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Naimaleonard said:
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I've updated my profile picture...our previous male who would always wait to greet me at the side door (love how it's almost always Sunny and bright here). I had to rehome him (we still see him at times) because he just wasn't successful in fertilizing the eggs and fought any other rooster we brought in. He was a sweetheart and even let my almost 2 year old touch him with no complaints. We are currently in Somaliland. We hope to see Egypt, Nairobi, Dubai and Morocco. I also plan on hopefully visiting Indonesia, Malaysia and China, but more for business reasons. Tickets are incredibly cheap from here and distance is such an opportunity that we can't pass on. My children are going to the local school for language purposes at the moment. Plus their math level is above Canada's. No better way to learn a language and/or culture than to submerge yourself into the local living. Anyway, I will post pictures of each chicken...keep an eye out for it in the identifying breed board. I am not sure if some of you can tell me if the Somali chickens are their own breed or if there is a mixture that exists here that originate from elsewhere.
Thanks porkpie for the information. I most definitely will look into some basic medicine that I should have on hand and pick some up when we're visiting Nairobi. At the moment we're using acv in their water for their immune system and bathing them weekly. We give them kitchen scraps and I give them daily cooked meat with cooked rice every second day. So far no deaths or medical issues but we keep losing chicks...and sadly learning as we go which means trying to find what works while maybe losing more in the process.
Thanks Nasser. We do feed them meat scraps for protein plus the abundant insects and lizards they catch in the yard. As for calcium we don't have access to the seaside where we currently reside... I'll research and ask about other calcium sources. Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

Why the weekly bathing? Typically chickens will dust bath themselves and learn this feature in run or yard on own and need not give regular baths.
 
Are you in Hergeisa?
You are literally living my dream. I want to live in East Africa and travel the world.

I, personally, would not feed cooked rice to young chicks. Fills their crop, but no nutritional value.
Also, try soaking your grains for a day.
 
No, we are in boroma, but quite close to Hargeisa. I hope you fulfill your dream. Tickets to other parts of the world are so insanely cheaper. From here to Dubai it costs $180 for example.

We were told by the locals to bathe them weekly to prevent lack of feather growth ? Many came to us with some lacking feathers and once we started bathing them regularly, they started to regrow plus there is a issue with sticky fleas so we add in some acv to the bath. They do have dust baths too, but we don't see their feathers regrowing until we bathe and massage the skin a little as we soap and rinse. Maybe they get clogged ? No idea. But it is definitely helping with feather regrowth.
So are landrace chickens those that don't belong to a specific breed ? Hmm...so much to learn.

Okay, so I should probably cut down on the rice... Soaking overnight to feed them in the morning ? Or, start the day before ?

Thanks,
 
Naimaleonard said:
No, we are in boroma, but quite close to Hargeisa. I hope you fulfill your dream. Tickets to other parts of the world are so insanely cheaper. From here to Dubai it costs $180 for example.

We were told by the locals to bathe them weekly to prevent lack of feather growth ? Many came to us with some lacking feathers and once we started bathing them regularly, they started to regrow plus there is a issue with sticky fleas so we add in some acv to the bath. They do have dust baths too, but we don't see their feathers regrowing until we bathe and massage the skin a little as we soap and rinse. Maybe they get clogged ? No idea. But it is definitely helping with feather regrowth.
So are landrace chickens those that don't belong to a specific breed ? Hmm...so much to learn.

Okay, so I should probably cut down on the rice... Soaking overnight to feed them in the morning ? Or, start the day before ?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
Start the day before.
Keep a lid on the mixture to keep skeeters and other insects out.
 
Naimaleonard said:
No, we are in boroma, but quite close to Hargeisa. I hope you fulfill your dream. Tickets to other parts of the world are so insanely cheaper. From here to Dubai it costs $180 for example.

We were told by the locals to bathe them weekly to prevent lack of feather growth ? Many came to us with some lacking feathers and once we started bathing them regularly, they started to regrow plus there is a issue with sticky fleas so we add in some acv to the bath. They do have dust baths too, but we don't see their feathers regrowing until we bathe and massage the skin a little as we soap and rinse. Maybe they get clogged ? No idea. But it is definitely helping with feather regrowth.
So are landrace chickens those that don't belong to a specific breed ? Hmm...so much to learn.

Okay, so I should probably cut down on the rice... Soaking overnight to feed them in the morning ? Or, start the day before ?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Feather regrowth has more to do with protein and from birth to 8 weeks are usually on feed that creates an 18-20% protein. Once 8 weeks drops to 18% protein feed and then once 18 weeks goes to a 16% layer feed. I buy big sky organic whole grain no corn or soy layer feed because my girls are now 24 weeks and switching to layer from starter grower feed. I soak my feed for a day or two to ferment then feed which adds nutritional value including protein. I use 50% water with 50% feed. This also reduces waste of the chickens throwing the grains on the ground. They love it and gobble this up. Feathers are made of about 80% protein so protein is important for feather turn over.
 
Corn can be used to feed chickens and it is in most chicken feeds organic and regular but some think wheat or barley etc. are better proteins and corn is just filler like a carb. Just to be aware.
 

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