***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[artsyrobin]

Thanks cjarvis, I read the label and it seemed like it would be good for them mixed w/ the chicken food as a supplement. (the catfish food)

here is what i found at one site-

Quote: been wonderfully cool today, was able to integrate a couple groups, or in pens in the runs, so things are almost normal inside, except one chick that i thought i had fixed of splay leg a few months ago, as he got heavier his joints gave out again, so he is in a sling with a silky for company- any ideas on what causes something like that? he is a silky/cochin chick

and one thing surprised me, Chester the white silky rooster has been keeping company with nilla, the other cochin from MJ, well i added the silky pullets to the mix and there was no issue, nilla acted like they had always been together? usually she is a tough girl, not accepting of other hens...

 

[Poco Pollo]

Thanks NanaKat and Maribeth for the bee information. Our beekeeping instructor mentioned to lift the back of the hive to guesstimate weight each time we inspect the frames. My hive has been steadily gaining weight, so I'm confident that the bees are storing honey for the winter ahead. Is $17.00 for a package of 10 pollen patties a good price? Brushy Mountain has some on sale right now. They have a feeding stimulant added. Is that a good thing, or should I look for pollen patties without the stimulant?

 

[NanaKat]

I usually get my chicken feed and grain from a local feed store, but was browsing the feed isles at a TSC and have a couple of questions, I tried to google the answers already but didn't find any info.

first what is creep feed?? The only info I could find was you feed it to young weanlings to transition from mother's milk to eating, but what is in the bags of creep feed?

Catfish food, has anyone attempted to feed that to chickens? Anything in it that will hurt them????

Creep feed is a smaller version of the actual cattle cubes. 1/4 - 3/8 diameter cube as opposed to 3/4 inch cube for adults. Has the same nutrients.

We use floating catfish food for our ponds....haven't fed it to chickens. Will look at the label.

 

[NanaKat]

Quote: Just as Gatoraid replenishes our essential salts and minerals, electrolytes do the same for poultry. I mix a 1/2 tsp for each gallon of water during hot seasons. Since it is getting cooler and your birds free-range, they may not need it now.
I have had a few eggs during the hot weather that had a thin skin that peeled off the actual egg like dry skin. It was from on of my oldest hens (4 year old Delaware)

 

[Ksane]

Yes he is! I have him in with 2 pretty little pullets, here is one of `em she more curious about what I`m doing to worry about posing for the camera.

Thank you!

That's become my favorite bird color. I've got 4 different breeds (females) that same color, I love it. That was the reason I was looking for Dorking eggs, too-the hens are that color. I've got 5 little OEGB-the sweetest nosiest little things! They're the most personable little things

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

I bought mine from Ideal as posted above and they are nice hens. Mine have not started laying yet so not sure on egg color. I Plan on making my own EE in the spring as well as Olive eggers. I have a BCM roo and Ameraucana hens to make them and they will be blue in color since i am crossing a blue maran with blue ameraucana. I Also have the Black copper but i am going to use him to make the olive eggers when bred to my firs generation EE so i will be able to tell which is which lol

I bought my two naked necks from ideal. They were beautiful when they got here.

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

Betsy, OMG! I dread something like that happening, I can't believe I've never been bitten by one as much as I'm outside in areas they like. The bite Buster got seemed to really toss him through the ringer, I don't know that he's recovered yet. Scary.
Rinda, I have no idea what causes shells to look like that.
Christina, that's the same flu thing I've got. I can take TheraFlu and manage to feel a bit better for an hour or so. It's almost got to be something making the rounds.
Elbert, love the picture of that gorgeous bird in your shop! He's a Silver Duckwing OEGB?,
Joe, I can't imagine how proud your son is with all those ribbons That's so good for kids to be involved in things like that.
My birds are loving this coolness!

I saw Buster and his lovely wife a few days ago. I think he's mostly recovered. He looked fine. I have a nice Buster chicken roasting in my oven right now. YUM I can't wait until dinner.

 

[jcatblum]

For electrolytes I use apple flavored horse electrolytes from atwoods. I usally add the electrolytes to my soaked oats. We do feed some catfish feed, it's pricey but they love it. For those with waterfowl throw it in their pond & they happily gobble it up before it sinks. I usually purchase 14% creep from the apache co-op (in Chickasha). It's the same size as layer pellets & half the price. We put red cell as a vitamin supplement in their water once a wk. The creep doesn't have vitamins or calcium equal to poultry feed from my understanding, so we keep oyster shell available also. I know several others that feed creep as well. One of the guys that attends the auctions regularly was telling me he buys in bulk locally & they fill it in 55g barrels for him.

P&B then this is probally a NN from your eggs. They are all blue black & splash. They seem to stick together & not mingle too much with the other birds similar in age.

My chills & fever are gone thankfully. Was a miserable 24 hours! I am pretty tired slept most of the day, fingers crossed no one else in my house comes down with the virus! Mitzi was yours only 24 hours??

 

[Kassaundra]

For electrolytes I use apple flavored horse electrolytes from atwoods. I usally add the electrolytes to my soaked oats. We do feed some catfish feed, it's pricey but they love it. For those with waterfowl throw it in their pond & they happily gobble it up before it sinks. I usually purchase 14% creep from the apache co-op (in Chickasha). It's the same size as layer pellets & half the price. We put red cell as a vitamin supplement in their water once a wk. The creep doesn't have vitamins or calcium equal to poultry feed from my understanding, so we keep oyster shell available also. I know several others that feed creep as well. One of the guys that attends the auctions regularly was telling me he buys in bulk locally & they fill it in 55g barrels for him.
P&B then this is probally a NN from your eggs. They are all blue black & splash. They seem to stick together & not mingle too much with the other birds similar in age.
My chills & fever are gone thankfully. Was a miserable 24 hours! I am pretty tired slept most of the day, fingers crossed no one else in my house comes down with the virus! Mitzi was yours only 24 hours??

The catfish feed I saw was a couple of dollars per 50 lb bag cheeper then then chicken food and it was 32% protien. The creep was almost 1/2 the price of chicken feed and just as much protien. I knew it didn't have the ca, but I keep oyster shell free choice and feed back egg shell some (need to do that more just run out of time or energy) but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was and wasn't sure if it was lacking other nutrition that a chicken would NEED.

Thanks everyone for the comments and links on both creep and catfish food.

 

[BetsyOK]

Thank you for all your kind thoughts and suggestions. Looks like we caught this in time that I won't be having much problem with it. Both are definitely spider bites, but it is also possible it wasn't a brown recluse, even with the number I've found in the house recently--absolutely, positively brown recluses. Doc said the biggest problem is with infections,and that some people don't even react much to the bite itself, but it usually flares up in 1 to 2 days after the initial bite. So far it looks better than yesterday, and yesterday wasn't bad, just some redness, itching, and very clear fang marks. If not for people on here and a few I know locally, I probably wouldn't have acted so quickly with it and it might be a different story. I have several friends who live nearby and have had really bad problems with them. Either the bites or the antibiotic makes me a bit nauseated for awhile, but that's minor!

I did mention the nitroglycerine to the doctor, but forgot what it was mixed with. He said he hadn't heard about it but will research it.