The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[Leahs Mom]

Yep... Have to do a much larger scale when the flock is big. I have another simple system for the large flock that's pretty easy. But I seriously don't know if I'd do it for a large flock myself.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I guess that my main point is that if folks are going to the trouble to ff, sprouting is much safer and really has many of the benefits they think they're getting with the ff.

But I also think that a lot of folks only have packaged feed and not the whole grains.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I guess that my main point is that if folks are going to the trouble to ff, sprouting is much safer and really has many of the benefits they think they're getting with the ff.

But I also think that a lot of folks only have packaged feed and not the whole grains.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the majority of FF being fed isn't actually fermented, it's just wet feed waiting to go moldy. I feed wet feed sometimes in winter to warm up my birds, they love it just as the people claim they love FF.

I'd definitely do some sprouting on occasion if I was feeding a mixed grain instead of a ration.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Based on what I've read on the ff forums, I think you're correct.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@oldhenlikesdogs
For the first time ever, this last couple of weeks when it was so cold, I also made some warmed wet food for the birds and put it in a heated dog bowl.

I guess you and I are being like the "cream of wheat mom" giving them a hot, hearty breakfast.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

@oldhenlikesdogs
For the first time ever, this last couple of weeks when it was so cold, I also made some warmed wet food for the birds and put it in a heated dog bowl.

I guess you and I are being like the "cream of wheat mom" giving them a hot, hearty breakfast.

Mine love their ration mixed with some oatmeal. The people at the store must think I love oatmeal as I buy 6-8 every 2 weeks.

For some reason that I'm still pondering, my chickens eat less ration as the temperatures fall. So I make a mash to encourage them to eat it. It is gone within 15 minutes and my chickens fill up on a warm meal, followed up with some corn and boss tossed around to get them moving and scratching.

 

[speckledhen]

@oldhenlikesdogs
For the first time ever, this last couple of weeks when it was so cold, I also made some warmed wet food for the birds and put it in a heated dog bowl.

I guess you and I are being like the "cream of wheat mom" giving them a hot, hearty breakfast.

Yes, that's exactly it, warm cream of wheat or oatmeal, just like I did for my own sons every morning if they weren't getting eggs that day. I do that for my very old hens when the temps are super cold or when I have something I want to give them as a supplement to put it into so they'll consume it, like the organic flax seed and probiotics. I've also been mixing that flax seed with a bunch of beneficial dried herbs and just putting cups-ful in their feed as well. But, 99.9% of that they eat is their 22% layer pellet and daily ration of 13 way scratch mix, which has a lot of dried peas in it. Some will eat only the corn and peas, some will pick out the milo, oats and barley and maybe the BOSS. Whatever they're eating, they all look really good. And I do feel that their longevity is due not only to their genetics, but to their nutrition and the way we manage their environment. It's not really brain surgery, just simple things. Good food, dry bedding (Lizzie isn't helping with her wet pools of poop, but we get them every morning) and as much fresh air and sunshine as they can get, plus when available, green forage. Folks still comment on my Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management I wrote years and years ago.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, hawks are screaming all over the chicken pen. One landed just over my head in a tree in that pen. I guess it's mating season for them now. And Spike, my spur-less Belgian D'Anver rooster, marched out the barn door, cocked his head up to listen to a hawk screaming in a tree behind the barn, puffed out his little bull chest and crowed his squeaky crow. I said, "Are you nuts? You're telling him to come get you?". What a goof! I finally put them back inside and closed the barn door. Everyone has had a chance to go out and it's cloudy, occasionally misty and feels chilly because of the moisture.

I noticed that one of Neela's eyes was slightly puffy, just slightly, and seems a bit too watery, not draining, just watery-it's the one on the side where her nare is completely blocked off by a cyst. At the end of Caroline's life, one of her eyes did that, too, and if you recall, she had cysts in both nares. I always thought Caroline's nares and/or sinuses were malformed due to her constant sneezing for eight of her almost ten years of life. Neela is about to turn 8 years old, is very frail and very arthritic in one hock, and I wonder if this is her downward slide just like Caroline. I put terramycin ointment in the eye, but I don't think the eye is the main source of whatever is going on, I think it's her sinuses being partially blocked off. @1muttsfan, Mary, would you give her Duramycin or anything? Or what do you think I should do, if anything?

 

[1muttsfan]

If the discharge is clear I would go with just the terramycin for now

 

[speckledhen]

If the discharge is clear I would go with just the terramycin for now

Thanks, Mary. There isn't really any discharge, per se, nothing coming out of her eye, but it looks like her eye is just more watery than usual. It seems clear, though, but obviously a tad puffy. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, that's how subtle it is. The poor thing has a completely blocked nare on that side. We tried over and over again with Caroline to remove whatever it was, in case it was not just a cyst, but it would bleed and you know how hard it is doing anything around a chicken's beak/eyes. Neela is not any more cooperative than Caroline was about that. I'll put the eye ointment in that eye for a few days.