NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: How many chickens ? are they all cooped ?
There is also the boredom factor ...what else do they have to do besides eat ?
or do you let them out ? how / what are you feeding them ?
Yes , Fermenting the feed helps if you are feeding commercial feeds ..as it expands the food ...& they eat less .
Or you could just add some water to the food ...serve it like mush / mash .
Fermenting it is better though as it adds nutrition & makes it easier for them to digest.

 

[Beer can]

What does the can on the rod do at the top of the bucket?

It has peanut butter on it, the dumb mice or rats jump out to it, it spins and they get to go swimming in about six inches of water, they don't swim long and drown. Works great and catches them all.

Edited to add I've saw mice/rats drown in containers before, the peanut butter can just gives them more incentive to take the plunge.

 

[Beer can]

@Purpletie3 I haven't tried it yet but plan on it next winter, sprouting grain will help cut costs also I hear. There is some good threads on BYC on sprouting setups.

 

[rancher hicks]

So, I am running through about a 50 lb bag of feed every two days for my chicks. What can I do to buffer the cost of this? They are all 5 weeks - 4 months.

1. How many chickens do you have?

2. What type of feed are you feeding? Crumbles, Mash, pellets?

If you are using Crumbles or Mash you'll save if you make a mush out of it. You can add water or milk. There won't be as much dust and waste. Don't use coffee or they'll be up all night and don't use Vodka or they'll fall off the roost.

Pellets work well in that if they fall to the ground they can still pick it up.

I bought two heated dog bowls to keep it soft.

We renamed this guy Maurice the Wino. He's very popular with the ladies. They like his french accent.

 

[Lynzi777]

It has peanut butter on it, the dumb mice or rats jump out to it, it spins and they get to go swimming in about six inches of water, they don't swim long and drown. Works great and catches them all.

Edited to add I've saw mice/rats drown in containers before, the peanut butter can just gives them more incentive to take the plunge.

Ohhh ok, I see. I've heard of people making these before but never saw this method, makes total sense! Thanks

 

[Purpletie3]

This morning a beautiful Coyote trotted through my yard. I ran upstairs and had my gun in hand, but it paid no attention to the coop or pen, and it was very beautiful. Probably couldn't have gotten the window open anyway...but it's a good reminder that they are out there.

I swear I saw one too...Looked like a large fox dragging a fuzzy tail. I was ready to yell thinking it was my neighbors dog. First time I saw that thing too. i guess it's time for a long gun because my pistol is not so accurrate at that range.

 

[Beer can]

I swear I saw one too...Looked like a large fox dragging a fuzzy tail. I was ready to yell thinking it was my neighbors dog. First time I saw that thing too. i guess it's time for a long gun because my pistol is not so accurrate at that range. 

The first coyote I shot next to my house took me a bit, I wanted to be sure it wasn't a dog, I knew it was a coyote, it was pouncing on mice in the field, still I was hesitant.

 

[Purpletie3]

Question: At what point can you incubate a pullet egg? Should you wait for them to lay for 6 months etc... Are they fine when they have normal beautiful fertilized eggs?


Thank you all for the feed suggestions. I have over 100 little ones between my hatches & GFF order. I will try an mush it up because they absolutely lose most of the crumbles through the hardware cloth cracks. I already give them our food scaps but there really aren't much of them. There is one foursome of silkies who absolutely go nuts for apples. I just pluck the seeds out for them. I tried cabbage and lettuce and hung it from a string and most of them were scared to death of it...LOL.

I am planning on planting for them this year. Some real nice grasses and squash; maybe about an acre or two.

I cant wait until they can forage the yard. Supervised of course.

 

[mswendeu]

Guess what I found in my yard today.

I heard Delores and the gang outside the window. (They hang near the house). I go out and there in the yard is a beautiful Boxer. It was just looking at the chickens. It belongs to the neighbors who up until last year had stockade fencing.

I chased it away and I suppose it could have killed the chickens if it had a mind too. I'm not taking any chances. I will let them know.

Well I don't know about that boxers personality but, owning boxers of my own (hence my avatar pic) that boy Rowdy lives up to his name. He likes to chase them. His brother Pedey likes to play with them but, he scared a couple of mine to death literally. And my female Lucy attacks them. It's in the boxers nature to hunt them. So it seems to me like chasing him away was a very good choice.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Question: At what point can you incubate a pullet egg? Should you wait for them to lay for 6 months etc... Are they fine when they have normal beautiful fertilized eggs?


Thank you all for the feed suggestions. I have over 100 little ones between my hatches & GFF order. I will try an mush it up because they absolutely lose most of the crumbles through the hardware cloth cracks. I already give them our food scaps but there really aren't much of them. There is one foursome of silkies who absolutely go nuts for apples. I just pluck the seeds out for them. I tried cabbage and lettuce and hung it from a string and most of them were scared to death of it...LOL.

I am planning on planting for them this year. Some real nice grasses and squash; maybe about an acre or two.

I cant wait until they can forage the yard. Supervised of course.

That is alot of little mouths to feed .
What is your set up ? I started moistening food coz they wasted so much of it ..then I up-graded to fermenting