New hens, when they begin to lay?

[Frazzemrat1]

Unless your dog is outside all the time, you may eventually have a problem with predators. Especially since that area, even in the city, has rats and raccoons, and probably snakes.

 

[Rickba]

When you feed poultry feed make sure it's 'Egg Layer' feed. They also need grit and yes oyster shells. I keep it available all the time. That's the big round pan you see under the bench. With DE I usually mix 1 cup, 8oz' in a bucket of food, crumbles. I do this the 1st of every month. I also mix 2 cups, 16oz, with a bag of top soil and dump it into their 'dirt bath' hole. This keeps the external P's away. They deffanatly love to see me bring in the buckets of dirt. They dive in it like we dive in a swimming pool. If you have any other Q's, Just ask. Glad to help. Dogs like to dig too. Here's how I designed my door. It's a split door. To fix you digger issue make a split door and get 48" hardware cloth. Fold it in half and staple it to the bottom of your coop. That will give you double protection up top and a 24" digger guard around the bottom. If you look at the bottom of the second pic, you can see the hardware screen. I planted grass around it, it holds the screen down. Burying it just rest it faster.

 

[Rick&chickTampa]

I did take a closer look at my feed bag this morning and it is Manna Pro laying crumbles with a max of 4.5 % calcium. I am still thinking I would prefer to use the Purina because I just think it may be higher in vitamins. Last year this pen was a raised garden bed but it just seemed a little too shady to grow tomatoes. That's me and my grand daughter. I'm the old guy and she's the cute one.

 

[lilmarie84]

If you don't have oyster shell you can use egg shells just rinse them off real good and/or bake them to cook any of the raw egg remaining in them and crush them and give it to them on the side free choice and that should do til you can get oyster shells

 

[Rickba]

Some people like to recycle egg shells, I don't. I've seen hens who after getting used to eating egg shells start to peck holes in and eat their owns eggs and eggs sitting in the nest box. Oyster shell is so cheap. 25 pound bag is about 8USD.

 

[Rick&chickTampa]

I will be making trip to the feed depot tomorrow. Planning to get some DE, Oyster shell, Probably a bag of Purina feed with vitamins. Can I mix that with the Manna Pro I already have? This chicken thing is about the same as the garden. If I don't spend another dime on these chickens I figure to break even on the "free eggs" in a little over 13 years.

 

[sourland]

When changing feeds it is always a good to mix the new with the old feed gradually increasing the % of the new feed until they are 100 % on the new feed.

 

[Rick&chickTampa]

When changing feeds it is always a good to mix the new with the old feed gradually increasing the % of the new feed until they are 100 % on the new feed.

Thank you I was going to do it 50=50. I have no idea what the breeder was feeding them so that could be a problem too. My visit to the breeder was rather rushed and her young son brought the chickens out to my truck as soon as I arrived. I am now wondering if there are chicken mills similar to puppy mills.

 

[Kathy Golla]

Yeah if I only go off of the pic, they are not feeling good, those combs are really pale.

 

[aart]

DE will not likely kill either external or internal parasites, save your money.
It is also a respiratory irritant.
If you insist on using it be sure the product you buy is 100% food grade DE,
many products are mostly clays.

Most chicken feeds have adequate vitamins, protein levels vary which can be important if you like to give scratch grains and other 'treats'.

Combs are pale because bird are out of lay, probably due to age.
They look to be last years hatch by feather condition, so a year or more old and probably getting ready to molt. Always good to ask age in months or weeks when procuring birds.