Texas

[magpiesing]

I do ferment my feed, but everything about fermenting goes against my nature to feed fresh food, not rotting food. I mentioned fermenting to the avian vet, and asked him briefly about the merits. He wasn't so sure that fermenting was such a benefit for chickens as the fermenters claim. I'm not sure they really do eat less. I think they waste less, which is not the same. A lot of the people who ferment, feed once a day and then the chickens have to forage for the rest of their food. I know the people who ferment swear by it. I do it, but I'm on the fence. The next time I go to the vet I'll ask him why he is not as enamored with fermenting as the fermenters are.

Check out the link I posted below. It may help you feel more comfortable about what you're feeding. It's really not rotting food' it's fermented like saurkraut. Anyway Good luck Magpie

 

[Ms Jellybean]

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/harris-farms-easy-fill-drinker-5-gal-capacity

This by far has been my favorite water container. We haven't tried a nipple system or cups but after finding this we probably won't. You simply take the lid off of the top, fill it, and you're done. We use big open containers for our hens but this is perfect for younger chicks and if you have smaller chickens in with the bigger ones. If we weren't already using open containers for the older ones I would use this across the board!

We've tried http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/farm-tuff-top-fill-poultry-waterer-5-gal and http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/harris-farms-poultry-drinker-35-gal-capacity

The first one is extremely hard to screw/unscrew the top and the second one is just nasty because you have to flip it upside down.

I will look into those. If my local store doesn't have them I found them here for less.

Thank you folks for the info on ferrmented feed. Don't have any chicks yet, but will save the info for later. Going to try this on our big birds. We feed layer crumbles, scratch and some fresh veggies as treats. They love the core of sweet peppers. They go crazy for the seeds!.We have twenty birds, would it hurt them to give them a whole head of lettuce and let them have fun with it? When I have stale biscuits we toss a couple of them in the yard and they play keep-away, we call it chicken soccer.

Just don't use iceberg lettuce. Go with leaf or romaine.

Got my first chicken book in the mail today. "Fresh Eggs Daily". Only read a few pages but I'm excited. Herbs and good diet are the best way to go for me.I don't like using chemicals and meds unless no other choice. I don't use chemicals on my garden and hate the thought of what we get in our food. Best meat I have in my freezer is the venison from our fall hunt. I'm sure we will eventually eat some of our chickens. Not looking forward to that day though. Kinda gotten attached to a few of them. LOL just looked out the window and there's a chicken looking in!

I love that book! I get her news letter from her blog and I 'liked' her on FB too.

Hi folks, just went out in search of more info on fermented feed. Missbee? anyway she has it pretty much down. This article explains why it's good and the do's and don'ts of making and using it. i found it very helpful and am definitly going to do it. http://www.gardenbetty.com/2013/05/why-and-how-to-ferment-your-chicken-feed/

I like reading her site too. I won 4 books from her earlier this year, or was it in December....anyway, one was on chicken keeping. I like that book too. I don't remember who it is by right now. It's good info to go along with Fresh Eggs Daily.

 

[Roosting Robin]

I am currently bummed out. I've been so excited about raising chickens since I retired and moved in December. Our coop is on the back side of our shed that we built for our washer/dryer and freezer since we live in an RV. But we ran out of funds before doing the coop side, so I had to wait. March is when we budgeted to be able to finish. So I ordered 18 pullets to be delivered April 14. Now I find out my husbands grand kid is having his first T-Ball game April 14, so we won't be home for delivery. Next available date - May 18! I can't even go get any at TSC because we will be gone 4 days. April 15 is still before Easter. Will feed stores still have good chicks then?

 

[SlipsWife]

At what age does everyone integrate chicks to the main flock? How do you do it?

We aren't there yet but we did put our frizzled bantam cochin hen in with the 1 week old chicks this afternoon (while we were right there) and she seemed to enjoy it. She just watched the chicks, about 50 and 4 ducklings, running around. The chicks kept running up to her. Once she seemed a little overwhelmed because a large group ran at her at once but she tried to run away from them and calmed down quickly. They were in a 10x10 pen for some sun and exercise. This has been one of the sickliest orders we have had but the sun and fun seemed to have perked them up some.

We also brought out one of the turken pullets, a month old, and let her run around with the older hens while they were free ranging. They pretty much ignored her. At one point we put one of the red sex link hens in with the 1 week old chicks, she lasted about 2 mins before she went to peck someone on the head and back out she went.

I know from our small group of hens, 6 standard and 2 bantams, there are 2 girls we will have to watch out for when we start adding older chicks into the mix. For the most part, our hens are calm (unless there are treats involved and then ALL bets are off) and I don't think there will be to many issues as long as they have a way to get away from each other. We have the 4-5 week old chicks in a grow out pen attached to the coop where the hens can see them. Twice now a chick has managed to dig under and get into the coop. At first I thought that one of the hens had pecked the first one because she, the younger chick, had blood on her beak. Then the next chick went under and I saw what had happened, they had scratched themselves on the wire going under. Even with the blood the interest of the older hens while the chick was in the coop was minimal.

I think when we go to add the new guys in we might remove the 2 that tend to be trouble makers for a couple of days, add the younger ones at night. Once the hens that are usually pretty calm get use to the new chicks we will add the other 2 back in the mix. I think that will help stop the calmer hens from following the not so well mannered girls if they aren't to friendly. We will probably try free ranging them together for a week or so first too but we still have awhile.

 

[magpiesing]

I will look into those. If my local store doesn't have them I found them here for less.

Just don't use iceberg lettuce. Go with leaf or romaine.

I love that book! I get her news letter from her blog and I 'liked' her on FB too.

I like reading her site too. I won 4 books from her earlier this year, or was it in December....anyway, one was on chicken keeping. I like that book too. I don't remember who it is by right now. It's good info to go along with Fresh Eggs Daily.

Why not iceburg lettuce? Hard to digest? Been feeding them fresh mustard greens from the garden, but thet're getting bitter I guess. Was wanting to give them some other greens. thanks Magpie

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hi folks, just went out in search of more info on fermented feed. Missbee? anyway she has it pretty much down. This article explains why it's good and the do's and don'ts of making and using it. i found it very helpful and am definitly going to do it. http://www.gardenbetty.com/2013/05/why-and-how-to-ferment-your-chicken-feed/

That was the first article I read that had scientific studies backing up their claims on ff. Everything else I had read was anecdote and opinions, not science. Thank you.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

I am currently bummed out. I've been so excited about raising chickens since I retired and moved in December. Our coop is on the back side of our shed that we built for our washer/dryer and freezer since we live in an RV. But we ran out of funds before doing the coop side, so I had to wait. March is when we budgeted to be able to finish. So I ordered 18 pullets to be delivered April 14. Now I find out my husbands grand kid is having his first T-Ball game April 14, so we won't be home for delivery. Next available date - May 18! I can't even go get any at TSC because we will be gone 4 days. April 15 is still before Easter. Will feed stores still have good chicks then?

So sorry to hear your plans had to change. Chicks will be available for quite some time yet. My local feed store carries them all summer.

Why not iceburg lettuce? Hard to digest? Been feeding them fresh mustard greens from the garden, but thet're getting bitter I guess. Was wanting to give them some other greens. thanks Magpie

There isn't any (ok, much) nutritional value in it and it is higher in water content than leaf lettuce. It can give them the runs.
Do you have health food stores near you, or places where they sell smoothies that have wheat grass in them? If so call and see if you can have the 'leftover' wheat grass. They may give it away. There will still be some green left on it and the chickens will love the roots and unsprouted seeds too. You can cut the mat into sections to feed out. You can even grow it out a bit too. Just put it in a plastic tub and water it, let it soak a bit then dump the water. You don't want it to stand in the water.

I am building raised beds in my run to grow greens for my hens. I'll cover them with chicken wire so they won't destroy it and it can grow back. I'll do wheat, rye and oats.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Want to hear something funny?

My sister doesn't want any fresh eggs from me when I have them because they don't have an expiration date.

 

[Brookshire11]

I will look into those. If my local store doesn't have them I found them here for less.

I went to TSC yesterday (no chicks yet, it was safe! but non I'd be interested in anyway).
It's not my favorite store but I thought I did see those waterers
Some poor guy there was buying one of those cheapie, too-small coops for his wife. He asked me if I thought it was small and I answered honestly, yes, I thought it was, but then again I have 8 birds.
He goes "Good! I want to limit the amount of birds she can get."
I just laughed and thought "Good luck buddy!"

 

[jajeanpierre]

Want to hear something funny?

My sister doesn't want any fresh eggs from me when I have them because they don't have an expiration date.

How far from nature have we come? Does she not eat fresh carrots because they come out of the ground and not a cellophane bag?

My 23-year old son would not eat my fresh eggs because, as he put it, they came out of a chicken's butt. Real live chickens reminded him of that--he didn't have to think of that with store-bought eggs.