Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[beaglady]

To just have a friend in the back field to hop on and got for a ride, that isn't that bad. I spend more on my birds in a month.

The first thing I thought when I ready our post is that I should trade my chickens in for a horse. If only... (No fencing

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[SilkieSensation]

Quote: I cut the feed bags down 1 side so they open out single layer & then staple them to the inside walls of my coops like wall paper. I even use them on the outside of some of my wire cages as rain shields or wind brakes, especially in winter. The tightly woven bags (Purina, Nutrena, store brand feeds) work much better than the plastic burlap style or paper mill bags. The paper ones get wet & stinky & you can't clean them. They have to be replaced instead. And the mill bags shread when you try to cut them so would need to be used whole in a double layer to be effective. They are also much more porous than the heavier bags so don't keep air out as well. All you have to do with the heavy bags is hose them down or take a scrub brush & some dish soap to them a couple times per year to keep them poop-free.

This question is for those of you with 100+ birds. I have 60-70 chickens (yep I loose count when they won't stand still) 6 geese, 19 duck and a few quail. What is the average amount of feed I should be going threw per week. They don't free range ( well a few hop the fence) and I do throw in things from the garden and scraps from canning (almost daily). I'm averaging about 200# of feed a week. Is that too much, just right or not enough? They act like pigs so I don't know if they are hungry or just have me trained to feed on demand. I only feed them twice a day. There is usually still powdery stuff left in their feed dish when I go out to feed them in the evening.

I ferment feed so actually use about half what I did when I was feeding dry. I currently have about 12 guineas, 40 chickens, 11 geese, 60 ducks, 4 turkeys, a few left-over quail that didn't sell, and about 20 babies of assorted breeds in 3 brooders. Here is the list of what I buy at the beginning of each month (I just got rid of close to 100 birds, mostly quail & babies) so my feed use has gone down a lot in the past 2 weeks. When I was feeding 200-250 birds daily I was using:
200 pounds starter/grower
480 pounds meat bird
600 pounds layer mash
450 pounds grain mix that I have made at the mill
50 pounds oyster shell
__________
1780 pounds of feed/shell per month
aprox. 415 pounds per week for 200-250 birds

That comes to about 1.6 pounds of feed per bird per week. Of course, quail eat much less than geese & turkeys, so it is just an average. None of my birds free-range and I tend to over feed because I prefer to give them too much rather than too little. The way I judge whether they are getting enough is to check the bowls each evening before putting them to bed & see if they are close to empty or picked completely clean. If they are mostly empty with a few spare crumbs then it's perfect. If there is a lot left then it's too much. If it's picked totally clean by mid-afternoon then they need more food. I have a couple pens that I give 2-3 feedings per day because there is either competition for the food because there are a lot of birds in the pen or because they are younger birds & I like to split their feeding up into portions to make sure they are getting enough without wasting it. The brooders are fed on-demand, I just fill bowls when they are almost empty.

Quote: My daughter has been after me for a horse for years, but we have the same problem: not enough room, no barn & no fence.

 

[nbenevento]

I wouldn't give up so quickly,,,,isolate her with those eggs she just might decide to sit back down on them,,,,the time off the eggs should not hurt them this early on and considering the weather...I would give her atleast 48 hours to decide.

Ok, I left the eggs in there any a lot of the other hens layed eggs Witt them. Fortunately it was easy to tell them apart. I am going to mark them in a minute and leave them for one more night. Maybe someone will sit on them. Other than that, I am tossing them tomorrow. I didn't really want chicks right now anyway, I was just excited because I never had a broody before.

 

[chippysmom327]

Ok, I left the eggs in there any a lot of the other hens layed eggs Witt them. Fortunately it was easy to tell them apart. I am going to mark them in a minute and leave them for one more night. Maybe someone will sit on them. Other than that, I am tossing them tomorrow. I didn't really want chicks right now anyway, I was just excited because I never had a broody before.

My avatar hen is a total diva. She tells everyone she is broody for as long as 12 hours and then decides she's not broody anymore. She does it probably once a week.

 

[LisaYolkUm]

I am noticing that my silver laced Wyandotte , who is about 10 weeks old, has her beak misaligned.

the lower part of the beak is more to the left than the top part.

I never noticed this before.

Is this a problem?

Is this due to growth or injury?

she is eating and drinking and growing well enough.

 

[BullChick]

Just a quick update. My broody Australorp stopped being broody after I moved her last night. I should have just built a cage around her in the weeds. Next time I will do it differently. She had already sat on the eggs for approximately 24 hours and didn't sit back on them last night so I will trash them when I get home today. I didn't really want chicks this late in the year anyway but it was exciting for a minute.

I had a broody do that. I put her back in the layer pen, and she went broody again. I too decided to not let her brood in the end. It wasn't practical in the layer pen.

 

[BullChick]

I am noticing that my silver laced Wyandotte , who is about 10 weeks old, has her beak misaligned.

the lower part of the beak is more to the left than the top part.

I never noticed this before.

Is this a problem?

Is this due to growth or injury?

she is eating and drinking and growing well enough.

It is a cross beak. It is sometimes a birth defect, sometimes an injury (pecking at hard things at a few days of age). I am part of a cross beak thread. Join if you would like more info. Otherwise, just know she may eventually need deeper food and water bowls, and you will need to trim her beak periodically.

This is Cadbury. I trim her beak slightly to help her eat. She does best with pellets or FF (which is why I began FF). She finally began laying and has even gone broody.

 

[LisaYolkUm]

It is a cross beak. It is sometimes a birth defect, sometimes an injury (pecking at hard things at a few days of age). I am part of a cross beak thread. Join if you would like more info. Otherwise, just know she may eventually need deeper food and water bowls, and you will need to trim her beak periodically.

This is Cadbury. I trim her beak slightly to help her eat. She does best with pellets or FF (which is why I began FF). She finally began laying and has even gone broody.

awwww my pullet's beak is not as severe as your pictured one. cant imagine trimming a beak........I will check out the cross beak thread...thanks!

 

[LisaYolkUm]

I have been browsing the crossed beak thread.....................there are so many posts it will take forever to get the basic info!

I see
----use deeper food and water bowls
---wet food seems easier to eat because it sticks............for many birds

some people trim the beaks yet I cannot get reliable info on how to do this.

What I am thinking is that my Sylvia is very young , just 10 weeks, and I really didn't notice till recently so maybe it is more recently developing ( or I am clueless---but I just don't want to go there)

so...............I am looking for what I might be able to do, if anything to limit it from getting worse.........maybe even help a bit.

she does seem to eat and drink well and is growing nicely. She is not my smallest pullet..................she eats a lot.........................

anyone know of a good reference guide so I do not have to spend a week reading posts ?

 

[BirdbyGavin1103]

I have been browsing the crossed beak thread.....................there are so many posts it will take forever to get the basic info!

I see
----use deeper food and water bowls
---wet food seems easier to eat because it sticks............for many birds

some people trim the beaks yet I cannot get reliable info on how to do this.

What I am thinking is that my Sylvia is very young , just 10 weeks, and I really didn't notice till recently so maybe it is more recently developing ( or I am clueless---but I just don't want to go there)

so...............I am looking for what I might be able to do, if anything to limit it from getting worse.........maybe even help a bit.

she does seem to eat and drink well and is growing nicely. She is not my smallest pullet..................she eats a lot.........................

anyone know of a good reference guide so I do not have to spend a week reading posts ?

If it has anything to do with her diet, I have read multiple times on a FF thread that the added nutrition absorption when feeding FF has corrected mild forms of cross beak caused by diet. I am not saying that she needs better food or that it was caused by her diet, but if you find that is the cause than FF may be the way to go. As far as trimming her beak, or changing dishes etc I can't give advice since I don't have any with any cross beaks of any severity.
If you are looking for something specific in a thread you could do a search, the icon to search a thread is right under the thread name and page number.