Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[bruceha2000]

Cook? Why not just throw them to the chickens and let them eat them raw, at their most nutritious? I do that or just hand them to the dogs....good nutrition and not to be wasted.

Because some people are squeamish about the concept of their chickens eating a raw egg or becoming "egg eaters" if they get a taste for raw eggs. I don't know how often that happens. Echo is still laying shell-less eggs

(though she is her usual happy self) and the other girls dive right in but they have never broken an egg and eaten it.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Quote: Our dogs are verging on overweight since we've moved to our farm and get top nutrition anyway, but I guess they could take the place of a meal. And, I thought it was imperative to avoid encouragement of chickens eating eggs lest we wind up with egg-eating chickens? Thus the injunction to cook the eggs to avoid such?

 

[bruceha2000]

Our dogs are verging on overweight since we've moved to our farm and get top nutrition anyway, but I guess they could take the place of a meal. And, I thought it was imperative to avoid encouragement of chickens eating eggs lest we wind up with egg-eating chickens? Thus the injunction to cook the eggs to avoid such?

Your dogs need some woodchucks to chase, you can have mine

 

[ShrekDawg]

I am working on making my own feeder with less spill and not have to fill daily. The sealant has to dry and then I can test it out. My chicks are 7 1/2 weeks and I'm almost out of the big bag of chick feed. Can they be switched to regular feed now?

You can switch to grower or flock raiser, but they are still much too young for layer.

Ditto Dat^^^  
Starter/grower/all flock is my regular feed.

I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

I agree they're still much too young. Most bags say 16 weeks but I was told even that was too young and should be 18 weeks at least or until you see the first egg. Mine were on it until really recently. But then I found an 18% layer at my local agway (nutrena naturewise hearty hen) that I'm trying

 

[Nariah01]

Wow I don't post for a day or two and there are like 10 pages to catch up on. Well I have my heating pad turned down to the lowest setting now, coldest its getting here right now is 50s in the house. The will hopefully go out to the coop here in a week or so, at which point the oldest will be 5 weeks and the youngest 4 weeks. The don't even sleep near the pad right now, they make a little huddle group together wherever they drop, I see one on top occasionally, but nothing more. My question is if I want to put them outside without heat, do I want to get them used to their new huddle box inside the house before the move, or just give it to them when they finally go outside? They also had their first trip outside the other day since it was nice and sunny, they got their first live bugs! They were so happy it was great to get them out there. Was hoping to do it again today(I think they were hoping for it again too), but its overcast and kind of windy.

Also when I move them outside I had heard its best to leave them in the coop for like a week before letting them out so they know its home. Should I do this with my chicks too? I was planning on it since I don't know that the run will be finished by the time they go outside to the coop.

 

[aart]

Wow I don't post for a day or two and there are like 10 pages to catch up on. Well I have my heating pad turned down to the lowest setting now, coldest its getting here right now is 50s in the house. The will hopefully go out to the coop here in a week or so, at which point the oldest will be 5 weeks and the youngest 4 weeks. The don't even sleep near the pad right now, they make a little huddle group together wherever they drop, I see one on top occasionally, but nothing more. My question is if I want to put them outside without heat, do I want to get them used to their new huddle box inside the house before the move, or just give it to them when they finally go outside? They also had their first trip outside the other day since it was nice and sunny, they got their first live bugs! They were so happy it was great to get them out there. Was hoping to do it again today(I think they were hoping for it again too), but its overcast and kind of windy.

Also when I move them outside I had heard its best to leave them in the coop for like a week before letting them out so they know its home. Should I do this with my chicks too? I was planning on it since I don't know that the run will be finished by the time they go outside to the coop.

I usually give them the huddle box as soon as I take the MHP out...then it's a familiar, comforting thing when they go out to the coop.

 

[bruceha2000]

Since they will be fully feathered before you get them to the coop, I would pull the MHP a few days before and give them the huddle box inside if you plan to use that. My first chicks went out to the coop in the barn with nothing when they were about 4 weeks. Didn't know anything about huddle boxes but then it was also the first week of July so not exactly cold and they were up on the roosts on their own in a day or two.

If you don't have the run up before they go out I would make a temporary run with T posts and wire fencing (even the dreaded chicken wire since this is a temporary situation) so they can get outside. They will know the coop is home if you start them there and let them explore their way from the inside out. After all, until they see the coop from the OUTSIDE, having started INSIDE, how would they know that the big box is the outside of the space they have been locked in for the past week? Hopefully the coop has windows so they can see out when you aren't there to monitor their outside time. I can't imagine chickens being locked in a windowless coop.

 

[lazy gardener]

Your dogs need some woodchucks to chase, you can have mine

No, Bruce. You have it all wrong. You keep your ground hogs. Get your own dog!

 

[dyorto]

@dyorto I'm trying to envision how you won't end up with a lot of aging inaccessible feed in the middle, corners and along the "back" side.

Hmmmmm... this is an interesting point.

 

[Beekissed]

Our dogs are verging on overweight since we've moved to our farm and get top nutrition anyway, but I guess they could take the place of a meal. And, I thought it was imperative to avoid encouragement of chickens eating eggs lest we wind up with egg-eating chickens? Thus the injunction to cook the eggs to avoid such?

Nope....just a myth. Chickens have been eating their own eggs since the beginning of time and out of necessity~to keep their nests clean. When an egg gets broken or cracked enough to leak into the nest it can cause bacteria growth there and even attract predators, so eating their own eggs is not only instinctive for an omnivorous creature, but also serves to protect them and their nest.

This will not cause them to cannibalize all their eggs nor produce dedicated egg eaters...or their specie would have died out long, long ago. I've been feeding raw eggs and their own egg shells back to them for 40 yrs and never had a dedicated egg eater in any of my flocks....and that's hundreds of birds over that length of time.

It's just a misguided notion to imagine that eggs and egg shells need to be cooked and altered in order to serve them back to the flock.