Flip?

[jvls1942]

I never watched too close how old the chickens were.. we would order them in May to June and keep them until it started to get cool in the fall.. I guess about late Sept to mid October..

their food was never rationed.. It was constantly available from day one to the end..

we also kept a few pullets for eggs
they were fair egg layers.. we never hatched any of their eggs that I can recall.

..........jiminwisc........

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Yeah there isn't much your gonna do to slow their growth down. Any way you look at it... these are not regular chickens.

 

[bigredfeather]

Greyfields, you referenced adding Calcium. I've been saving the eggshells from our eggs. I'll take a large container of them, boil, dry in dehydrator, and chop them up in a blender. These could easily added to their feed as an additional calcium source couldn't they. It's probably too late for this batch, but in the future, do you see this as a possiblity to help. I would probalbly have to figure out how much is too much before doing anything.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I know a lot of people feed oyster shells free choice for calcium.... so I guess the birds know when enough is enough? Good question because I think Calcium is a mineral so it's not like Vitamen C where you can just urinate it out if you have too much.....

As far as the egg shells, that's a lot of work for a little bit of calcium. Most layer feed have the appropriate amount in the feed. If you see weak shells then I would maybe go through that process. But what's wrong with just using some organic oyster shells?

 

[bigredfeather]

I was thinking more about giving Cornish's the egg shells for additional Calcium. It is a bit of work. Sometimes we may use several dozen eggs at once. It's not really that bad if you have a bunch of them. I was planning on using them in my garden around my tomatoes is why I origially started saving them. Great source of water soluable organic Calcium. For the Cornishes was just a thought I had. It may be way of base.

 

[greyfields]

I happened to have a lot of bone meal handy, so that's what I used. Chickens cannot process calcium (or humans for that matter) without an equal amount of phosporus present. Bone meal is perfectly balanced.

 

[willheveland]

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Feed mills make products that raise your protein % up.(mostly used for dairy cattle)They usually are made of blood meal,bone meal, feather meal,and a few other things.The stuff I get is 83% protein.It is expensive but you don't use much.I buy my mills 16% grower/starter mash and mix it 9 to 1 with the 83% pro-peak.It gives me like a 23% protein mix with everything I believe you need to raise these cornish.I don't believe it's going to stop your flipping but a way to get everything you need with out the guess work.
Why not do something similar as part of your feeding program.It would make things easier on you. Will

 

[brandywine]

If it's coccidiossis, then not likely. People who push intensive rotation to prevent coccidiossis are most often living in climates where it doesn't linger in the soil. Oocysts can remain viable for decades in much of the US.

Keeping them off their droppings simply slows the spread of coccidiosis and other bacterial nasties.

Greyfields, what climates preserve coccidia and what climates kill it? Is it a moisture thing, a temperature thing?​

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
HOT summers
COLD winters

 

[jvls1942]

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before you go through all that work crushing and blending etc etc. take an uncrushed egg shell out to your chickens and just place it on the floor. stand back and watch.. if your chickens are anything like mine, they will have no trouble making it disappear..
we do not save the shells up. they get tossed daily with the table scraps.. and doing it daily you are not going to overdose them, if that is even possible..

......jiminwisc.........