Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[christine9]

So, stupid question. I've been reading about fermenting, everyone says to use two containers, one with holes and one without. But no one ever drains the stuff, they just scoop it out. Why do you need two containers? Am I just missing something? I feed the wet stuff today and it was a huge hit. I just let it soak 24 hours. Pretty exciting to think I could stretch this feed further without sacrificing nutrition.

I do my fermented food a little different than everyone else here it appears. I have a container with a lid that I drilled some vent holes into. Days 1 I took 1 cup of feed & 1/8 cup ACV with the "mother" & mixed in enough water to make it the consistency of cream of wheat. I let it ferment for 4 days. That became my "starter". At the end of day 4, I mixed in 2 cups dry feed to my starter & enough water to make it cream of wheat consistency. Let it sit overnight.

The next morning, I fed what I needed to, making sure I left at least 1/4 cup of the fermented feed back in my bucket as "re-feed" to use as the starter for the next batch of fermented feed. I then mixed whatever dry feed I needed to this starter & enough water to make cream of wheat consistency.

That is what I do everyday - keep some old in the container & add new to it. I can make it as wet or as dry as I want, depending on how much extra fluid I want to give my chicks that day. Of course they have plenty of free water in their watering containers too. I also add seeds and grains to their feed to add excitement and boost nutritional power. The key is to leave 1/4 cup of old, fermented feed in the bucket at all times as the starter. If at any time there is a funky smell or anything but a fine white covering over the feed, then you throw it out. The white covering is not true mold, but the overgrowth of the probiotics (good bacteria). You should not have maggots, flies, etc - cover that bucket and holes with a towel or cheesecloth. The only smell is a slightly tangy or slightly sour smell like sourdough.

You cannot use medicated feed to ferment though, the medication will prevent/throw off the fermentation process and not allow the cultures to grow properly. You want to keep your feed at a steady temperature of 70-85 degrees...basically indoor temperatures.

Hope this helps!

Definitely helps. I did not reuse feed but I did reuse the liquid. Now I know!

 

[rnchick74]

Definitely helps. I did not reuse feed but I did reuse the liquid. Now I know!

Same idea, different method - still keeping the cultured bacteria from day to day without re-fermenting the starter. I had issues with spoilage with the water method due to high humidity keeping it that wet...mine does wonderfully with the method I outlined. Same results, jut a different method

 

[EurekaChic]

I have both of these feeders. The galvanized hanging inside the coop and the plastic one on a short shepherd hook outside the coop but under an overhang so that it stays dry. I put dome covers on both because a few of the girls used to like to perch on the top edge of the feeder and you know what came from that. Yuck!

Good news. Boo, my all white EE finally laid her first egg. She is at least 24 weeks old (they don't give you the hatch date for started pullets). It's another beautiful green, slightly darker than Belle's.

What a pretty egg!

 

[EurekaChic]

I got a first egg from one of my EE's today! It's such a pretty blue!

The middle pic is about the right color. It is so hard to take pics of egg color!

Definitely lives up to the EE name! Beautiful.

 

[trsturself]

So, stupid question. I've been reading about fermenting, everyone says to use two containers, one with holes and one without. But no one ever drains the stuff, they just scoop it out. Why do you need two containers? Am I just missing something? I feed the wet stuff today and it was a huge hit. I just let it soak 24 hours. Pretty exciting to think I could stretch this feed further without sacrificing nutrition.

Definitely helps. I did not reuse feed but I did reuse the liquid. Now I know!

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I pull up the bucket with holes, let the water drain into the other bucket then carry the holey bucket around the run with me to feed. I usually have some food left over but if not, I know the liquid will be enough to keep the process going.

 

[NanaLynn]

Sorry about your husband needing surgery, again. I hope he recuperates quickly!

LOL about the Polish! You have to have some birds just for giggles!

It sounds like you have given this a lot of thought about who should stay and who should go and, of course, your awesome spreadsheets back you up! It is interesting that your BRs are not good layers, I always heard that they were. Although they are just getting started, my Dominique(s) lay such a tiny egg it is hard to think that they would be better than the BRs. But, mine are so sweet that I can't imagine not keeping the ones that I have. That being said, I probably would not get more as I am in it for the eggs. I, too, "need good layers and multi purpose hens that are not too noisy or too flighty or too broody." I am thankful that I have people like you to follow!

Next year, I plan to get some White Leghorns, Wellsumers, Speckled Sussex and either more EEs or some Ameraucanas or Cream Legbars. Anyone know which of those last 3 are the most consistent layers and which lays the biggest eggs?

Thank you, he is slowly recovery but hopefully will be good as new soon.
The BR's are really not terrible layers I guess I get 3 to 4 a week from each one but I guess the RIR and Golden Buff make everyone look bad. Our BR's are the sweetest too, so it'll be hard when I have to get rid of them. You're Dominique will probably pick up with the eggs and they'll get bigger soon. I had 3 BR's for awhile and one Dominique and the Dominique was one of my first to lay and she was very consistent.

Oreo, our BR still may get a free pass since she is a very sweet hen and she survived a bad injury when a dog attacked our flock, plus she survived a hawk attack. She is one tough one. Pepper the BR is friendly but she will sneak up on you and peck pretty hard for attention.

It's nice to hear that you have the same requirements from your chickens. It does help to see what others do and have done. I love your super run that you have and I am hoping that when the DH gets back on his feet that we can expand ours.

I'm interested about the SS too. I know the White Leghorns are great chickens and layers. I loved the one that we had and she even squatted for me, she was not as skittish as my brown leghorns. I'd love to have some blue eggs too. My EE's are fairly good layers too, two of them lay extra large greenish eggs and the other lays a small bluish green egg.

My list is getting bigger for my wants for next year, that is probably how I ended up with too many chickens!

Thanks, I was thinking something like a pie pan. Yes I would want to do whole or cracked grains. We currently use Countryside Organics feed which has some good bits and pieces but quite a bit of "dust" too. I like that Scratch and Peck does whole grain for their layer feed, but its just too expensive with shipping. I guess I could ask CO if they could mix it with whole grains since they sell them in bulk but I would also like to cut down costs and find more local grains. We're still searching. But yeah I saw a picture of someone fermenting pellet feed and it looked pretty disgusting, grains still look like grains.

I was originally thinking of doing a PVC dispenser for grit and shell but after seeing this: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/909871/warning-chickens-died-in-pvc-feeder
which I realize was a freak accident and can probably be safe guarded against with wire near the opening and may only apply to younger/smaller chickens, I didn't want to create more work for my husband so I was happy when I found these: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/super-pet-gravity-bin-feeder (its also available from PetSmart in various colors for a bit more money, the ones I picked up at TSC are a nice burgandy) for our grit and oyster shell. It would be too small for a flock feeder but fine for a broody cage or quarantine.

Thanks for the feeder suggestions everyone. We also need to get a bucket for our nipples for their new waterer and build the nest boxes this weekend.

I heard Cream Legbars are very talkative but I don't know about loud. Anyone who has them have thoughts on that yet? I know most of yours are still young. I definitely want another colorful egg layer and a Welsummer.

That is terrible about the PVC feeder, I have never heard of that happening before!

I like that TSC feeder, I may have to get one of those for their oyster shell.

I don't have to give our girls grit since they have a large dirt run with plenty of pebbles to find, but I keep the oyster shell in a food dish from our old guinea pig cage. It's a little plastic dish that hooks on to the wire of the run. I like re-purposing stuff.

I'm still waiting for our young ones to start laying. Our oldest of the yougins are 22 weeks but one is a cochin and one an EE, both notorious for being later. Our Welsummer is the 3rd this age but she doesn't look close to laying at all. I hope I can tell when she lays. The other 2 I'll know for sure since they are bantams and lay different colored eggs than our other bantam, but the Welsummer could be similar to our cochin or BA egg (both of which can be pretty dark).
Our second set of youngins, silkie and another bantam cochin, are 20 weeks old, again more breeds that start laying later.
Our BLRW is 17 weeks, the BO is 12 weeks, and the CCL is 8 weeks, so we have a ways to go with them.

Our D'Uccle went broody a couple days ago! I haven't tried to break her of it. It's so cute how fluffy she gets and the little whirring noises she makes when we collect the eggs. We'll see how long she lasts. I'm not overly concerned about getting eggs from her so I'll give her awhile to come out of it herself. Too bad our rooster hasn't been able to do his business with the ladies yet... I'd stick some eggs under her.

Once those girls start you'll have eggs everywhere. Do you have a lot of buyers set up? How's the farm coming along?

 

[NotableNancy]

Next year, I plan to get some White Leghorns, Wellsumers, Speckled Sussex and either more EEs or some Ameraucanas or Cream Legbars. Anyone know which of those last 3 are the most consistent layers and which lays the biggest eggs?

Of the 3 you asked about... my CCL don't lay yet but I had 4 EE's (Now just 3) and they are my best layers. 2 lay green and the other is cream and hers is the biggest of all my girls. I will always have them. Can't wait to see how my CCL lay!!

I have both of these feeders. The galvanized hanging inside the coop and the plastic one on a short shepherd hook outside the coop but under an overhang so that it stays dry. I put dome covers on both because a few of the girls used to like to perch on the top edge of the feeder and you know what came from that. Yuck!

Good news. Boo, my all white EE finally laid her first egg. She is at least 24 weeks old (they don't give you the hatch date for started pullets). It's another beautiful green, slightly darker than Belle's.

Nice... worth waiting for!!

I got a first egg from one of my EE's today! It's such a pretty blue!



The middle pic is about the right color. It is so hard to take pics of egg color!

GORGEOUS!!!

Well, one of my Silkies is definitely a boy...

We had crowing this morning while I was getting food ready for them. The problem is that I don't know which one crowed, so I still don't know which one it is!!!

These birds, I tell ya!

Must have been so funny to hear!!

Lol! Those two are a trip! My Peppy is 4 months old now and no crowing. I almost forgot that one day he will.

Wow, that's a long time to not crow. You don't have another rooster either do you? Still not sure about my Silkie... 14 1/2 weeks and no crowing. But I guess that's not unusual.

 

[trsturself]

Thank you, he is slowly recovery but hopefully will be good as new soon.
The BR's are really not terrible layers I guess I get 3 to 4 a week from each one but I guess the RIR and Golden Buff make everyone look bad. Our BR's are the sweetest too, so it'll be hard when I have to get rid of them. You're Dominique will probably pick up with the eggs and they'll get bigger soon. I had 3 BR's for awhile and one Dominique and the Dominique was one of my first to lay and she was very consistent.

Oreo, our BR still may get a free pass since she is a very sweet hen and she survived a bad injury when a dog attacked our flock, plus she survived a hawk attack. She is one tough one. Pepper the BR is friendly but she will sneak up on you and peck pretty hard for attention.

It's nice to hear that you have the same requirements from your chickens. It does help to see what others do and have done. I love your super run that you have and I am hoping that when the DH gets back on his feet that we can expand ours.

I'm interested about the SS too. I know the White Leghorns are great chickens and layers. I loved the one that we had and she even squatted for me, she was not as skittish as my brown leghorns. I'd love to have some blue eggs too. My EE's are fairly good layers too, two of them lay extra large greenish eggs and the other lays a small bluish green egg.

My list is getting bigger for my wants for next year, that is probably how I ended up with too many chickens!

That is terrible about the PVC feeder, I have never heard of that happening before!

I like that TSC feeder, I may have to get one of those for their oyster shell.

Once those girls start you'll have eggs everywhere. Do you have a lot of buyers set up? How's the farm coming along?

Don't forget those that don't give an egg every day usually lay longer than a year. That plays a big part of my decisions too. I personally don't want any super layers that I have to do something with in a year and a half.

I used small PVC feeders for chicks and had one climb up in it. Luckily I noticed pretty quick and was able to get it out. Stupid chickens!

The farm is coming along nicely. My late tomato plants are much bigger than I expected and even have a few buds on them. We may get a tomato or two after all.
Our goat will be ready to breed next month already. I need to get on finding a stud for her.

 

[COChix]

Question for those who ferment, do you just put the feed in a pan/bowl/dish? I can't picture it being in a feeder, I imagine it would stick too much. On a related note what kind of feeders do you all prefer for dry feed? We are still using the mason jar style with metal bottom and oval openings. I think my ideal would be a wooden treadle but if we end up doing mostly fermented that seems silly. I did pick up two little burgundy plastic gravity feeders for rabbits at TSC today for their grit and oyster shells, they balance fine on the 4x4 but I know there is a way to secure them to the wire.

I feed out of pie tin or the tin lasagne pans. Just started using the lasagne pans this past week, I like the pie plates re nice as it spreads them out. The lasagna is nice as it holds the most. So I am not sure what I will stick with, my feeding regimen and feeding trays change as well. There is nothing wasted with the fermented food, they eat all of it. The dry they he to waste a lot!

Don't believe it. We had a picket fence around our garden and it didn't stop the chickens one bit. 


I put ours in a bowl as well as on a couple pieces of wood laying around the run. I am doing grains though and it doesn't get as mushy as the processed food does. When I did the pellets I put it in a bowl and they did a pretty good job of cleaning it up. Nothing I had to worry about. I have seen a few people use pie plates so it's shallow enough for them to clean it.


We used a simpler version of this when we fed dry feed. I gave it to the lady that bought our other coop. It worked well for dry food. 

. Yep the cheap pie plates or lasagna pans are my current use.

 

[COChix]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I pull up the bucket with holes, let the water drain into the other bucket then carry the holey bucket around the run with me to feed. I usually have some food left over but if not, I know the liquid will be enough to keep the process going. 

I follow this method as well, I have learned there many different ways to ferment, some use ACV and some don't, either way you should end up with fermented food either way. Thanks for answering so many questions regarding this, I am still new and learning.