NY chicken lover!!!!

[Purpletie3]

Thanks for the molt replies...I will increase their protein. I have only seen feathers in the light sussex crew.

 

[myfivegirls]

Need some opinions/advice...I have been thinking about getting some alfalfa cubes and giving them to the chickens, ducks, and turkeys this winter. I was thinking about taking a few cubes and soaking them and adding them to the ducks water buckets and maybe a bowl for the chickens and turkeys to scratch around in. I would mix in some scratch and some other goodies too. I usually make up some fermented food during the winter and give it to them warmed up for a nice warm treat and I figured I could add some into that as well. I have read that sometimes when they are given the actual alfalfa hay that they can get sour crop with the weedy stems, so I want to avoid that if I can, but I am trying to think up some new things for them for winter.

I have also used the alfalfa pellets, added them to the fermented feed & it's ground up fine enough that they eat it with the rest of the wet mash. Right now I'm using organic alfalfa meal that I got from Lakeview Organic Grains, but it was $38 for 50lbs.
When TSC had a sale on Saturday on their the alfalfa pellets for $12 for a 40lb bag, I picked up some. After I sold the rabbits, I still had leftover rabbit pellets, which have a high % of alfalfa in them. Add that to their fermented feed until I used up the bags, and they loved it. When I first started feeding them alfalfa pellets several years ago, I soaked them and offered them in a separate dish. They weren't so sure about them, and seemed to chow it down more so when added to the fermented feed mixture.
I haven't tried the alfalfa cubes, except for when they had a ripped bag on sale & I fed them only to the rabbits in the cube form.

I have enough of a selection from the oldest roosters, and many of the younger ones I can already tell who's worth growing out more & who's a "cull".
Did a quick head-count last night for which roosters to send to the auction and it's around 30! That should help reduce the feed consumption.
But, that still leaves me with quite a few older cockerels from this year's earlier hatches to choose who'll stay & who'll go to "freezer camp".


Yes, there's a bunch molting here too, feathers & leaves falling tend to coincide. The worst one is the Bielefelder hen, who's looking pretty ratty right now.
But, from what I read, the ones that go through a hard molt and resume laying again in a shorter amount of time are typically the better egg layers.
And I've observed some hens that I've questioned how frequently they're laying, and they've taken months to regrow all their feathers, then another few weeks or a month to start laying again.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Is it molt time yet? Everyone is talking about molt...When should we expect this up here? What exactly does molt mean to my flock??? They all get naked and are too cold to lay eggs?

My birds are molting. It looks like someone ripped open a feather pillow and spread it all over the coops, run, and the yard. DH freaked me out when he came in this weekend all concerned. He thought that the fox was back and got something in the yard. After a careful head count I realized that it was the molting feathers all over the yard. Everything is molting..The chickens, ducks, and turkey. I have been mixing in some of my high protein turkey feed with their regular food. When the chickens molt, production or me tend to go down. Yesterday I got 2 eggs and today was only 4...Most are just looking ragged, but I have a few that look very sad.

Oh I forgot why I came here.

As you may or may not know I volunteer at a school. We have a "Commodities Cake mix" and it's not so good. It doesn't rise well and the white tastes bad. Anyone have any ideas to "fix" these mixes?

One time I used some soft set Raspberry jam I made and it went well. I just swirled it through the mix.

I've been searching for ideas and found a few.

The chocolate is okay but doesn't rise much. I'd really like to get it to rise a bit more.

Duck eggs can help with that. All I bake with now is duck eggs and I personally think that my cakes rise more now then before. Even when I cheat and use box mixes. Not sure that you can use duck eggs at school though.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Yup comparing notes will help us all, still looking into all options, need to decide soon, like it or not winter is a coming!  and I don't want to be busting ice again...

White JG doing great, growing much quicker than expected. Had a couple deaths as chicks, not used to that, few with their (sandhill) packing peanuts, red sussex. Three sussex and two giants died right off, wasn't happy, but survivors very hardy and healthy. Have three giants non breeders, two yellow legs and one no tail and bushy leg feathers, looks like a rumpless aruacana crossed with a fluffy butt orpington. Others are amazing! I can pick out the breeders on the red sussex, giants they all look so good I'm building a tractor/coop bachelor pad to keep them till spring before I make any decisions. Will work out great for my giant silkie project, have a huge roo from TSC, four pullets laying daily! and one huge roo!
Silkie roo will be with the girls till spring, hopefully they lay by then and we can have a hatch.
Will be later spring before I'll be hatching pure white giants for capons.

My opinion on good capon breeds? not what I'm doing, Lol, I just want the biggest. I'm kinda glad Sandhill sent me those red sussex packing peanuts even though I only see two pullets and three cockerels as SOP, rest have way to much black feathering in the breast. They grow fast like New Hampshire's, but are a ancient breed so I'm glad I didn't get the Langshans that grow super slow like the giants.
IMHO NN Turkens are the perfect meat bread for caponizing, they  grow great and lay great and  are somehow hardy to cold weather even though the have a naked neck?
You've heard the breese is one of the best tasting chickens? And the Barbezieux the third best, better than the breese, a roasting chicken where  the breese is typically poached? (According to the French) Well I wondered what was the #1. Took some time, couldn't find any thing in English, all French, but I finally found it, did some google translate, not a strange weird breed never heard of, it was Poulet Rouge, naked neck chickens!!....we have them here...
Naked neck turkens and new hampshires would be the best picks for capons in my opinion.
Edited to add, Delaware and light Sussex are also good picks IMO.
Green Fire Farms had a good writeup on Bielefelders for capons http://greenfirefarms.com/2012/08/the-case-for-inefficiency/

Awesome article! Thanks for the link!! I'm surprised that the Sandhill birds were not consistently closer to SOP. Glad u are happy with your Sussex and the JGs are doing well tho.

Thanks for info on ur research of decent breeds for capons. I had forgotten about the NNs for this. It would be interesting to hatch out a handful each of bresse, NN, and perhaps a couple other breeds together. Feed them all the same way, caponize the boys & then pasture them to maturity, bring them in for last couple weeks for high fat finishing, process and then have a cookout to have a bunch of friends taste test the different breeds. Maybe have a standard store bought bird there to compare as well. The pullets can be sold off as layers to offset the cost of initial eggs & feed. We taste tested a Cemani cull rooster next to a more common layer breed rooster and there was definately a difference in the taste & texture of the meat. So hard to really know until you try it.

 

[Gramma Chick]

What about roof de-icing cables???

I would wonder if they are food safe ? safe for roofs ...sure...safe for chicken water ? not sure ..could throw off toxins on the heater
Did you ask me about why I didnt use Plantain , or comfrey ?
It was 1 oclock in the morning when I discovered that she had been attacked .
I didnt know how long ago the wound occurred ...as the cut had a thick scab on it already.
My 1st thought was to clean her up ..she had blood all over her wing ..and down the whole side of her body
Honestly I didnt think of the herbs ...I ddint want it to get infected so I put the antibiotic ointment on it ..so we could both go to bed ..
That still took a couple of hours

 

[Gramma Chick]

Duck eggs can help with that. All I bake with now is duck eggs and I personally think that my cakes rise more now then before. Even when I cheat and use box mixes. Not sure that you can use duck eggs at school though.
You can add eggs or baking powder ..mixes may be old so dont rise well

 

[lisa523]

I ordered this t shirt today. Lol. Love it. (Sry my phone has issues posting pics on this board.)



http://teespring.com/wantmorechickens?utm_swu=1386

 

[Purpletie3]

I would wonder if they are food safe ? safe for roofs ...sure...safe for chicken water ? not sure ..could throw off toxins on the heater
Did you ask me about why I didnt use Plantain , or comfrey ?
It was 1 oclock in the morning when I discovered that she had been attacked .
I didnt know how long ago the wound occurred ...as the cut had a thick scab on it already.
My 1st thought was to clean her up ..she had blood all over her wing ..and down the whole side of her body
Honestly I didnt think of the herbs ...I ddint want it to get infected so I put the antibiotic ointment on it ..so we could both go to bed ..
That still took a couple of hours

Not me on the plantain/comfrey. I was thinking the de-icing cables would work for the drip systems or you could wrap your bucket with them. If you would worry about food grade just wrap them in something that might be like foil wrap. They get quite warm but they are not the fire hazard that heater tape is.

 

[Purpletie3]

Awesome article! Thanks for the link!! I'm surprised that the Sandhill birds were not consistently closer to SOP. Glad u are happy with your Sussex and the JGs are doing well tho.

Thanks for info on ur research of decent breeds for capons. I had forgotten about the NNs for this. It would be interesting to hatch out a handful each of bresse, NN, and perhaps a couple other breeds together. Feed them all the same way, caponize the boys & then pasture them to maturity, bring them in for last couple weeks for high fat finishing, process and then have a cookout to have a bunch of friends taste test the different breeds. Maybe have a standard store bought bird there to compare as well. The pullets can be sold off as layers to offset the cost of initial eggs & feed. We taste tested a Cemani cull rooster next to a more common layer breed rooster and there was definately a difference in the taste & texture of the meat. So hard to really know until you try it.

I read this too. I don't see any possibility of this working in America. People are too disassociated with their food and don't know there are better tasting chickens out there! I have bielfelders...have yet to taste one. But, they are beautiful birds and my roosters are getting huge!

How did the Cemani taste?

 

[boskelli1571]

Is it molt time yet? Everyone is talking about molt...When should we expect this up here? What exactly does molt mean to my flock??? They all get naked and are too cold to lay eggs?

Mine started the molt a couple of weeks ago. Looks like this year is going to be a gentle molt - last year was a blister!
Still getting 10-12 eggs/days, no-one is naked yet. A few are missing their tails tho".