The Buckeye Thread

[CanadianBuckeye]

MCM that's still an awful lot of eggs! How well do your Welsummers lay compared to the Buckeyes?

 

[Minniechickmama]

My Wellies have been very good layer. They lay large eggs and even as pullets put out a good sized one. But I had a guy who has bought quite a few birds from me over the last few years tell me his didn't lay well at all and he got rid of them. I have to wonder, he free ranged and I don't know if they could have been hiding the eggs. I was shocked to hear that they were laying well.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I wonder if he just expected them to pick up all their nutritional needs by free ranging? I'm often surprised at the number of people who expect great production on no or poor feed. I'm no expert but I'd say if a hen can produce 150 eggs a year on free range, that's an absolutely excellent layer. JMO.

 

[stryker]

My Wellies have been very good layer. They lay large eggs and even as pullets put out a good sized one. But I had a guy who has bought quite a few birds from me over the last few years tell me his didn't lay well at all and he got rid of them. I have to wonder, he free ranged and I don't know if they could have been hiding the eggs. I was shocked to hear that they were laying well.

I would agree with you that they might be hiding the eggs. All of my welsummers ended up laying under one of the nest boxes in a corner behind my feed barrel. I have to almost lay on the ground to fetch the eggs. They are keeping up with the buckeyes but my coop is in the 50's which I dont like but I have chicks. The floor has about a foot of straw on it so that also helps.
They do need food to survive.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I have a question about rooster management. I have only one rooster, and he's in with the laying hens. They have pelleted non-GMO 18% protein layer feed, and non- pelleted no soy mash that has all sorts of other seeds, grains and herbs in it along with vitamins, that they can pick through (and they do, and they waste a lot of it so I'm thinking about not feeding this in the winter when I can't wet it to make it stick together). They free range in the summer.
I also feed sunflower seeds, meat, and scratch, sesame seeds, flax seeds, and greens on occasion.
My question is, I've heard that feeding roosters layer rations will harm their kidneys and that some breeds are more prone to this than others. Is this a problem for Buckeye roosters?
I'm in the process of changing my management practises as I get more chickens. I plan on housing the roosters separately from the hens except for breeding season.
Any thoughts / advice?

 

[Minniechickmama]

Once my birds are off chick starter, everyone is on a lay formula. I have never seen a problem with my roosters having issues of that sort.
The only other feeds I give are some cracked corn when it is really cold to give them some extra carbs to burn, and during molt I turn it up to an 18% protein pellet for just a little more protein for feather making.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Oh good! The impression I got was that some breeds were more sensitive than others. Seems the Buckeyes are tough!

 

[Minniechickmama]

This is the feeding program for all of my breeds, not just Buckeyes. Any well-bred birds should do well on a normally prescribed poultry ration. Some think that pushing feeds like gamebird formulas are the way to go for a breed like Buckeyes, but the fact of the matter is, if a bird cannot perform well on a normal diet, then the genetics of that line is lacking. I can push higher protein to any breed to attempt to pack on muscle, but in the end, mostly what you are doing is taxing the organs of the birds, which creates an inferior bird in the end. Not only do I want birds that meet the standard weights and size at a reasonable time, I want them to be a longer lasting bird. One of the reasons I have gone to standard bred poultry is to get away from the short life of a hatchery bird, who are bred to pump out a higher number of eggs early, then burn out within a less than average lifespan. That is a trade-off many are willing to make.
I must say I keep thinking about raising my own mealworms to feed out on a regular basis as I think it offers something my feed doesn't have and they don't get in winter especially, live protein. I look at it as a side dressing option, not to maintain a higher protein necessarily. I don't feed BOSS because my birds just look at it and I am sure that would attract even more sparrows and other wild birds I don't want. But that is a nice option in the winter because it does offer a high energy boost to them for keeping themselves warm.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

MCM what is the chick starter that you use? What's the protein content of that, and at what age do you switch them over?

 

[Minniechickmama]

Here are the three feeds I use:






These are all vegetarian, locked formula rations. Some people stick by needing animal protein in the feed, but I find that most feeds I have looked at, the animal protein consists of "feather meal", which along with just seeming wrong to me, only provides 2 essential amino acids to the diet, whereas the corn and soy together meet all 7 aminos needed for them. My feed goes under both Blue Seal and Kent labels here in the US.

I found also that my line of Buckeyes have had a higher need for Vitamin E/selenium than what previous feeds contained. I was getting about 6% of my chicks with a neck/head problem that can be traced back to a lack of these in the feed they were getting. I switched feeds and I think last year I had two cases from the few hundred chicks I hatched that came down with it. It can be corrected with giving vitamins daily, which is why I kept going back to research vitamin deficiency issues. After 4 years, I finally got my answer. Prior to that, I was culling all chicks that had the problem, thinking it was a problem with the chicks, but it was a problem with the nutrition of the parent stock.