Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChocolateMouse]

Bee - it actually kind of sucks for me because some things just won't always go away that easy. For example, in my rabbits sometimes they get weepy eye. This happens when they step in some poop in their cage and then rub their eyes and the tear ducts get infected. You can have just a tiny bit of poop in the cage and this will happen. One of my kits had this happen and I tried treating with saline and chamomile tea flushing 2X's a day and compress 3X's a day. No dice. So I had to order meds online. Now that's not even an option for me, but this particular medication is one of the safest around, is super duper cheap and weepy eye can be contagious. That rabbit went on to be a breeder for someone. Frankly, I'm not ashamed to say that I ordered extra terramycin ointment for just in case when those regulations take effect. It'll last forever as it's suspended in petroleum jelly. I may order some more combipen as well because it's also rabbit safe and is one of the few things that can combat things like abcsesses in rabbits without chopping them open... Which btw it's already illegal to get a local anesthetic for rabbits as it is.
People complain about how mean wittle farmers chop on their animals for C-sections and dubbing and removing lumps without pain meds and locals and post-surgery antibiotics... But they don't realize that those farmers can't GET those products. Drives me nuts to be honest.

I'm not happy they're cracking down on meds because for those of us who try natural remedies first and use chemicals as our back up plan it makes it even harder for us to raise our animals the way we want. Especially modern breeds. We have to keep around that much more stock to account for culling due to illness and frankly I just haven't got the space. I need all my adult rabbits to make it through from year to year until they've run the course of their good breeding lifespan. Good rabbits can be hard to get around here.... I am the only reputable NZW breeder within a 40 minute drive of where I live! I drove out like an hour and a half for all of my rabbits. I'd hate to do that again.

And now that I've just said I have no space I should tell you guys that I am also getting a bunch of free chickens! XD To be fair my chicken pen isn't very full right now with only four birds and some 600-700 sqft of space, whereas every rabbit cage I own has a rabbit in it... Someone apparently inherited their neighbor's chickens when they passed away and is now giving them away because there's some 40+ chickens and they can't keep 'em all. Nine month old pullets just coming into lay and CX meat chickens right around butcher age. I will be grabbing some cardboard boxes, poking some holes in them and carting as many chickens as I can fit into my sister's pod car home with me for free!

So I, too, will be butchering a bunch of free meat birds in the freezing cold! 2 inches of snow so far today and two days ago it was about 10 degrees outside with a wind chill of like -5. I will also be building a new coop in this since my coop is really only built for 5-6 birds tops. I will be building an extremely heavy and hodge-podge coop out of whole pallets on cinder blocks. Wish me luck!

 

[Beekissed]

I know it's going to be hard for those folks who use meds as a first line of treatment and also on those who use them as the fall back plan, but there are those folks who never use them for any reason who raise livestock~even on small holdings~and are able to do so quite successfully. It just takes some diligence, planning and sticking to that plan, no matter how counter-intuitive it may seem.

Culling is an important tool and though it would seem that you are taking steps backward when you kill a certain number of animals that are not strong and it leaves you with a smaller gene pool, it takes a longer look into the future to understand the reasoning behind it. For instance...take honeybees. Those using all natural methods to raise their bees are always at a danger of losing many hives to varroa mites. At first, that's a given that it may and most probably will happen. First they strive to get hygienic strains of bees to combat that eventuality, but even some of those may not be able to resist a big infestation. Many will die...but some will live. Those that live are the most hygienic of all and they will breed and produce more of the same until one slowly has several hives of bees that are able to withstand the varroa mite without any aid~but first one has to remove the aid to find out who is resistant. Wild bees do it and domestic bees can do it also. There will be expected losses and those are acceptable losses when one plans for the future abundance that will result when the small, but much stronger and hardier gene pool starts to replenish those numbers.

It's not idealistic to plan for such a scenario and I know many farmers and apiarists who are~ and have been for some time~culling strenuously over the years to produce a superior animal that can withstand environmental stressors. All their methods are geared towards that plan and, yes, it takes work, aforethought and even an initial expense, but it pays off in the end.

I think the hardest hit will be those who have pets or have livestock as pets, particularly those who have horses and dogs they treat at home, etc.

It's definitely going to make raising livestock and food animals a little harder and folks are going to have to change the way they've been thinking and doing things for quite some time...but not all change is bad.

On a side note: I've had quick success in clearing up pink eye in rabbits by adding ACV to the water. Others with more persistent cases have used antibiotic ointment bought over the counter, applied in the eye, with good success...for themselves and their rabbits.

 

[Beekissed]

My roosters will be getting a stay of execution today and tomorrow....a kidney stone took precedence over their need to be feed.

Just didn't feel like killing and hurting all on the same day.

Good luck and quick processing to all you folks out there doing the deed today!

 

[BCMaraniac]

My roosters will be getting a stay of execution today and tomorrow....a kidney stone took precedence over their need to be feed.

Just didn't feel like killing and hurting all on the same day.

Good luck and quick processing to all you folks out there doing the deed today!

Oh, Bee.....you are too old to be birthing little rocks

. I have never had a kidney stone, but most women I have talked to say they would rather have a baby.....well, except for the next 18 years part.

Prayers coming your way.

 

[Beekissed]

Hi all... Just thought I'd drop by and say hello to all you nice folks out there. Hope December is treating you and your birds well ! My girls are back up to 5 eggs per day which is better than the 1-2 every other day... I haven't installed any supplemental lighting as yet and if they continue the way they have been, I may just leave the lighting alone for awhile.

We're preparing for a doozie of a storm up here in eastern Canada ... Beginning tonight it's calling for 6 - 10" of snow, changing over to ice pellets then to sleet/freezing rain with temps at 8 F going all the way up to 40 F by tomorrow afternoon... Should make for a real nice mess ! It has been bitterly cold here this past week or so, hovering right around 14 F everyday with cold winds and plenty of snow. We normally don't get this kind of weather until mid to late January and February ! I guess we'll take what the good Lord gives us and be thankful for our health, food on the table and plenty of wood on the fire to keep us warm ! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Amen!

Stay warm and safe, WBF!!! We're supposed to catch the tail end of what you are getting but by no means anything like what you are facing. I'm sure you folks are used to dealing with severe cold weather there but it's probably still a tough thing to go through...you northerners are a tough breed of cat!

 

[BCMaraniac]

Hi all... Just thought I'd drop by and say hello to all you nice folks out there. Hope December is treating you and your birds well ! My girls are back up to 5 eggs per day which is better than the 1-2 every other day... I haven't installed any supplemental lighting as yet and if they continue the way they have been, I may just leave the lighting alone for awhile.

We're preparing for a doozie of a storm up here in eastern Canada ... Beginning tonight it's calling for 6 - 10" of snow, changing over to ice pellets then to sleet/freezing rain with temps at 8 F going all the way up to 40 F by tomorrow afternoon... Should make for a real nice mess ! It has been bitterly cold here this past week or so, hovering right around 14 F everyday with cold winds and plenty of snow. We normally don't get this kind of weather until mid to late January and February ! I guess we'll take what the good Lord gives us and be thankful for our health, food on the table and plenty of wood on the fire to keep us warm ! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Be safe. I definitely don't envy you up there. We have had unseasonably cold AND warm temperature here in TN...the yoyo effect.....down as low as 9 degrees and as high as 71. I think it yanks the chickens around and really affects their laying.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, Bee.....you are too old to be birthing little rocks

. I have never had a kidney stone, but most women I have talked to say they would rather have a baby.....well, except for the next 18 years part.

Prayers coming your way.

Thank you, BC!

Stones are bad and I've even had the docs to go and fetch a few that were too big to pass while I was very pregnant and they still weren't as bad as child birth, so those reports are exaggerated.

Guess it depends on how bad one's labors actually were. I've not found any pain that compares to what mine were.

I'm a tough ol' bird, so no worries....but even I don't want to combine cold, freezing rains, killing nasty big roos AND a throbbing kidney. Makes no sense..this too shall pass. Get it? Pass! I kill myself!

Maybe that's where that expression originates.....

 

[BCMaraniac]

Thank you, BC!

Stones are bad and I've even had the docs to go and fetch a few that were too big to pass while I was very pregnant and they still weren't as bad as child birth, so those reports are exaggerated.

Guess it depends on how bad one's labors actually were. I've not found any pain that compares to what mine were.

I'm a tough ol' bird, so no worries....but even I don't want to combine cold, freezing rains, killing nasty big roos AND a throbbing kidney. Makes no sense..this too shall pass. Get it? Pass! I kill myself!

Maybe that's where that expression originates.....

I told a patient once that every man needed to pass a kidney stone at least once in their life to get a little taste of what childbirth is like, since that is closest they would every come!

I had four hour labors, so I am betting for me the kidney stone would be worse......

 

[Beekissed]

I told a patient once that every man needed to pass a kidney stone at least once in their life to get a little taste of what childbirth is like, since that is closest they would every come!

I had four hour labors, so I am betting for me the kidney stone would be worse......

I agree! But...by no means are they to imagine that the kidney stone could ever touch the enormity of the pain of labor. It's just a little cherry flavored taste of it ....and not to be confused with real, actual, excruciating pain.

I've had numerous kidney stones, three of which had to be removed due to being too large to pass, I've got stents in both ureters now...and there is no real comparison between those huge stones and the pain of my labor. Whenever men throw that comparison to me I just toss it back and say, "As if...".

I had huge babies, induced labor on all three and it was like someone is lying there peacefully, discussing the day and all the sudden an elephant steps on your abdomen and presses his full weight on you for a period of time and then, over and over until you think your eyes will bulge and pop out of your head with the pain and pressure. My largest baby was 10 lbs and his shoulders got stuck. The third one was also induced and then I still had to have an emergency C-section after going through that torture, they started cutting into my abdomen twice before the anesthesia took effect...pain...I know pain. We are on speaking terms, you could say.

Kidney stone? That's a day in my nightgown and an annoying, pulsating pain, blood in the pee, etc. but it ain't nuttin' like birthin' no babies, Miss Scahlet.

 

[Triple Willow]

Hi all... Just thought I'd drop by and say hello to all you nice folks out there. Hope December is treating you and your birds well ! My girls are back up to 5 eggs per day which is better than the 1-2 every other day... I haven't installed any supplemental lighting as yet and if they continue the way they have been, I may just leave the lighting alone for awhile.

We're preparing for a doozie of a storm up here in eastern Canada ... Beginning tonight it's calling for 6 - 10" of snow, changing over to ice pellets then to sleet/freezing rain with temps at 8 F going all the way up to 40 F by tomorrow afternoon... Should make for a real nice mess ! It has been bitterly cold here this past week or so, hovering right around 14 F everyday with cold winds and plenty of snow. We normally don't get this kind of weather until mid to late January and February ! I guess we'll take what the good Lord gives us and be thankful for our health, food on the table and plenty of wood on the fire to keep us warm ! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Hey there WBF. I'm glad your chickens are giving a few more eggs. Maybe one of these days they will really turn on and see who can lay 4-6 a week. lol Be careful in that crazy weather. That amount of snow topped by ice and those cold temps have got to be rough. Stay warm!