***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[nnbreeder]

Jcatblum, are you finding the shells on these eggs paper thin? I would think a big egg house like that would supply their birds plenty of calcium. Also, Ronnie and I have found a bunch of soft shelled eggs. Wonder if that is stress related from their move from the world they have known their whole lives to this alien planet called Earth. They should be getting plenty of calcium now, though. We include %5 oyster shell in our Carnegie feed mix and now have a couple of bowls of it around for them to eat free choice.

Lack of sunlight will also make the shells thin. You might put some vitamins in their water for a time until their bodies catch up with the change.

Since they are getting a good balanced diet now I would mix it at 1/2 of what the packet says.

 

[jcatblum]

The shells are not as strong as my other layers. But I am happy to report the spare goat pen has worked perfect-- 8 of the birds are currently out scratching in the dirt under the trees. They are acting like any other chicken. The others are in the goat shelter not really moving around too much, but I did see a few scratching inside the shelter.

 

[nnbreeder]

Here is a good article on the soft shelled eggs

http://theranger.co.uk/admin/knowledge/vitamin d3[1].pdf

And the source from where it came, a free range site.

http://theranger.co.uk/

 

[Buster52]

The shells are not as strong as my other layers. But I am happy to report the spare goat pen has worked perfect-- 8 of the birds are currently out scratching in the dirt under the trees. They are acting like any other chicken. The others are in the goat shelter not really moving around too much, but I did see a few scratching inside the shelter.

Some of mine are adjusting quicker than others. I think I'm moving a little slower than you are. They don't yet have access to dirt or outdoors, but I have both doors open and screen doors up, and have several staring curiously out at the big world. They aren't bunching as badly as they were yesterday, but I can't exactly say they are acting like any other chicken. Certainly not like my pastured birds.

One of my Maran hens was very indignant they had taken over her secret laying haven. She snuck in this morning and after finishing laying her egg in a suspended nest box like a proper chicken should, the jumped with a big thump into the middle of them. Looked like a bomb went off in the room the way they scattered, with her at the center of it. She clucked at them for a bit before going through the door I had opened for her.

We are moving them out under our big shade trees tomorrow with several of our broiler pens and electro netting. After a couple of days on the dirt we will let them out of the pens on the grass to explore their new world,

Ronnie suggested clipping their nails with wire cutters. Erlene is thinking about doing that this weekend.

 

[Buster52]

Lack of sunlight will also make the shells thin. You might put some vitamins in their water for a time until their bodies catch up with the change.

Since they are getting a good balanced diet now I would mix it at 1/2 of what the packet says.

Thanks, Les. That is good to know. Will do.

I agree about big houses and free range. Full pasture operations use the feeders to get the birds out onto pasture and move them around to utilize the space efficiently. Where the feeder is, there will the bird be, also. So those areas get grazed the most. Vets like my big birds don't really need that, though, because they have learned the value of foraging. They can't wait to get out of that trailer in the morning.

But big houses... if they never learn the value of the outside, they won't go outside.

 

[NanaKat]

Quote:
I use those big clippers for dog toenails...works great. Do those girls need to be treated for mites or worms? I clip nails as I treat so I know which ones have been treated.


Quote:

Quote: You have to step out of the way when you open a gate or door on our place...you will get stampeded as they run out "en masse".

We have been moving cows this week and tagging, giving shots and ivomec for the ones coming home from one of the leases. There was still grass there but the cows were knee deep in mud around the pond. Really not a safe situation for the newer calves.

I've been leaving the free-ranging flocks out all day....letting them go in and out by choice. Since I wet down the pens, the girls have been going in on their own to lay and then change pens. But they are going to their own roosts in the evening. The garden is still the "green" zone and there are lots of grasshoppers and loads of shade between the beds.

 

[BlanchardOK]

So my main flock - all new babies this year - no eggs till now and then pop today one dz!!!!! Soooo excited!! We will have our own scrambled eggs in the am! We did the happppy dance all over the yard and house!

 

[Ksane]

So my main flock - all new babies this year - no eggs till now and then pop today one dz!!!!! Soooo excited!! We will have our own scrambled eggs in the am! We did the happppy dance all over the yard and house!

rofl!! I love 1st eggs!!

 

[jcatblum]

So my main flock - all new babies this year - no eggs till now and then pop today one dz!!!!! Soooo excited!! We will have our own scrambled eggs in the am! We did the happppy dance all over the yard and house!

Wow! Maybe they have been really good @ hiding them or a snake getting them first??? Awesome to have a good egg day.

 

[nnbreeder]

Tonight Teva had been home for just a few minutes when she heard a loud crash and went to investigate. Sure enough someone hit her work van.

She pulls the van about half off of the street for extra clearance so maybe it would prevent something like this but it happened.

Picture this, Second house from the corner, maybe 50 feet or so to the corner from her van. Gal turns the corner and hits the back of her FULL-SIZED van hard enough to knock it nearly it's own length and turn it nearly sideways, blocking the street, hard enough to break a Coleman cooler that was sitting behind the back seat. There are dash cams in the vans that see all directions all the time but when something like this happens it downloads it's loop to where ever it goes.

After reviewing the tape her supervisor told her that the van was probably done, the hit was that hard. Bumper was trashed and one rear door no longer opens and the sheet metal is wavey to the front of the rear wheelwell. I told her that there sounds like there is probably major frame damage too.

Five minutes earlier and Teva would have been sitting in the van doing her paperwork to end the trip that she had just came off of. Thank God for small favors.

I really wonder just how fast the gal turned the corner? And she had to have turned because it it a "T" intersection.