Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

I love Christmas lights! lol The little solar panels on my outdoor Christmas lights are finally out of the ice enough to charge and they are working. lol I'm thinking seriously about putting some on the chicken's run permanently. Is that redneck??? I don't care if it is! LOL

Interesting page... (Top 10 Poisonous Foods We Love To Eat) LOL
http://listverse.com/2009/01/06/top-10-poisonous-foods-we-love-to-eat/

 

[BCMaraniac]

Just my -2 cents......I used to get soup bones boil them than freeze them. I would give them to my dogs once in awhile. Last spring I gave one to my blue heeler and she got sick. I originally thought she broke off a piece and had a blockage. Lots of $$ later it turned out just a really bad upset tummy. The vet asked if they were cooked or not but never explained further. I am guessing cooked bones splinter easier? I haven't tried giving them to either dog again. Think when I unbury them in the freezer the hens can have fun picking all the marrow out.

I should add lily has had problems with food since she was a puppy. I had them on one food for years now but she was having stomach problems again so they are on a natural food with no grains and no corn.

Now the chickens they love a good bone picking

Is that anything like a pig pickin' we have down south??

 

[ChocolateMouse]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But for some reason I think they stay warmer on the roost, maybe. In this rooster pen of mine they have about 8 in. of dry leaves on the floor of the pen and plastic under those, so no moisture from the ground coming through those leaves. I also put up a long, thick roost about a foot from the ground on which they could roost if they so wished. Most seem to stay more comfortable on that roost than in the leaves. The guys that are delegated to the floor due to lack of space on the roost all look really huddled and hunkered down when they sleep while the guys on the roost look much more natural in their posturing...maybe that shoulder to shoulder positioning has something to it when it comes to heat transfer. I'm not sure...but even when the roost hardly clears the surface of the bedding, they seem to prefer a roosting spot. Before I put the roosting board in they were trying to roost on the very thin metal lip of the feed trough!

Just stuff I've been noticing and it makes me scratch my head.....I'd be on the floor in a pile in those nice warm leaves if I were a chicken!

Bee, I think it has to do with their feet. Their feet are so thin and scaley and exposed. I think having them on the roost helps keep them off the cold ground and under their thick feathers nice and toasty warm! I found that when I was raising the CX's on the cold ground, I would put in a garden stake just ON the ground and they'd sleep on that. They were SO much happier to be there than on the ground of any sort.

As for the weepy eye, ACV does not do much for my bunnies that I have seen. They were on ACV in their water when they had weepy eye and they have had no more troubles than usual now that I don't put it in very often anymore. I just give it to them occasionally as an immune boost if they're looking a little shabby or had kits or something.

 

[LindaB220]

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.

Oh wow, Bee, I feel for you. I'm old enough (66) to have had the "twilight sleep" when I was 3 centimeters along. I woke up all three times 10-11 hrs later in recovery. My 3 girls still hate me.

All of their deliveries were tough. DD has kidney stones really bad. Her dr suggested drinking 2 beers a week and though she hates it she does and never had another flare. Weird huh?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Just my -2 cents......I used to get soup bones boil them than freeze them. I would give them to my dogs once in awhile. Last spring I gave one to my blue heeler and she got sick. I originally thought she broke off a piece and had a blockage. Lots of $$ later it turned out just a really bad upset tummy. The vet asked if they were cooked or not but never explained further. I am guessing cooked bones splinter easier? I haven't tried giving them to either dog again. Think when I unbury them in the freezer the hens can have fun picking all the marrow out.

I should add lily has had problems with food since she was a puppy. I had them on one food for years now but she was having stomach problems again so they are on a natural food with no grains and no corn.

Now the chickens they love a good bone picking

Cooked bones do splinter easier than raw, specifically chicken bones. I've never had a problem with bones either. I buy them too big to swallow and feed them raw. They're kept in the freezer and when I'm feeling particularly generous I'll give one to the dog after running it under a little water to take the frost off. I should mention that I used to feed my dog a 100% natural diet and he got bones every day. He ate bones every day too. Then I got too busy with other things and he was put on dry food (poor doggy) and he only got bones once in a while. That's when he started hoarding them. He would chew a little and then go bury it. Dig it up 5 minutes later, chew some more and then bury it again. This would go on and on and I realized he was trying to save it because he really loved bones and didn't get them every day anymore but wanted them so badly he'd dig them back up!

I love Christmas lights! lol The little solar panels on my outdoor Christmas lights are finally out of the ice enough to charge and they are working. lol I'm thinking seriously about putting some on the chicken's run permanently. Is that redneck??? I don't care if it is! LOL

Interesting page... (Top 10 Poisonous Foods We Love To Eat) LOL
http://listverse.com/2009/01/06/top-10-poisonous-foods-we-love-to-eat/

You mean to tell me that if a solar panel gets iced, it doesn't work?

 

[Triple Willow]

You mean to tell me that if a solar panel gets iced, it doesn't work?

Nope, not when they are completely buried. I finally dug out around them with a hatchet and a day or two later they melted enough to work. They are little 3X3 (approx) panels and I had them setting up on the porch.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

It also depends on how your dog grows up. My dogs are both 40-60lb sled dogs and have gotten bones since they were bitty itty puppies. Typically I give my dogs chunk beef marrow bones that I boil for just long enough to kill any surface bacteria. But I have certainly fed other bones to my dogs, both cooked and uncooked. My dogs eat whole rabbit skulls, skull and all raw, and they will get the leg bones from chickens too, cooked. The only problem they have ever had is when they eat too many bones and the next day their poo looks yellow and is hard as a rock from all the sudden bone they get. :/ Can't be pleasant to pass so I try to avoid that.

If I want one of the beef bones to last forever I boil them through BTW. My dogs can't even put a dent in a fully boiled beef bone; it's too hard. The softer ones my big girl will just eat. She will break of chunks and chew them and eat them. It drives my sister nuts cause all her dogs are prissy and not very dog-like because of how she raised them and they never got bones as pups so try to swallow things like that whole and choke on 'em. My dogs have had bones since about 10 weeks old so they know not to. I have more bones in my house as toys than I can count.

 

[Beekissed]

Could be. Most outside dogs around these parts scavenge whatever bones that come their way, from deer bones to turkey and chicken carcass bones~cooked or raw~from the time they are pups. My dogs get whatever bones that are processed through here and those that they catch~possum and coon are let rot until easily eaten. They don't gnaw on bones, they consume them entirely. Jake once consumed the entire head of a 6 mo. heifer in two days....bones, teeth, hair and all. He loves the heads of animals the most and will let his deer heads get really rotten and gamey before consuming them but will lap out the brain matter before it gets entirely liquid.

When we get a deer, the carcass is just given to the dog and he will work constantly until he gets it whittled away to just the lumbar spine and then will often bury that for later on in the year. The legs and hooves are consumed like candy. It often looks like the African veld here in the fall with carcasses being chawed upon and defended from the scavenger birds(the chickens) and it keeps the dog engaged and active, arousing many of those base instincts. He's up all night defending his "kill" from the wildlife and sleeping next to it in the day to keep the chickens from stealing his best bits. He will even rob the coyote's caches when we are out walking and bring home what he's found...in the spring he's scored a few fawn parts in that manner. I think he takes a particular delight in stealing another pred's kill.

It's a wonderful life for a dog!

 

[Triple Willow]

Last year my dog found a whole deer skeleton and drug it home. He didn't eat all the bones so I had to gather them all up before I mowed in the spring. :/ I remember one time watching out the window and laughing at him. He had a huge fresh ham bone in his mouth walking around the yard trying to decide where to hide it. You could tell on his face that he was thinking so hard! LOL Yep, on fresh kills they eat the head first. I don't know what that's all about.

 

[waltandlori]

I know what you mean about the cold. My hands just throb when they get cold. This may sound silly, but when I go outside to feed on these cold mornings, I put a pair of tight fitting rubber gloves on under my work gloves. I figure since my hands sweat inside the glove in warmer weather that they would help hold in some heat in the winter. It really seems to help.

Hi everyone; long time no post. Been busy, been lazy, computer been on vacation... My chickens ain't laying, pretty much down to zero. I got one last night and there was a 3 day stretch... nuttin! wife tried to tell me some breeds quit for good earlier than others, but hens that just started laying around this time last year, shouldn't be done already. what do y'all think? I can't remember if I've posted since, but I swapped the goats for an old lawmower (so I don't have to push 11/2 to 2 acres next year) and the meatys new home. I done in my meatys and they are in their new home. I made some chicken n dumplings which my wife loves and she said she hasn't tasted dumplings like mine for 40 or so years, when a neighbor made them for her as a kid. ( that's good right?) I also made home made chicken noodle soup for the first time, right from the stock down to the noodles../ I'm becoming quite the "Julia" eh? Bee I do not envy you processing in this weather, my hands don't tolerate the cold 'specially wet-cold, the turn white in minutes, then hurt like crazy when they turn back pink. Putting them under armpits don't help, even fire doesn't help right away, bad circulation and beating them up all my life i guess. Even on a cool damp summer day it will happen now. I found about half a pail of FF that I forgot about that must be about month month and a half old, will it still be good, it's been in the garage that is cool but not freezing. [end of rambling]

Walt