Here the chick feed from the pet shops is ridiculously expensive too. But the factory that sells per at least 5 bags (100 kg ) to everyone who is willing to collect without xtra charge is rather cheap. €16 for 20 kg.
Price isn't really an issue for me, especially now that we're selling some of the eggs, the chickens pay for part of their food ! But paying a lot without knowing what I'm getting bothers me.
I'm no expert but that seems like a long time to me
Yes, me too ! I had completely given up on hoping to ever see something other than foamy liquid yellow poop from them
. It happened gradually, in spring all the chickens had pretty bad poop with a lot of intestinal shedding, and after that I was paying more attention to Nougat and Kara's poop. And one day I realised the yellow foamy poops were 95% gone. There is one every now and then but it's rare.
I don't know what did it and why it took so long.
When they first arrived they ate like they were ravenous but that was over in less than two or three months. They were all dewormed and two, Lilly and Nieva, had rounds of broad spectrum antibiotics for other issues, and that did nothing.
I don't think it was only due to the food because food gets digested in a few hours, and the transition of diet could maybe take up to a month, but not more.
My understanding is that first few weeks really matter for the establishment of a bird's gut and microbiome. My flock's health only really improved significantly when I stopped giving commercial chick feed (but because of the feed fear-mongers and nay-sayers on BYC I only got the confidence to do that after a couple of years of feeding the adults home made feed). Pasty butt, for example, is just a thing of the past here now.
I only saw two sets of chicks hatch here but it was a worry for me that although they were fed exactly the same way, the first lot had perfect poops from the start whereas the second hatch of chicks last summer had terrible poops. I kept thinking they would fall sick, but it didn't happen.
Although both had access to starter feed, the broodies Léa and before her Chipie were very reluctant to let them eat it past the first day, and they actually really began eating it only once they were on their own at six weeks. I was giving it on the ground, as a mash, on small plates, mixed with yogurt and no matter what Léa would make screaming noises like it was a dangerous thing
.
They can be stored in bran in the fridge, so I think they are OK as low as 4 degrees C. Their metabolism just slows right down.
That's great news ! We would put them in a storage room that is closed and not heated in winter, and usually stays between 8 to 12 (46 to 50) so it might work without supplementing heat. Although it would be nice to have some worms to give to the chickens in winter.
********
I ended up just unwrapping Lilly's foot yesterday and soaking it for ten minutes but she's now really too full of pin feathers to do anything more. The foot will have to wait, which isn't great because there is obviously a small mass of hard pus forming inside. At least it doesn't hurt her and in spite of her awful way of moulting she is still full of energy. She took a break from laying today, I hope she will slow down a bit or even pause. That would be good as she is one of those who lay daily.
Alba has been limping for the past days. She is more or less healed from her bumblefoot, but now her other leg is really hurting her. She could not put the foot on the ground yesterday. She has a small swelling on her leg just above the foot. I thought it could be the chicken equivalent of an ankle sprain but when I looked up the image I could find of the chicken's anatomy, which are not sufficiently detailed for the leg, it turns out the ankle is actually much higher. I'm not sure if there is some joint where her leg is swollen, and it feels squishy. Does anyone know ?
Today I gave her some metacam as NSAID and she is responding to it, she can walk again, so there must be some kind of inflammation.
It feels much calmer now, partly because the chicken's days are getting much shorter. They are not so eager to get out of the coop and they go to bed really early - there's still some rooster kerfuffle but they are all settled down at six. There also isn't as much work left in the garden. We need to finish harvesting the potatoes and beans, harvest the squashes that are already ripe and wait until just before it freezes for the others. Because it's much colder now, we only need to water twice a week and since we don't do winter crops the only things that still need weeding are the carrots and leeks. It's been the shortest summer season for the garden but hopefully we will still get tomatoes and courgettes until mid october.
?
️
She eats sll their leftovers. I don’t want to ask other neighbours.
) its not allowed to mix flesh or fish in the commercial feed. Only dried mealworms, tiny river crab/lobsters and such are allowed to add in the poultry feed /farming feeds.
