Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[magsrags]

Whole new craziness here.

Four metal garbage cans in the ChickArena. One with organic scratch; at least 15 lbs of it; at least two years old. I feed it so sparingly, the 50 lbs has lasted this long.

The other three cans hold UltraKibble in one can, Layena Pellets in the next can, and Layena Crumbles in the fourth can. All fairly fresh.

But when I opened the scratch just now, it was LOADED with grain weevils. Millions of them! No bugs in the three other cans.

The BYC forum on pests gave me lots of conflicting information:
No big deal; it's just extra protein, feed it to the chickens.
Throw it all out, the bugs ruin the nutrition and they add lots of bug poop to the feed.
Freeze it all for a week and the bugs will die.
Microwave it all for five minutes and the bugs will die.

Yuk! No way am I bringing bugs into my house for either the freezer or the microwave.
Should I seal it all into a heavy duty trash bag and put it out for garbage collection
or should I keep it and feed it to the chickens? Will the weevils crawl up onto the birds and infest their bodies. EE-yooooooooo.

What do you Southern New Yorkers advise?
-Carolyn

I'd feed it to my girls.All that protein can't hurt if there is so little left.

 

[Cheeky Chick]

I'd feed it to my girls.All that protein can't hurt if there is so little left.

I second that. Don't bother with the freezing-chickens eat bugs while out in the yard anyway! I'd feed it to them and watch them go WILD for that NEW, TASTY, TREAT Mommy got them!!

 

[Cheeky Chick]

Rosie, I have a sister of Miss Boots if you want her. Just had a new neighbor complain about my chickens, so I am mega screwed and considering cutting waaay back.
Especially with the price of feed
She is blue.

I think that may be a good idea-considering they'll be about the same size! I also have a bag of medicated grower if you'd like-I've started the girls on the layer feed as of tonight, so I'd love for you to take it off my hands!

I cannot believe your neighbors have a problem with your chickens! They're pretty quiet and your place is so nicely kept! But that being said-I HATE my across the street neighbors, and have no doubt they'd complain about my girls if they knew I had them. The family next door, (the only ones that live close enough to maybe hear my girls) know I have chickens, and their besties that live down the block have chickens too, so I know nobody in that house would say anything. Thank goodness the houses here are really far apart.

I hope you get the benefits/doctors sorted out-I'm at such a loss with these people at this point-I'm having insurance issues myself. So many doctors are dumping all insurance companies since they get paid nothing by some of them (MY insurance company!!) The Ortho we've used in the past for my daughters leg fracture, who was excellent, no longer takes my insurance, so I've got to find another one close by-since they like to do a check up on the casting and that kind of stuff.

The school trainer gave me a name of someone in Stony Brook, so I'l call her on Monday morning, and hopefully they can get him in on tuesday. He's already got plans for a red and blue (school colors) cast, so that's good, but he's really still very upset. His coach wants him to come and help out at practice, so hopefully he'll be happy doing that for now. the guys all joked with him, and he laughed with them, so hopefully he still feels part of the team.

On a happy note, I finally convinced my husband that we should keep bees-so in the spring we'll be getting a hive and some honey bees! I adore honey, and it's so hard to find raw, local honey for allergies-this will be great!

 

[littlecritters]

Oh my goodness, I can't believe how much is happening with everyone. I'm so so sorry to hear all the problems. We are actually doing ok with the exception that my balance has been off this week (from the pain meds?) and I fell going up the deck stairs last night. Got stuck in the banister and landed on prickers from a rose bush. My hubby had to "rescue "me".

Queenchick: don't feel bad about missing out on purl soho. I made a trek there a few years back and was somewhat disappointed. The store was so small you could have stood in the middle, spread your arms apart and touched the yarn shelves on each side. Except, you couldn't even do that with the tiny narrow table in the middle of everything. No samples to ooohhh and aaahhh over. Maybe they've expanded since then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cheeky Chick]

Rosie, I'm so sorry to hear about your son. He must be so disappointed!

I've just discovered mohair yarn. I love the way it looks and feels...

If ya want some let me know! You could probably make some really cute stuff with it!

 

[stoopid]

Carolyn, give it the sniff test. If it smells rancid, toss it.
If it smells good enough to eat, feed it to them. Extra protein.

 

[Cheeky Chick]

My phone isn't connecting-I'll upload new pictures of the girls when I have cell service!

 

[Carolyn252]

Carolyn, give it the sniff test. If it smells rancid, toss it.
If it smells good enough to eat, feed it to them. Extra protein.

Alright! I'll go sniff first thing tomorrow. Spent the last five hours on a ladder power washing the ChickArena's roof. Whole summer's worth of leaf debris, twigs, hickory nuts, and general muddy dirt. Up the ladder, hose, hose, hose, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, hose, hose, hose, over and over again. Finally got all the mess at the back end of the roof; took the ladder to the back of the ChickArena and up the ladder, scoop up the debris and dump it into a big pail that I hauled up the ladder with me, and then down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, scoop, scoop, scoop. You've got the picture.

But it's all nice and clean now. Fed some of the buggy scratch to the two big girl hens, but not inside the ChickArena. Gave it to them out on the grass in their part of the backyard. They ate it all, bugs and all. Then put them to bed for the night and locked up the ChickArena.

Will sniff test in the morning.

Thanks for the advice.

-Carolyn

 

[Lapeerian]

Hi, everyone.

I posted a question on a different BYC board (egglaying behavior) and got only one reply. I'd love to hear what the Southern New Yorkers' replies might be. I value your opinions.

Here's the link to my question: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/702370/egg-song-practice-hasnt-squatted-yet#post_9536986

(I could have simply copied and pasted my whole question here for you, but I think the forum rules say that double posting is not allowed.)

Thanks!
-Carolyn252

I'm going to toss my little experience out here. I have a 10 pullets of various breeds, all March chicks. I was watching for squatting and listening for egg song. Didn't even have the next boxes ready since I seen no signs at all. They have a large steep bank next to the garage fenced in that they have access to all day. One day I walked past the pen after fixing a section of horse fence and noticed a pile of funny looking rocks, as the weeds are dying back. It was a clutch of 63 eggs. Not knowing the age, we were going to cook them up and feed them back. But after cracking two and getting a smell, they were all tossed. I immediately put a large litter box with a deep layer of shavings in the coop. I marked 3 of the eggs from the top of the pile and put in the box. After removing the rest of the eggs, I made sure the nest area was destroyed and any weeds near it pulled out or knocked down, to discourage laying in that area again. Mine were good girls and took to laying in the box right away without having to lock them in the coop. I still do a very close inspection of the pen now at least once a week for any new hiding spots. Two NH lay first thing in the morning, the one GLW in late morning and the one EE (white/black exactly like Toxic Chicks') has started just laying this week in the afternoon. And to this day, I don't see any signs of squatting (other than when the rooster jumps on them, not always by choice) and have never heard an egg song from them. Think the Australorp has just started laying, the 2 Orp girls and other EE should be starting soon. 2 Anconas will be a little longer, as they are the youngest by a week or two.

 

[magsrags]

I'm going to toss my little experience out here. I have a 10 pullets of various breeds, all March chicks. I was watching for squatting and listening for egg song. Didn't even have the next boxes ready since I seen no signs at all. They have a large steep bank next to the garage fenced in that they have access to all day. One day I walked past the pen after fixing a section of horse fence and noticed a pile of funny looking rocks, as the weeds are dying back. It was a clutch of 63 eggs. Not knowing the age, we were going to cook them up and feed them back. But after cracking two and getting a smell, they were all tossed. I immediately put a large litter box with a deep layer of shavings in the coop. I marked 3 of the eggs from the top of the pile and put in the box. After removing the rest of the eggs, I made sure the nest area was destroyed and any weeds near it pulled out or knocked down, to discourage laying in that area again. Mine were good girls and took to laying in the box right away without having to lock them in the coop. I still do a very close inspection of the pen now at least once a week for any new hiding spots. Two NH lay first thing in the morning, the one GLW in late morning and the one EE (white/black exactly like Toxic Chicks') has started just laying this week in the afternoon. And to this day, I don't see any signs of squatting (other than when the rooster jumps on them, not always by choice) and have never heard an egg song from them. Think the Australorp has just started laying, the 2 Orp girls and other EE should be starting soon. 2 Anconas will be a little longer, as they are the youngest by a week or two.

Very good to know!
Wow....63 eggs.....no disrespect intended but I'd have been a bit put off by those bad girls.

Bad chickies....bad chickies!