NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lynzi777]

Its in the Tops Mall, behind the store, there is a vet clinic, and its in the same building on the side. I've made the decision that feeding cheap feed & not getting many eggs & probably not very healthy chickens isn't worth it. I'd rather pay a little more and get good healthy birds & more eggs.  The feed had cinnamon, hot peppers & oregano in it for healthy gut. Everyone one I know who has switched loves it. Their 15% layer delivered is $13.49, the 18% layer is $15.50. A lilttle cheaper at their store.

I've noticed better Quality eggs since mine have been on it. And for me better quality means better hatch rates! ;-)

 

[why do birds]

why do birds ... if you paint their nails do NOT do it in red or pinks ... you may think your little fluff balls are pets - but they don't.

they know they are animals and they know that red usually means blood - and blood means nourishment ... they will peck at any bloody spot to make it bigger and thereby kill and eat each other. Yep. And most will hunt ! HUNT - that's right - they hunt frogs, baby mice, of course bugs .... They are descended from T-Rex after all ... if your size ratio were switched around - they would eat you in thanks for raising them up.

Now - don't get me wrong - I have enough girly genes in me to paint my horses hooves if I am doing a show or put a bandanna on my dog - and you can rest assured my horse tack all matches and goes with the color of my horse ! ha ha ha

Not trying to rain on your parade - but if you paint those nails red .... you may find a chickie with missing toes the next day.


I LOVE reading your take on animals and farms and work .... it is so sweet ... and if you didn't have us - could lead to such disaster .... so keep sharing. I know you are not a little girl - but your vision of the world reminds me of a cute little girl in a pink bedroom reading about farm animals. Which doesn't mean you can't love them and long for them as strong as the rest of us - just that you have a little more to learn when their lives are actually depending on you to make the correct moves. I find that many wrongs come from people who are too sweet and leave disaster in their wake - this is NOT you - as you are out there learning .... but from stanch city folks who try to make laws about animal care, farming, hunting, growing food and don't know thing one about what they are talking about.

Also - the first time I had a horse - I made some major mistakes !!! It was 30 years ago and no internet like this one - I still regret the neglect I put him through with not knowing it and loving him dearly! So don't stop posting everything that comes into your mind !

Ahhh! The red color thing with chickens! Got it! Thanks so much for mentioning that! And my biggest worry was whether or not the nail polish would get into their system and cause problems. Never thought that they'd eat each other. At the fair they have the dye on them, so naturally, was thinking that painting their nails would be ok too. I didn't know they were descendants of T Rex! Yikes! Those little cannibals! Before the 3 chickens we had, and still have, 1 older cat.

Wow, having a horse would be awesome! They are very pretty animals. I can imagine lots of work! Don't they eat something like a bale of hay every day? How do you know what hay to feed them and what hay to put in the stalls for them to sleep on? Isn't it the same hay? I've often wondered, for a horse, or a cow or goat, what it would be like sleeping in your food. If it gets hungry it can just pluck a strand from its bedding? Oh, you probably think I'm clueless. It's ok because I really am. But am trying to learn all of this stuff as a crash course!

Thanks for the info!

 

[Metella]

Clueless ? No not really - you are on your way already - so beyond the clueless stage ....

'


There are others on here who can speak to the most proper care of horses ... I have two and they are strictly for my own enjoyment - I don't show them, breed them or compete with them.

Mine are outside all day - everyday with a 3-sided run in that they can stand under if they want to - they almost NEVER want to - preferring to be rained and snowed on.

So I don't have to worry about cleaning out stalls or what they sleep on Nice for me since I am getting older - no daily mucking to do. And I mow over all the piles of poop in the Spring and summer - shredding it all over the pasture -so I pretty much never sling their poo.

If they are kept in a stall they are often bedded down on sawdust so they don't poop and pee on their hay. If they do - they won't eat it and that is a lot of money to waste.

I feed them just under a bale each a day - and there is a little waste each day that they step on and poo on as they stand and eat. On cold snaps like this I always toss out more - but they never seem to eat it - just makes me feel like I am a better owner.


I like your questions - make me feel like all the hard and lonely work learning this stuff was not totally wasted !

 

[Aria]

Well this is what it looked like most recently before everything started sinking in. See that 3rd bushel of grass from the left? that was planted about a foot from the edge of the pond, you can see how much of the mud has fallen in in front if that grass.

This is NEAT. My husband dug our Pond with his back hoe...loned the bottom with heavy rocks...bottom and up the sides. He layed a pipe across the drive and rain water goes into in. AND he also put a large cement wall on one side to hold the water. The Call Ducks loved it. BUT...it was too much for us. We still have the pond surrounded with flowers and we have koy and sunfish. We have a small electric "gismo" to keep a small portion opened for the fish. Each spring there are more fish and we feed them until Winter. They must go to the bottom and then swim all warm season. NEAT. Aria

 

[horsekeeper]

I should have muscovy hatching eggs available this spring. Two years ago they hatched out 42 ducklings. No luck last year as I did not have good spots for them to nest. Here is Hunk, my oldest drake telling two of his girls to get out of the chicken house.






Brownie, his other girl and my special pet looking raggedy after brooding for about 3 months straight! She kept moving from nest to nest and nothing hatched.



The four ducklings I bought last spring to add new blood to the flock. Now they are big and beautiful.



A trio of pekins I would like to sell. Good egg layers, but not too good at brooding. Decided I would like to have rouens instead and have to make room. Anybody interested. As you can see, they are almost as big as the embden geese.

 

[stonykill]

I should have muscovy hatching eggs available this spring. Two years ago they hatched out 42 ducklings. No luck last year as I did not have good spots for them to nest. Here is Hunk, my oldest drake telling two of his girls to get out of the chicken house.






Brownie, his other girl and my special pet looking raggedy after brooding for about 3 months straight! She kept moving from nest to nest and nothing hatched.



The four ducklings I bought last spring to add new blood to the flock. Now they are big and beautiful.



A trio of pekins I would like to sell. Good egg layers, but not too good at brooding. Decided I would like to have rouens instead and have to make room. Anybody interested. As you can see, they are almost as big as the embden geese.

if you were closer I would most likely want the Pekins. Can't justify the drive.

 

[horsekeeper]

Sent you a PM, Stony. They will be 2-years-old this year.

 

[ke5hde]

Its in the Tops Mall, behind the store, there is a vet clinic, and its in the same building on the side. I've made the decision that feeding cheap feed & not getting many eggs & probably not very healthy chickens isn't worth it. I'd rather pay a little more and get good healthy birds & more eggs.  The feed had cinnamon, hot peppers & oregano in it for healthy gut. Everyone one I know who has switched loves it. Their 15% layer delivered is $13.49, the 18% layer is $15.50. A lilttle cheaper at their store.

I was just telling my wife the same thing last night. It's time for a feed change. I've been getting feed store feed from the same place since we started with chickens but I've noticed things lately I just don't like anymore. I'll be making a change this week since their feed is getting low anyway.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Ahhh! The red color thing with chickens! Got it! Thanks so much for mentioning that! And my biggest worry was whether or not the nail polish would get into their system and cause problems. Never thought that they'd eat each other. At the fair they have the dye on them, so naturally, was thinking that painting their nails would be ok too. I didn't know they were descendants of T Rex! Yikes! Those little cannibals! Before the 3 chickens we had, and still have, 1 older cat.

Wow, having a horse would be awesome! They are very pretty animals. I can imagine lots of work! Don't they eat something like a bale of hay every day? How do you know what hay to feed them and what hay to put in the stalls for them to sleep on? Isn't it the same hay? I've often wondered, for a horse, or a cow or goat, what it would be like sleeping in your food. If it gets hungry it can just pluck a strand from its bedding? Oh, you probably think I'm clueless. It's ok because I really am. But am trying to learn all of this stuff as a crash course!

Thanks for the info!

As Metella said, horses that have stalls that they live in are usually bedded with wood shavings of one kind or another. There are some people that bed them on Straw. The horses won't usually eat it. There isn't really any nutritional value in straw anyway. I have worked on several horse farms and they have all been the same with using shavings. The only time that I have used straw was when I was getting a stall ready for a broodmare (pregnant horse) ready to deliver her foal. It is much harder to clean. As for feeding it all depends on what the horse is used for. Pasture pets like Matella's are just find on hay and fresh grass all the time. Once you start doing things with them they have different food needs. Show horses need a certain amount of grains to give them the right muscles for their conformation. Brood mares need to have the right amount of calories just like women do when they are pregnant. Then there are horses like the race horses that need major amounts of calories to keep op with the amount of energy that they spend when they are training. I had a racehorse that I was training that I gave almost 30lbs of feed a day! They still need to have the hay as well. Horses that spend more time outside will need less hay then ones that stands in the stall all day. They are grazers and need to eat all the time.

You are doing the right thing trying to learn as much as you can. I was the same when I was a little kid. If I wanted a new pet I would try to WOW my mother with my vast knowledge about said animal in the hopes that she would let me have one..most of the time it didn't work, but I learned a lot that way.

Just keep in mind that you can hurt an animal even more by loving them to much as you could as if you were an abusive owner. You need to learn all you can like you are with polishing your chicks nails. Even if you choose to paint them a different color you have to think like a chicken...paint them red and it looks like blood, paint them green and it looks like grass, paint them black,brown, blue, orange, yellow and they all look like different bugs. They might try to peck off the color and eat it. Then you run into them getting possibly poisoned by the polish or they will peck so much that they start to bleed then you have to worry about it escalating to something much worse. So I would suggest that you go get yourself a mani and a pedi and leave your chicks O'natural...

 

[Lapeerian]

Seriously?

Someone could EAT one of those?

It's like a pet dog, it's on a leash!

Poor little tiny cow!

They are very tasty when they kick you.
Cows don't really "bite" because they have no top front teeth, but can sqeeze hard if for some reason you are sticking your hand in there. Now they do have a tounge of sandpaper that reaches out and grabs long hair pretty good!
Horses bite and kick.
Goats butt you with their heads.
Chickens peck you and roosters flog. According to Pharm, they also plot your demise.
Moral of the story: Any farm animal can be dangerous, no matter the size. I've had more problems dealing with Mini Horses getting vaccinations and hoof trimming than full size horses. They fight and flail like a 2 year old with a tantrum, except at 200-300 pounds with hooves. And there also exceptions. Growing up I could lay down next to full size cows or sit on them as they were laying in their stalls, but I knew which cows were safe and which were nutty. Depends on the amount of handling they had growing up (I was always in the barn) and individual temperment. I've watched mamma cows with a newborn attack tractors and a group of heifers follow like puppy dogs and come running with enthusiasm when called. Find an animal handling course and take it before deciding for or against any animal.
And they all poop. A lot. Everywhere.