Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

Those are beautiful birds... But with all due respect, I am 100% positive what age my birds are. It'd be really hard for me not to. They come from a pretty large and respectable hatchery, and have their hatch date printed on the paperwork I got, I have had them since they were 36 hours old. They were hatched Monday three weeks ago today, and I got them on that Tuesday. They've been out in pairs or more since two weeks old. They have no interest in the grass. Bugs yes, grass no. They want nothing to do with green stuff!

Maybe if you top dress their ff with some good grass/weeds they will figure out that it is actually good stuff...?

 

[Triple Willow]

wow I bet that WOULD be nice to have a bunch of those every day. 

RoseMarie, I got another huge one today that I bet is a double yolker but I also got one about the size of a marble. I hope whoever layed that one gets with the program soon! lol I got seven eggs out of nine pullets today. The ladies are doing a great job.

 

[Demosthine]

Show off! I'm getting between one and three eggs a day, out of five layers. This heat sure kills their productivity. And that's when I need them the most, with the kids being home from school all day.

But on the flipside, I'll get high egg counts for about nine months, straight through winter. They positively thrived with the colder temperatures last year!

 

[Triple Willow]

Show off! I'm getting between one and three eggs a day, out of five layers. This heat sure kills their productivity. And that's when I need them the most, with the kids being home from school all day.

But on the flipside, I'll get high egg counts for about nine months, straight through winter. They positively thrived with the colder temperatures last year!

You have to give them a pep talk every day and be sure to say "thank you" like a good chicken hugger should! LOL I freaked them all out with a fresh bag of shavings tonight. The eggs may come pre-scrambled tomorrow. LOL

Do you ever freeze extra eggs to use later on? I have read about that, may have to try it someday. What breed do you have?

 

[RoseMarie1]

You have to give them a pep talk every day and be sure to say "thank you" like a good chicken hugger should! LOL I freaked them all out with a fresh bag of shavings tonight. The eggs may come pre-scrambled tomorrow. LOL

Do you ever freeze extra eggs to use later on? I have read about that, may have to try it someday. What breed do you have?

pre-scrambled......

You mean YOU got some babied chickens to?

Someone told me you could and even gave me directions when I used to have my ducks. I THINK I have the directions in my canning recipe book but not sure on that. But yep you can freeze em from what she said. You may can find directions on the internet i bet!
Freaked them out....yep I did to with cranking the lawn mower and them right under me almost. lol I had to get off the lawn mower for something and since they didn't get their normal food this a.m. they come a running when they saw me. I get back on the lawn mower and crank it and they all scattered. Thought they were going to run into each other. I didn't have the gas throttle turned up really high. Silly things

 

[foreverlearning]

You have to give them a pep talk every day and be sure to say "thank you" like a good chicken hugger should! LOL I freaked them all out with a fresh bag of shavings tonight. The eggs may come pre-scrambled tomorrow. LOL

Do you ever freeze extra eggs to use later on? I have read about that, may have to try it someday. What breed do you have?

I have only ever froze store bought eggs (when they went on sale before I had chickens or knew someone that did) but I have found that some crack. I have never froze out of the shell, but have read great results.

 

[foreverlearning]

pre-scrambled......

You mean YOU got some babied chickens to?

Someone told me you could and even gave me directions when I used to have my ducks. I THINK I have the directions in my canning recipe book but not sure on that. But yep you can freeze em from what she said. You may can find directions on the internet i bet!
Freaked them out....yep I did to with cranking the lawn mower and them right under me almost. lol I had to get off the lawn mower for something and since they didn't get their normal food this a.m. they come a running when they saw me. I get back on the lawn mower and crank it and they all scattered. Thought they were going to run into each other. I didn't have the gas throttle turned up really high. Silly things

Mine will nudge the wheels on my lawnmower with their heads. They know good food is coming when it starts up!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Gotta be hungry...if they are hungry they'll eat the socks right off yer feet. A hungry bird is a great foraging bird. It helps if they get out on pasture at a young age when their instincts are fresh...those that keep them penned and at the feeders too long and turn them out later report less natural foraging instincts. Maybe by then they have learned that food comes from a feeder and not from the grass and so they don't explore the option.

I've always gotten mine out on forage by week 2-3 and so they develop a taste for the food that you can chase and the fun you get watching them chase is worth it all...very comical to watch!

It sounds like yours are a little older because the really young ones never sit down on the grass...I never see them sit at all until bed time. When they got older and got some more weight on them~around 8 wks on, they would rest a short time in the hottest part of the day, but not for long..and then back to the pasture.

Here's what hungry birds look like when you let them out on pasture....(pardon the amateur vid..my very first ever)

oh now THAT was neat! LOVED seeing your place and wow all those trees! LOL I had to chuckle when they came flying out the gate. That was too cute! These are the ones you have now?
I let mine out to free range this morning early and didn't feed them until late this evening although they did get left over stuff out of the fridge but wasn't much. Anyway every time they saw me out there here they came a runnin'. They are sooo spoiled and when they see me they think oh there's the food lady.

Anyway I waited until later in the evening like 7 or around it to feed them and they were all ready to eat. They still didn't clean their plates though so that let me know I STILL need to do less food to not have left overs at night time to not draw critters. GOTTA work on it. I did do less but it still was too much.
Almost as soon as we let them out this morning we heard a hawk. Then a little while later watching and waiting, hubby had gotten out his crow call to hopefully scare off the hawk. Little while later I hear it again and it's TWO HAWKS! The crows or blue jays one was after it I couldn't really tell which because it was up so high but the chicks hit the bushes and I couldn't even see them. Hubby used his crow call again to. The chicks stayed hid for a little while but finally came out when the hawk was gone. The bushes I have in my flower beds are HUGE and the azaleas are as well so they have GOOD hiding places. Will have to see IF I can video mine free ranging and yep those looked a lot like mine they come out of that gate running. lol They LOVE to free range and I'm so thankful I can let them!!!

Thanx for sharing that with us. Yep mine have been spoiled to me feeding them so much but today they were hungry and looked for food pretty good I thought.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Mine will nudge the wheels on my lawnmower with their heads. They know good food is coming when it starts up!

lol you're kidding? Well I bet mine do that soon because I noticed they went where I had mowed and stayed there for a little while. I got the sweeper to sweep up the cut grass and I dumped it out close to their pen and when I left it they were scattering it out. I have a hole out there I am trying to fill in with grass clippings and they're working it.

 

[foreverlearning]

lol you're kidding? Well I bet mine do that soon because I noticed they went where I had mowed and stayed there for a little while. I got the sweeper to sweep up the cut grass and I dumped it out close to their pen and when I left it they were scattering it out. I have a hole out there I am trying to fill in with grass clippings and they're working it.

I'm sure they will. After I start it they go on the playground set and watch, as soon as I am done they come a running. I think they think of it as "that big food machine". I just leave the clippings where they are, the yard is too big and I like watching them scratch in them.