Maine

[Speed]

You all had some excellent tricks and tips, some i had tried already and some I am trying. Thanks for the help. They seem to be mingling with the existing flock more and more.

 

[RHB]

Do you all purchase feed, or mix your own?

 

[Widget]

Quote:
I purchase. I would say 95% of the time it is Poulin grain (Chick Starter and Layer Pellets for the chickens and ducks Turkey Starter for the new poults I have) The rest of the time is is either Purina (Layena or Flock Raiser) or as a last resort Blue Seal Layer Pellets. The Poulin I can get delivered. The other two I use if I have a coupon (Purina) or if I am about to run out (Blue Seal since it is on my way home from work).

 

[Coldweatherbirds]

Purchase. Whatever they have at True Value in Farmingdale. But I don't worry about it too much because they get so much supplement free ranging. My chickens are serious carnivores. They eat left over rodents that my cats kill. The catch their own frogs and rip them apart. They go nuts on my paved driveway after the rain (earth worms). Plus they get a lot of table scraps. Next winter I'll have to do something different. I think my hatch was poor in March because I did not supplement the hens as I collected the hatching eggs. We had a lot of deformed feet and chicks the died while hatching. I'll get a richer feed and add vitamins to their water next February and hatch in March again.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Purchase Blue Seal.

I'm in need of a "guard dog" - something to alert me to the presence of trespassers on my property - and geese have been suggested. Anyone have goslings or eggs for sale in the Disgusta area?

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

so far ive gotten all my feed from tractor supply in bangor but im still feeding starter feed to one batch and this week im switching them to the grower feed i got a deal last week when i went in to buy dog food i got 2 50pound bags of grower for 15 bucks the guy running the pallet jack messed up when i was in the store and ripped open 2 bags so i took them for under half price i dont mind getting them like that as long as i see what happened to them i know that it was fresh so no problem i had a roll of duct tape in my truck to seal them up till i got home just wished that they would do that every time im in the store lol

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

Quote:
ive got 6 dogs here and a pup that will let us know if a moth farts out in our yard but sometimes its a pain in the butt cause they bark at everything but they have chased of people at night that tryed to sneek into the yard and have chased off a few foxes and 2 coons so far this yearthe foxes and coons were night time things they started going off like they had to go to the bathroom so i just opened the door and the chase was on lol

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Quote:
ive got 6 dogs here and a pup that will let us know if a moth farts out in our yard but sometimes its a pain in the butt cause they bark at everything but they have chased of people at night that tryed to sneek into the yard and have chased off a few foxes and 2 coons so far this yearthe foxes and coons were night time things they started going off like they had to go to the bathroom so i just opened the door and the chase was on lol

Dogs aren't my thing - I have an entire property of poison ivy... dogs would get into that and then bring it into the house where I'd have a perpetual rash. Secondly, my schedule is just not conducive to having dogs - it wouldn't be fair to them. But a goose that spends all day outside? That works for me.

And thanks for the laugh this morning!

 

[RHB]

We are mixing our own feed, and just wondering what others are doing.

We used to have geese. The note in the meter readers book was not to worry about the large dogs, they are friendly, but those geese are nasty and will bite your ankles.

The problem I had with our geese is they would also start making noise when a bird flew overhead, or if the wind was blowing (thus the trees made sound), and they were messy, messy.

 

[joanie_maine]

Quote:
I buy Poulin and Purina feed. Also some Manna Pro for my show birds.

I tried geese once. They poop everywhere and don't seem to understand that some visitors are friendly