Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[RiddleMe]

After thought: PVC is not UV stabilized. It needs to be protected from sunlight. It can be painted, or especially good is to use the foam pipe wrap which will help keep the water temp stabilized. I considered using a foil wrap, but then read that rodents and some birds are attracted to the shine... Anyone have experience with that?

I don't have experience with foil wrap but I do have experience with chickens... as far as the foam pipe wrap is concerned, they will tear it up.  So, having water pipes exposed but still protected is something to think about.  Perhaps you would have to build a "box" of sorts around the pipe to protect its insulation?

It's very easy to paint, just use a water based exterior latex. Or buy UVR PVC, if you can find it. But really, the UV damage done to PVC is limited to the outer most layer, it will discolor/darken, and become less impact resistant, but it doesn't affect it's pressure capacity. I have unprotected PVC going on year 7+ in my yard/garden irrigation, still works great. Some is still white, some off white now, one pipe is discolored almost purple/black. Just watched DS drive over the darkest pipe in his little 4 wheeler the other day, no damage to the pipe.

 

[Kikiriki]

After thought: PVC is not UV stabilized. It needs to be protected from sunlight. It can be painted, or especially good is to use the foam pipe wrap which will help keep the water temp stabilized. I considered using a foil wrap, but then read that rodents and some birds are attracted to the shine... Anyone have experience with that?

I don't have experience with foil wrap but I do have experience with chickens... as far as the foam pipe wrap is concerned, they will tear it up.  So, having water pipes exposed but still protected is something to think about.  Perhaps you would have to build a "box" of sorts around the pipe to protect its insulation?

I don't use a pipe system for the chickens, so I don't have that problem. I guess if the pipe is painted, it would protect it from UV, or at least if the system is in the shade it would be better...

I use the water jug with nipples inside their roofed run, and a cup held in a cement block in their outdoor area so they can clean their beaks if they want. The cement block is because one chicken loves to dump water onto the ground. She would stand or walk on the rim of any container I used until it tipped over.

 

[Kikiriki]

Well, I applied the vinegar treated chicken poo to several garden areas, as well as the to the purslane. No plants died...yippee! The corn seemed especially happy to get a feeding. I did water it in quite well. I think it may have had a little too much vinegar: I tested to see how an earthworm would react (from my worm bin) and it flipped itself off the handful of chicken poo and hauled butt to the other side of the container.

I will try this worm test again when I have enough chicken poo, using less vinegar, but I do not hold much hope of chicken poo ever being a worm food...

I will wait to feed the purslane to the chickens until it gets some new growth: I don't know if the added ammonium can retroactively reduce oxylic acid, or if it has to be present from the start for a reduction.

What is a prolific weed that you and your chickens can share? Purslane! I spent my day doing research on breaks from the garden. Here is what I found:

Purslane is very nutritious and adds omega 3 fatty acids to eggs: you and the chickens can eat leaves, stems, and flowers.

Chickens fed purslane did lose weight, but had improved egg production, and ate less food.

Purslane has high oxylates: the anti-nutrient that also has some anti cancer properties. It is 1/100th of the composition, which is pretty high: if you are prone to kidney stones, it is recommended that you avoid foods high in oxylates which includes many leafy greens: cabbage, broccoli, spinach, moringa, and more.

Chicken egg shells did lose calcium with oxylic acid added to hens diet. If you start feeding purslane, you may want to increase their calcium supplement.

Conversley, others report that the raw vegetable form oxylic acid typically binds just with the calcium in the plant once it is eaten, and that it does so more in the gut than in the bloodstream where it will cause kidney stones, or other problems like joint inflammation. They said it was more likely to be problematic after the chemical composition was altered by cooking.

Purslane is also found (along with mulberry leaf and an asian variety of wormwood 'artemisia capillaris' which had the best effect) to suppress the growth of virus including newcastle and avian flu in embryos of hens fed dried matter.

Purslane affects lactic acid in the body and a study with rats fed purslane in a liquid form found that the more purslane they ate, they less they suffered exercise induced fatigue and the longer they could perform.

Oxylates in purslane and spinach were reduced by increasing ammonium to ammonia ratio in hydroponic systems.

Very basic: Nitrate is NO3, NH2 is nitrite, NH3 is ammonia, NH4 is ammonium. Please look this up if you are into the chemistry as I left out a lot!

You can create ammonium from chicken poop by mixing in a solution of water and vinegar (or other acids). The nitrates mixed with water form ammonia. The vinegar being an acid lends a hydrogen atom and forms ammonium. You can do an experiment: mix some poo with just water and you will smell ammonia. Mix some with water and add a little splash of vingear at a time, stirring: in this you will soon not smell the vinegar, and you will possibly only faintly detect any ammonia. If you smell any ammonia, add a dash more vinegar. If you smell vinegar, add a bit more chicken poop.

Composting chicken poop results in very poor usuable nitrogen because it is lost as ammonia gas, or is in a pile that is not acidic enough to create ammonium. Fresh poop creates more ammonium than dry poop because the N is lost rapidly.

An experiment with wood vinegar and chicken manure found the 1part vinegar to 300 parts water mixed with chicken manure and tilled into soil significantly increased the yeild of rice without increasing foliage. Nitrogen typically increases foliage while decreasing yield.

I gathered lots of Purslane from around the yard, so I will do an experiment. I will have four areas: sandy unenriched soil, enriched soil (a bagged organic from compost), and both of these with identical feeding from my vinegar chicken poo and water mixture. They all get full sun. I will not be able to test for oxylates, but I will report on growth, flowering, and flavor. I will also test whether the chickens show a preference for any of the test plants.

I am going to wait a day for the plants to settle in from transplanting: i have sandy soil and they pulled out very easily with minimal root breakage. They will reroot from broken stems. They seed prolificly and seeds can remain viable for 40 years!

 

[zsnorris]

It's very easy to paint, just use a water based exterior latex. Or buy UVR PVC, if you can find it. But really, the UV damage done to PVC is limited to the outer most layer, it will discolor/darken, and become less impact resistant, but it doesn't affect it's pressure capacity. I have unprotected PVC going on year 7+ in my yard/garden irrigation, still works great. Some is still white, some off white now, one pipe is discolored almost purple/black. Just watched DS drive over the darkest pipe in his little 4 wheeler the other day, no damage to the pipe.

When's a good time to switch from a typical waterer to a pipe watering system? We've got the pipe system built and pretty much ready to go, we were just worried our little ones wouldn't be able to reach the nipples. Should we just wait until they all get to about the same size/reach?

 

[ocap]

I used both for at least a month from about one week old chicks, I used bricks for the shorter chicks to climb up to reach the nipple

 

[zsnorris]

I used both for at least a month from about one week old chicks, I used bricks for the shorter chicks to climb up to reach the nipple

Thanks! I've read to place it around 12" - 16" off the ground, that sound about right? (the PVC one that is)

 

[Kikiriki]

...

I used both for at least a month from about one week old chicks, I used bricks for the shorter chicks to climb up to reach the nipple

Thanks! I've read to place it around 12" - 16" off the ground, that sound about right? (the PVC one that is)
[/

You can put it together without glue to check the height. If you tap the nipples the chickens will come to investigate and you can see if it is good or not before gluing.

Also, if you frequently have mixed aged birds, you could just add a lower extension with a few nipples.

 

[danib]

Nope, Arielle. He used the purple stuff. But now the chicken nipples leak.

 

[danib]

Just saw kikiriki's post. We used the purple stuff. We had a strong chemical smell for days. That's been gone. But when we went to use it, 2 out of the 3 chicken nipples we put in are leaking. One's leaks ALOT. So, they haven't been able to use it yet. Can't until I get it to stop leaking. I put teflon (plumber's) tape on to try to stop the leak, but that didn't work.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well, I applied the vinegar treated chicken poo to several garden areas, as well as the to the purslane. No plants died...yippee! The corn seemed especially happy to get a feeding. I did water it in quite well. I think it may have had a little too much vinegar: I tested to see how an earthworm would react (from my worm bin) and it flipped itself off the handful of chicken poo and hauled butt to the other side of the container.

I will try this worm test again when I have enough chicken poo, using less vinegar, but I do not hold much hope of chicken poo ever being a worm food...

I will wait to feed the purslane to the chickens until it gets some new growth: I don't know if the added ammonium can retroactively reduce oxylic acid, or if it has to be present from the start for a reduction.

Vinegar treated chicken poo? That's interesting. What and why and wherefore? Just curious and would like to know.