wasn't home but my father was walking in with my uncle. And a friend who came in the yard when dogs were out and I was inside. No skin broken and out of character for Bear. But I do have to say he is very protective of me and my son so I have no fear of intruders

 

[Triple Willow]

You have a beautiful new family TW, and it is so hard not to mess with those fuzzy little chicks.  There are SOME advantages to having an incubator brood....LOL.

Don't they recommend that the eggs be a week old or less when you put them in the incubator?  I don't know what the recommendations are about broody hatched eggs.

Thank you. Yep it is hard to leave them alone, they are so cute. But I try not to mess with them much because I don't want to ruin the little roos and cause them to have to go to the freezer.

I was thinking it was a week or maybe two for an incubator, can't remember. One of my pullets lays pretty much every day and lays a darker egg than the rest so I put her eggs under the broody hoping for more of the same. I have one pullet that is accidently/possibly part Cookoo Maran. She is gray barred and I imagine it is her that lays the darker eggs. It will be interesting to see how the chicks turn out. I do expect them to be good layers. Now the male/female ratio...?