Ahaha thanks, i kind of had to, becuase my chicks are hatching in a week on tuesday
ahaha
Ahaha thanks, i kind of had to, becuase my chicks are hatching in a week on tuesdayahaha
My ducks will leave food in the bowl & come back for it later. I've never had a problem with them eating more than they can handle. My annies will walk out of the pen to go graze & leave half a bowl of feed to come back & nibble on throughout the day.Blarneyeggs was kind enough to send me 13 eggs for my friends classroom to hatch. They get white eggs from 4H but none of the students believed her when she told them eggs come in different sizes and colors. So far 4 of blarneys eggs hatched. 2 were lost due to cracking. The students are in awe! Thank you again! It has been such a wonderful experience for them. Here are a few pic that she sent me. Any guess on the breed?so they are anit kid ha ha ha, thats what we did with our ancona, we had the kids go with us to herd them in, but again not very friendly, they would come about two feet to me if I had peas or something thats it lol can they be overfed or not?
I give lower protien to meaties too. I grow mine out longer but they rarelly have leg problems this way. I have 1 out of this batch of 19 with a bad leg & it's not even enough to interfere with him getting around. He was 10 weeks old Sunday & is closer to the size of the 8 week olds, so his genetics were bad anyway. He will go with the batch being processed this weekend. We've just beenn grabbing the biggest 2-4 at a time & processing. them when they reach the size I want. 6 down, 13 to go. As for feed: I use a 22% crumble that my mill makes called Turkey Fast Grow for all of my babies. I have chicks, ducks, turkeys, quail & guineas all eating it until about 8-10 weeks or whenever they get tossed in the adult pens. Meaties get it til about 5 weeks then get switched to my cheaper adult food, which is still pretty high protein. Baby food is non medicated. I also ferment from day 1 for everyone. Older birds get a mix I have my mill make that's about 18% protein. It's 60% layer mash, 5% barley, 5% wheat, 5% dry molasses, 5% whole corn & 20% distiller's mash. There's some soy, but not a lot since the mash is also almost half distiller's grain. This mix gets fermented when weather permits to cut waste & boost productivity. I have also been known to add cayanne pepper when laying slacks in winter to get them back in gear. All adults have calcium either from oyster shell or egg shells sprinkled over the feed bowls daily. The males pick around it & the hens grab it as needed. I know they are getting enough when there are just a few pieces of shell in the bottom of the bowls each evening.
Thete are currently 6 roos, 1 tom & 1 drake in my layer pen, plus quite a few young roos that went out in the juvie group this week. There are occasional squables (usually cut very short by the tom) but none has ever even tried to come after any of us. I had 2 roos who were mean last summer. The banty was rehomed & the orp went to freezer camp. We have a rule around here: "You bite us, we bite you." All mean roos go to freezer camp.
I found putting the water in the bucket & then stirring feed into it works best to avoid lumps & dry spots. I use the mash mix because it saves me a ton of money & they can't pick through it to just eat what they want. The added 15% of extra grains in my mix gives them a few hidden treasures here & there, but not so much that they deliberately go digging for it & fling food trying to find the parts they want.
