Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[1muttsfan]

Broody poops are totally gross

 

[kimmie6067]

Broody poops are totally gross

Well it was gross alright! She must be fine then

 

[Stacykins]

How do you go about killing them and then putting them in the crockpot? I wish I could do it maybe if I saw it done?

I use a .22 for the kill. Fast, they have no idea what hit them. I actually do it from a distance, and can nail them in the head with no issue. One moment they are standing, the next not. I then lop off the head, skin or pluck (this time I skinned), gut, rinse, and put in the pot. That is the process in a nutshell, heh. I'm not fast at it, but I'm also not pressed for time anyway.

 

[RaZ]

I give mine some, and the vitamin supplement i mentioned before, but too much salt can be very bad too. I think there's low sodium canned fish? I told DH at some point i want to take the fish he don't keep because they are small and whatnot and can them, then i have a healthy supply.............?

Got me thinking, so I'm looking at the labels on the cans...
National brand of tuna, 5 oz can has 140 mg of sodium.
National brand of whitefish & tuna cat food, 5.5 oz can has "salt" as an ingredient but no measurement listed.

Given the condition of those rescued birds, I would hazard to guess that excess salt uptake would be a marginal concern at this time. But after reading the labels, I'd give them "people" tuna in lieu of cat-food tuna. Canned tuna is about the same price as cat-food at my local grocer.

Second point (and I'm not busting your chops here) is that your DH not keep any fish under the legal limits. Instead, save the heads and guts of keepers in the freezer so you can feed your chooks with the thawed remains. My hens go into a feeding frenzy over fish carcasses.

And to lighten the mood...Just how did chickens learn to enjoy fish so much? I just can't imagine a chicken baiting a hook with a nice, juicy worm while drinking beer and waiting for a bite.

 

[kimmie6067]

I use a .22 for the kill. Fast, they have no idea what hit them. I actually do it from a distance, and can nail them in the head with no issue. One moment they are standing, the next not. I then lop off the head, skin or pluck (this time I skinned), gut, rinse, and put in the pot. That is the process in a nutshell, heh. I'm not fast at it, but I'm also not pressed for time anyway.

you make it sound so easy I just wish I had the nerve

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Nah. Liquid white and liquid yellow are what to worry about.

Liquid white is when the urine isn't formed into solids. In the case of constipation or stuck egg it means that's the only part that can get past the blockage, but if the bird is given molassas or a squirt of olive oil it can be turned around if not too bad; yellow means the liver is shutting down and you have 2-3 days before death; that one isn't reversible. (that i know of)

 

[Farmerboy16]

Sillychicken- Cute little fella! Congrats!

My neighbor has an almost a year old Lamancha/saanen cross doeling that she have been wanting to rid of cuz she is too flighty for her, and have 2 possibly bred does already, so she is giving her to me for freeee!!!! So, I am not envious of ya! Will go down there and take a picture of her tomorrow. I will not bring her home for a while yet, not until snow melts and grass is growing, but I will give the neighbor fresh eggs for her board. I will use her as a bush goat, as there is a lot of weeds and bushes in the pasture that the cows won't eat, so win-win.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Quote:Originally Posted by RaZ The only reason i know about the salt is because i once recommended the canned fish to someone else on the emergency section for a similar case; I was informed by another poster that birds (especially roosters) can get gout from extra high protein, especially with the excess salt) Blew me away, i didn't know that birds even got gout! But makes sense, because the other men-folk i know that eat this way get it too. So now i give extra protein, but not too often.

No, not under legal limit! He just has a habit of catching fish that are on the small end of keeping, and since he spends all day/ night doing it don't want to clean them. Claims there's "not much meat there" LOL. I'm on to him. I have cleaned them myself but i'm still sloppy at cutting, and BOTH of us are paranoid about fish bones! My picky butt birds won't eat anything raw. Won't even eat certain kinds of fish; but absolutely adore sardines (but i don't eat the eggs afterwards for a few days, phew!) They like the extra stinky ones in the oil

We do the .22 method too for when they have to be put down; give them their favorite treat and let them fill up a bit. They never feel a thing. Even the mean boys get at least that much.

 

[Maah]

We tried giving our chickens the fish carcas scraps once after DH spent the day fishing & they would not touch it! After a day, I had to clean the smelly fish back out of the chicken run... in the sun. P.U.!! Never again. Now we take the fish yuck and freeze it. We usually plant a few trees each summer (fruit trees, pine trees, ornamental, whatever)... we'll dig the hole, plop in some fish nasty and top it with a tree & dirt. Works amazing!! Rarely do we get a tree going dormant after a transplant.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Is there still a rooster with those hens? If there is a "chicken saddle" would help too. Some of you may have seen these before, but this is one of my rescue hens, boy what a diffference can be made with a little care! (after, during, and initially) I was worried that she'd be bald forever it took so long though. She's still kinda runty, but gifts me with a decent blue egg almost every day! Even without added artificial light! What you can't see in the pics is that she was bald on the bottom and a part of the belly, and plucked beardless. She hadn't been gashed yet, but was raw and tender on the topside.

I bet those girls will clean up to be true gems.