Sdwd

[Hillbilly Hen]

Good job with the downsizing Nella

 

[NellaBean]

Silly Kathy.....all the large fowl babies are still in the brooders. My coop should look empty! It has 14 chickens less than usual! Or rather....10 less than usual. 1 they took was from a brooder (white frizzle broody) and 3 were from the garage brooder (2 bantam cochins and my loofah coochin).

You know you have too many chickens when you remover 11 from your coop and it doesn't even look any different. sigh.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

The big question Nella, Are you going thru less feed ?

 

[NellaBean]

Well, they have only been gone 11 hours, so I'm not sure.

I kid, I kid.....it does seem like I'm going through less feed. I have changed up my feeding protocol at the same time as the downsizing though so its hard to tell. I now keep a feeder of 21% pellets and a feeder of scratch in the garage. Of course the chickens looooove the scratch.....but I do notice them going to the 21% too. Interestingly enough, the heavily molting leghorn was chowing down at the 21% while everyone else hit the scratch first thing this morning. I think they "know". My egg production is going up......but I am also feedings lots of leftovers and lots of scrambled eggs right now.

I went through my kitchen cabinets today. Sadly, at least half the food was expired! I don't often cook for myself but have TONS of food here....so I threw away about half, and kept the other half to cook for the chickens. They are going to be getting LOTS of rice and noodles this week.


I bought 3 bags of the 21% and I think 4 bags of scratch on 12/11 and 12/13. I still have 2 bags of scratch left (or about 1.5 now) and at least 1 bag of the 21%. This doesn't include any chick starter for the kids in the garage.

does that seem about right? 3 weeks using 1.5 bags of pellets and 2 bags of scratch? Hmmmm.....I guess I am feeding less than usual after all. I go through a LOT of scrambled eggs though. I hardly sell any eggs, don't really use any at all, and get close to a dozen a day.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Quote:
Wow, DH sells the eggs we get to guys at work and we don't have enough to keep up with the orders! I kept track of how many eggs I got last month and we got a total of 282.

Also, last year I fed the chickens pellets and they seemed to loose weight and I realized that they did not like the pellets. I had to switch back to the crumbles.

 

[NellaBean]

Mine make a disastrous mess with crumbles. They seem to eat more/easier with pellets. Less work for the same amount of food.

I sell a few dozen here and there at work or rarely to neighbors. I live in a rural area so only 1 neighbor gets eggs from me. Other neighbors have chickens......my coworkers get cheap eggs from the grocery store.

I may put a sign out front once spring hits and egg production really ramps up. If I keep 2-3 dozen LF hens, I should at least get 1-2 dozen eggs a day. I may just put a sign out on weekends when I'm home and pull it during the week.

i get between 8-12 a day for the last few weeks/month. That is 240-360 a month. Yikes. The chickens here eat good LOL.

 

[PepsNick]

Nella, as of now, how many do you own?

 

[NellaBean]

51 teenage and adult chickens!
26 babies (of which 12 will be kept) in the garage

I have a spreadsheet to keep track and everything, LOL.

51 here
15 left for sale/giveaway

That would leave me with 36....1 needs to be culled....add in the 12 girl babies I am keeping.......47 total!!

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
Wow! Sounds good!

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
I have three sheets of information copied from books and magazines and an newspaper article that I give to each new customer that promotes pastured chickens eggs. These mention all the good things about fresh eggs as opposed to caged commercial eggs. We need to get the word out so people eat healthier food.

Also it helps to mention "Food Inc" and that they can borrow it from the library for free.

Hope you get more sales than you can supply

Rancher