Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[Phage]

Oz, what are you going to be feeding the (small/large flocks) of chickens on?
Is the food source cheap?

Do you plan to free range at all? I suspect it would vastly reduce the amount of feed you need there being SOOO many bugs, and keep the bugs down. Also all that poop will make fabulous fertilizer to improve the soil.

With your monster plans there will be A LOT of poop.......

 

[ozexpat]

Oz, what are you going to be feeding the (small/large flocks) of chickens on?
Is the food source cheap?

I can buy chick booster/starter/grower/layer type mash feeds locally 50kg (110lbs) for just under $30.

http://www.philforemost.com/feeds/excel_poultry.htm#poultry1

All types are the same price. Currently I am using booster as I bought a 50KG bag.

I can reduce the cost a little by adding copra meal later on (the by-product of coconut oil production) but can only go to 20% max - its $15 a 50KG sack and 15% protein or rice bran which again I would not go above 20%

I want to look at fermented feeding. We have a fermented coconut sap alcohol called tubah produced next door (a potent brew but very yeasty) that quickly turns to vinegar - seems perfect for FF starter.

Ideally I want the general layer flock to get out and free range as much as possible.

 

[JerseyHen]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rtation-take-your-eggs-to-work-or-on-vacation

 

[JerseyHen]

read this

http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/11538/2005-17a.pdf

its mind boggling

Getting them into the US, say if you were considering sharing some of those native chickens back here, is nearly impossible as well. You need trucks sealed by the USDA and all kinds of other craziness to transport and hatch them.

I wonder what happens if you just airmail them? I mean most of the time they would be sitting in a cargo hold over an ocean. Similar amounts of jostle on the ground. Can you airmail eggs internationally.... going to look that up. (https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/479870/importation-of-hatching-eggs-usda)

 

[ozexpat]

Getting them into the US, say if you were considering sharing some of those native chickens back here, is nearly impossible as well. You need trucks sealed by the USDA and all kinds of other craziness to transport and hatch them.

I wonder what happens if you just airmail them? I mean most of the time they would be sitting in a cargo hold over an ocean. Similar amounts of jostle on the ground. Can you airmail eggs internationally.... going to look that up. (https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/479870/importation-of-hatching-eggs-usda)

its easiest to take eggs from a country that is "clean" to a country that is "dirty" USA is in the middle of the spectrum because of land borders.

Australia is one of the "cleanest" countries in the world when it comes to animal diseases. One of the biggest hurdles for the organizers of the organizers of the Sydney Olympics was working out how to get all the horses in for the equestrian events.

Still migrating birds dont need quarantine clearance.

 

[LFchixranch]

Oz in your Incubating trials have you ever heard of this?
Humpbacks1962 Wrote: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...experts-have-at-it-pretty-please-video-update
"Heck, who cares about what everyone else believes and swears by? I lived it! I incubated at temps hovering between 93-97 and had mostly girls!
I don't know why hatcheries don't do it. They need both sexes anyhow. But I decided to follow a practice from a site online stating that to get mostly females, temps should be lower than 99 deg."

 

[JerseyHen]

Oz in your Incubating trials have you ever heard of this?
Humpbacks1962 Wrote: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...experts-have-at-it-pretty-please-video-update
"Heck, who cares about what everyone else believes and swears by? I lived it! I incubated at temps hovering between 93-97 and had mostly girls!
I don't know why hatcheries don't do it. They need both sexes anyhow. But I decided to follow a practice from a site online stating that to get mostly females, temps should be lower than 99 deg."

Lower temps don't give you more pullets, it gives you less cockerels. The males tend to die off at the lower temps. It its an attempt at selective hatching. The lower temps can cause abnormal development in the females though, so it might not be worth it.

 

[Phage]

The sex of the egg/ future chick is determined by the hen before it is even fertilized (unlike with humans).
Lower temp will determine sex in some reptiles like sea turtles but not chickens.

 

[ozexpat]

Lower temps don't give you more pullets, it gives you less cockerels. The males tend to die off at the lower temps. It its an attempt at selective hatching. The lower temps can cause abnormal development in the females though, so it might not be worth it.

I like my chicks pipping on day 20. A delayed hatch would drive me bonkers. Besides cockerels are good eating and I dont have zoning issues.

 

[ozexpat]

I like my chicks pipping on day 20. A delayed hatch would drive me bonkers. Besides cockerels are good eating and I dont have zoning issues.

So 19.5 days ago I received 12 Buff Orpington eggs in the mail all the way from TN. I wanted to see how to deal with USPS eggs as a large number of my Easter Egg run will be coming from the mid west and the south.

12 arrived, at 10 days I had 2 clears and 1 blood ring. The air cells were all over the place. I incubated them for 4 days upright and then in a turner. I am really unsure how many are viable - they are so hard to tell with huge saddled air cells but threw all 9 into lock down and this afternoon I had 5 pipping and in a still air hatching bator. It looks like I have some more chicks to unload.

The local Cochins have a week to go.