first time chicken owner

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BowdenCompound

BowdenCompound

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My family recently moved to a 30+acre farm. It has means of growing produce and has quite a few apple trees but there was no livestock.

I purchased 5, 12 month old Red Stars a couple days ago from CL and they live in a homemade coop and run I built out of scrap wood. They love their new environment and are much less crowded than before. 4/5 of them have a few missing feathers in places but they are otherwise healthy. I was able to collect three large light brown eggs their first morning here!

My dog, corgi/beagle mix, is very interested in them but would not be fast enough to catch one.

After a week or so I will try letting them roam in the yard while keeping an eye on them.
They really loved the table scraps I treated them to before bedtime.
 
Welcome to BYC!I hope you enjoy having chickens!I will be glad to help with any chicken questions you have!
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC! Red Stars (Red Sex Links) are laying machines. Just be careful about the type and amount of table scraps you give them. Greens, carrots, and other non-starchy vegetables can be given with no problems, but starchy foods are just "treats" and should constitute less than 10 % of a chicken's diet. Too many "treats" will cause chickens to be fat and unhealthy and their lay rate will drop off. It's the equivalent of us eating potato chips and candy. Good luck with your flock.
 
The like vegetables but they all really love to pick at pork or beef bones with a little meat still on. Is it better to feed scarps at night, so that they go to sleep full?
 
BowdenCompound said:
The like vegetables but they all really love to pick at pork or beef bones with a little meat still on. Is it better to feed scarps at night, so that they go to sleep full?
Click to expand...

I don't profess to be an expert on feeding chickens. I don't feed mine meat at all as I'm not willing to risk even the slightest tendancy of cannibalism among my hens (I know that there are plenty of owners who do feed meat to their chickens and have not had a problem with cannibalism). I'm just not willing to risk it, particularly as their are plenty of other "treats" I can feed them. As far as what to feed and when to feed them, there are some good articles on feeding chickens at the following links: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/feeding-chickens-at-different-ages.html, http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/06/5-healthy-treats-for-chickens-and-3.html, and http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-much-and-when-to-feed-chickens.html
 

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