Icelandic Chickens

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Go for the artwork!!!
I just ordered more paints & cards & envelopes of watercolor paper, for painting my Christmas cards.

 

[eggscetera]

Sweet! congrats on your new flock. Do the roosters not fight? Will you need to separate them?

 

[Jake Levi]

Hi Totalcolor

got just a little more to do, the material is about 200 yards down the hill, need a thaw to get it up, so doing what I can with what is here, hope to have it done this week. Have six goats right now, selling one registered pair of Alpine does, will replace them with 2 more wethers, Alpine or Saanen which will give me five wethers for packing, a good string to pack a good camp, or an elk out. I have two Alpine/Saanen wethers, and a Boer/Alpine wether. Debating if I should sell a Boer/Kiko doe, or keep her for milk and to raise some more pack goats. Just a 1/3rd of the house is for the goats, 2/3rds is for Chickens. Lots of add on room for the Chickens.

 

[Jake Levi]

Winter is here, sixteen this morn, cozy inside, warm cat dozing on the lap, hot coffee, life is good.

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

Brr thats cold Jake! We are expected to be at 29 tomorrow morning.
Boy these Icces think "free range" means "lets ee just how big this neighborhood is!" Turned mine loose this morning and they decided to stroll and peck instead of scratch and peck!lol. I can see they will be great when we get moved to our country place but doesn't work to well here in the "hood"! To many dangers around for them to run into,i.e. neighbors!lol But they are so pretty out doing their thi ng. I am trying to get them to eat some pumpkin,so far they ignore it. Its supposed to be a good natural womer. But they just aren't interested in it yet.

Jake would love to see some pics of your goats all packed up,and hear about how you take them out.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
From prior experience here: pumpkins do not keep your flock worm free. But mine get pumpkins anyway because they love them and they are good for them.

 

[Jake Levi]

Pumpkin seeds are excellent chicken feed, ground they are a solid ingredient in European farmstead flocks. Next fall I am going to be looking for local grown oats, barley and other grains for mixing my own. Grain prices are soaring this year over last year. So I am going to be growing some of my own corn, to keep it going and a LOT of BOSS which I love as chicken aand goat feed.

Yup, cold here, knew it would be, I was wading in streams here some 35 years ago seining salmon in late Nov, to see how area dams had impacted the salmon, they had.

That said the local electric generation is the lowest rate in the nation.

My new shed will be good home for the Icelandics, roomy, and if temps drop below 8 I will have a heat lamp for them. Right now in the trailer they are doing fine. I hope that they are settled in by the weekend in the new quarters. Come spring I am building at least one new shed for chickens only, sections for 2 small flocks of others and a larger growout pen for the youngsters. With a good covered run. My interests are in the cold hardy and ranging heritage breeds. Icelandics have first place !

Re the pack goats, there is an excellent forum I am on, Packgoatforum.com Lot of info there and all kinds of excellent photos, calendar class. Loaded and not loaded. I spend not quite as much time there as here but next year will be posting pics of us on the hills and mtns in this area, there is a lifetime of hiking here within just 30 miles. Life is good !

Life is good, and better with Icdelandic Chickens and Pack Goats !

 

[The Sheriff]

Sounds like a plan Jake! All you need now is a pack-goat-lovin' woman! (with a camera!)

 

[kathyinmo]

Jake,
I read somewhere that you can't use too much BOSS, as it causes reproductive issues. Have you ever heard of that?

I know cpartist (Luanne) has a great email from a poultry nutrition specialist at a University, that she has shared before. Anyway, important thing I found was that we CAN give too much protein and cause as many problems as too little protein. This is one reason I won't mix my own feed. I figure the experts figured it all out and I just use the commercial feeds and add very little to that. Another concern of mine is the amounts of vitamins needed. I dunno, but I don't think I could figure out all that stuff.

 

[Jake Levi]

Hi Kathy

You are right on having too much protein, it all needs to be balanced out. Its really not hard to do, there is an excellent chapter in Poultry Science by Ensminger, available from amazon and I am sure other sources. Long ago when the world was younger we sat in class with our textbooks in front and squared rations for different age groups of chickens. Now there are even spread sheets on Excell for this.

The problem with the commercial sources like TSC, Purina etc is that their rations are all maximized for profitability, not quality. To me it is much better to do the homework , learn what works and get my own made. Just as a coincidence I have a thread on this on Feeds and Watering, 'Heritage Feeds for Heritage Breeds'.

Mary a Lady who had the same interests, and disinterests would be great, but I dont see it happening. I wont say never cause if I do it will be next week

Ya never know for sure for sure.

Life goes on and it is good, better with Icelandic Chickens and Pack Goats !