MJ's little flock

[BY Bob]

I love it when the hens decide to do something right beside me. Here's Ivy scratching out a nice deep hole.

View attachment 3238240

There is nothing like having them hang out next to you by choice.

 

[MaryJanet]

That's not bad. It's got 5 different bacteria in it.

Ok great. I wonder if I should give more or less of it. Or switch to one with even more types of bacteria.

 

[BY Bob]

Ok great. I wonder if I should give more or less of it. Or switch to one with even more types of bacteria.

I would go as broad as I could at this point. You give this in their food right? Maybe find another that goes in their water and double up for a while.

 

[MaryJanet]

I would go as broad as I could at this point. You give this in their food right? Maybe find another that goes in their water and double up for a while.

Yes I do. I shake all the supplements (except the cottage cheese) with two cups of dry food in a Tupperware. Then I add water and let it rest for an hour. Then I share it out among the bowls and put a dab of cottage cheese on top. So they are eating it wet.

But I see what you're saying about putting bacteria into the water. It's two ways of providing it.

It's very counterintuitive to give a hen who's already got too much bacteria even more bacteria.

 

[RoyalChick]

Yes I do. I shake all the supplements (except the cottage cheese) with two cups of dry food in a Tupperware. Then I add water and let it rest for an hour. Then I share it out among the bowls and put a dab of cottage cheese on top. So they are eating it wet.

But I see what you're saying about putting bacteria into the water. It's two ways of providing it.

It's very counterintuitive to give a hen who's already got too much bacteria even more bacteria.

Think of it as good guys and bad guys fighting it out in the gut - you want to give as much advantage to the good guys as you can!
That means lots of different good guys because they all bring different fighting skills and it means a lot of them so they can overwhelm the bad guys.
Not sure if that helped!

 

[MaryJanet]

I found a live kefir product which is stocked at a local supermarket. Here are the ingredients. Are all of those good bacteria?

 

[MaryJanet]

I just realised 1 and 8 were missing from the screen shot

 

[RoyalChick]

I found a live kefir product at a local supermarket. Here are the ingredients. Are all of those good bacteria?

View attachment 3238334

That looks great to me - but Bob is the expert so you should go with what he says.
I like that they give the subspecies!
My Princesses just love kefir. I give it to them frozen as a sort of ice-cream treat.
It was hit today so they got some and went wild over it!

 

[MaryJanet]

It also has 1.3g of saturated fat/100ml

and 0.7g of unsaturated fat/100ml

I worry about getting the right sort of fat because of Peggy's FLHS.

 

[MaryJanet]

It also has 1.3g of saturated fat/100ml

and 0.7g of unsaturated fat/100ml

I worry about getting the right sort of fat because of Peggy's FLHS.

Just following up to say I checked the cottage cheese they're already eating and it has

1.3g of saturated fat/100ml

and 0.5g of unsaturated fat/100ml

So that's not very different from the kefir product.

But the kefir has far less protein. There's 12.4g/100ml in the cottage cheese and only 5.4g/100ml in the kefir.