Flock Block...was it a mistake?

[dragonlair]

My chickens have been getting goat milk in a variety of forms-fresh, yogurt, custard, cheese- for many years. I have no problems with them digesting it and the calcium makes for nice hard shells. I mix it with their crumbles for breakfast and they LOVE it. When the goats are dry, the hens look at me like I am abusing them...no milk!!!!!! Even though they eat a commercial layer crumble and crushed eggs shells and have oyster shells free choice, when they don't get their daily milk, the shells get thin.

I have about 30 chickens right now. I've had more in the past, up to 50.

How much the bowls/cans hold depends on what size I have laying around. I usually make several smaller ones and set them in a variety of places in the pens so they can all get at them,

 

[Marcymom3]

Thanks for the info.

Do you think there's much difference between cow's milk and goat's milk? I wonder if the pasteurizing and homoginizing (sp?) does something to the enzymes that would affect their stomachs?

I took what was left of the flock block out of the run on Saturday. The solid clump was about half of the original size and was in a large hog pan along with some oyster shell. When I picked it up there was still lots of loose stuff that I just left in the pan for them to pick at. Today I got six eggs!

Love my little flock!!

 

[Yonaton]

Quote:
That's all well and good, but it's *not* scientific, it's *not* right to throw this at people in almost scary terms as if it should be a law. You're not giving any cites whatsoever to backup all your trying to get across. People have been feeding chickens, according to your blog, the wrong way for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Yet here we are...we all can still get chickens, they didn't die out because they were fed corn only and had to scratch for anything else if they were still hungry, or, in many cases more than likely, lived on corn only and whatever was dumped in their runs/coops that went rotten or wouldn't keep after it was eaten one night by the humans. Granted, 100 years ago it wasn't frozen pizza, but I'd bet dough was a big feed for a *lot* of barnyard critters. Cheese on the pizza...how can that be wrong, calcium? Tomato sauce, a little salty, but still somewhat nutritional and then there's all the vegetables that are on it (for those who like that kind of pizza, Yuck!), and even if there's meats, so what? Meat is nutritional and hasn't hurt a chicken yet that *I've* ever raised in 25 years.

Sure, balanced is good, but it's not absolutely essential 100% of the time throughout a birds life. The KISS principle works very well when raising chickens, no need for dozens of weird (and often expensive) supplements. No matter what one does, age is going to play a huge factor in laying, and differently with every breed. Just because something worked with *yours*, doesn't mean you should scare anyone into thinking you only are correct and it's the way it should be done by everyone. After all...you say they were fighting off a respiratory disease...in 25 years, none of my birds have had a single problem (other than predators once in a great while) - no lice/mites, no respiratory, etc, nothing. I feed them *all* our table scraps (after I give the dogs their share first of course, heh heh), they get about a quart of cracked corn a day (I explained how I do this also in another thread I can't remember the name of <sigh> sorry about that), free range as soon as they're done attacking the regular feed feeder when they jump out of the coop every morning (that reminds me, I need to get another feeder and make a place for it a few feet from this one as this flock of White Giants is actually that...they're *huge*, nothing at all like what McMurray sent me 4 years ago. Those birds never got much bigger than maybe a Dominique, really disappointing!). The biggest thing they get now (fall and winter) free ranging is green grass and clover and some grass seeds from a few small patches that I didn't mow for the winter (I leave patches of tall johnson grass for the wild rabbits so I have another meat available to eat besides chicken). I know, for a fact, they'll start to lay at around 5 or 6 months of age, they'll give an egg a day or maybe every two days and they'll be good, solid large eggs (shame these 'giants' don't lay a jumbo egg!), nice yolk, good shells (I've never ever fed oyster shells, I can only remember 3 or 4 'soft' eggs and that was, IIRR, from young, first time layers), and they'll do it for about three years and then they'll begin to cut back pretty good...after all, egg production is hard on the system, it must be if one stops and thinks about it, which makes it a thing more suited for 'young' birds. So what one that's 7 doesn't lay an egg a day? If you're keeping it alive that long it's as a pet, not so much for the eggs.

Again, I won't apologize for the content and the gist I'm trying to say, but I do *not* mean to sound harsh or anything like that, so don't get mad, just take it as constructive criticism, which is what's it's meant to be.

Anyway, I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I just write what I think and I'm honest. It's getting harder and harder to find people who don't get 'offended' by honsty anymore, so all I can do is hope you take this well and understand I'm just speaking my opinion. The way I read your post, it can be frightening to newcomers to raising chickens and make them think if they don't do it your way they'll have ultra-fat chickens that can't walk anywhere, or sickly skinny chickens that eat and don't grow

 

[NewToFarming]

I only used a flock block once and will never make that mistake again! I came home with the flock block so happy thinking they will love this...wrong! My chickens screamed in horror as I set the alien being in the coop! Those chickens alerted the others outside to not come near it! LOL I left it there thinking they will overcome their fear of the flock block but they never touched it! I then put it outside for the wild birds and it was gone in no time.

 

[somadlyinlove]

I'd like to make my own. Anyone know how long to let it sit to harden? approximately?

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
I think the nutrition level depends on the brand of Flock Block used. I haven't tried it yet, but I had previously found this one on My Pet Chicken's website and it has double the protein as the Flock Block listed by chickenzoo and does not have corn as the main ingredient. Here's a small excerpt from their description and the ingredient list:

***********************************************************************************************
Ingredients promote digestive health with probiotics, important amino acids, vitamin E and additional Omega-3s. They are not a complete ration, so be sure to offer this in conjunction with your flock's regular feed! Place in a secure "no-tip" feed tray off the ground and away from moisture.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein (min): 17%
Fat (min): 6%
Fiber (max): 7%
Moisture (max): 12%

Ingredients: Proso millet, cracked corn, UltraKibble (corn gluten meal, corn, soybean meal, linseed meal, catfish meal, dicalcium phosphate, crustacean meal, yeast culture, dried vegetables, vitamin premix, salt (NaCl), choline, chloride, cinnamon and assorted spices, DE, Primalac, lysine, selenium), oats, gelatin, corn syrup, dried cranberries, black sunflower seeds, zeolite, vegetable pomace, vitamin supplement.

The FlockBlock is a cheap imitation of the ForageCake .

While I was flattered with the reach around it's an inferior product. It just disintegrates and adds more biological matter into the substrate.
It does provide behavioral enrichment and that's something we should never underestimate.

The notion that birds won't get all their nutrients if they're provided with a supplement, be that a flockblock or a foragecake isn't accurate.
They are not pez dispensers. Food is ingested and then digested. A hen's digestive tract is not an instant oven.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Raw milk still has the enzymes in it to help digest it, so they can tolerate that easily. Many, many people that are "lactose intolerant" can handle raw milk with no problems at all. But most of us don't have access to raw milk and so yogurt, cheese, and kefir are the only safe ways to give milk to them. I don't think it's really necessary most of the time but I have kefir whey or extra kefir around a lot so I just mix some oatmeal in it and give to the chickens rather than throw it out and they love it.

I seriously need to change my title. I learned last year about the treat train. Give a buncha treats, and they will cease to eat their food.