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

[kitkat5505]

Rabbit manure is great for your compost and garden!

Yeah, once we finish harvesting the garden this year I'll be dumping the rabbit manure and the deep litter from the chicken run in those beds over winter and till it in next Spring.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I hate when I stop getting alerts for watched threads. sorry you had to deal with mites and getting all the coops and chickens cleaned and dusted, that's a lot of work!

Our baby bunnies are 7 weeks old now which means they can go to new homes next week! 8 bunnies eat and poop a lot! We're going to keep one female to stay with her mom, we already rehomed the dad. I'm going to do a deep clean of their coop once the rest are gone and hopefully getting everything clean and disinfected will get Meri (mom) and Georgia (the baby we're keeping) will go back to pooping in the corner Meri always used before instead of the whole cage.

4 of our hens are laying now so we get 3-4 eggs a day which is just perfect. I eat 2 a day then just enough for whenever I need them for recipes. When the other 6 are laying I'm going to have to make eggs for everyone more lol.

Did you run a local add? Mine aren't even a week yet but I need to find homes for them when they are old enough too, otherwise it's rabbit stew, cute adorable rabbit stew.

 

[kitkat5505]

Did you run a local add? Mine aren't even a week yet but I need to find homes for them when they are old enough too, otherwise it's rabbit stew, cute adorable rabbit stew.

Haven't posted an ad yet, have 2 friend's kids that want one (and the parents agreed lol) and my mother-in-law will probably take one. Plus the one we're keeping. So just need to find homes for 3 more. Going to post on my local FB yard sale pages. And who can resist these cute fuzzy part lionheads?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Haven't posted an ad yet, have 2 friend's kids that want one (and the parents agreed lol) and my mother-in-law will probably take one. Plus the one we're keeping. So just need to find homes for 3 more. Going to post on my local FB yard sale pages. And who can resist these cute fuzzy part lionheads?
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Mine are 1/2 mini lop and 1/2 lionhead, so mine should have the cute factor too. Yours are adorable.

 

[speckledhen]

Cute bunnies. All I see of bunnies are the innards and tail strewn across my walking path sometimes, ick. Thanks, Finn.

I'm beginning to get flack from my anti-fermented feed video. The religious zealots are coming out of the woodwork. I mean, what part of "LAB REPORT" do they not understand? All I hear are "My chickens love it". So, WHO CARES?! It's not what they like, it's what's best for them. And contrary to what they claim, chickens WILL eat food that is going moldy if that's all that's in front of them! This "my chickens won't eat moldy feed" is just ridiculous. Yes, they will. Some feed is not apparently moldy yet, but mold spores can be present and a hen who is not 100% healthy already can be badly affected by her crop malfunctioning really quickly. I know from experience. Plus, what an overly fussy way to feed even if it was entirely safe! I told someone that I didn't care if she gave her 3-10 chickens caviar and risotto, but a breeder with 40-50 or more chickens can't risk losing breeding stock to iffy feed.

 

[kitkat5505]

It drives me nuts that every post about chicken health or feed there are a few who reply simply to push fermented feed as if it's the answer to everything. I have way too much to do to even want to try something that adds more work to my life when the dry feed is perfectly fine lol.

 

[speckledhen]

It drives me nuts that every post about chicken health or feed there are a few who reply simply to push fermented feed as if it's the answer to everything. I have way too much to do to even want to try something that adds more work to my life when the dry feed is perfectly fine lol.

Exactly! Even if it was safe (and the way they're doing it is just plain crazy), it's labor intensive. Try that with 100 chickens! Insanity. The same type folks are often the ones who love to push vegetarian feeds like a chicken won't eat a bug.

 

[speckledhen]

I am going to make a Part 2 on the Fermented Feed Fad video. And I'm going to try to talk some sense into some irrational people. But, hey, the bats and clubs crowd may come out in droves to attack me again. I said it was like putting all your chickens out in the pasture all day because they love it so you leave them outside at night and say, well, no one got killed so it's completely safe to do and I'm going to continue the practice. Then, when coyotes slaughter the flock, you refuse to believe it was coyotes, in spite of evidence. You say, oh, no, it was completely safe, must have been something else that killed them, could not have been coyotes! Pasturing chickens overnight without protection is safe. I know because they were happy and enjoyed it!


Hey, Cheryl and Lisa, how are you two lovely ladies feeling today? And of course, everyone else, but those two have been on my mind a lot with their troubles.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have a feeling 90% of those claiming to ferment are just wetting the feed. It is weird how people want to push certain stuff onto others.

It cannot be denied that doing fermented feed of any sort from sauerkraut to silage to chicken feeds, that if done incorrectly you have have what is the equivalent to poison. We sometimes had moldy silage back on the farm, it had to be thrown out. Moldy silage killed my first bottle raised sheep. I'm not getting on that boat ever.

Now in the winter here I make up a warm mash with feed, oatmeal, and water to warm my birds up, which freezes pretty quickly, the feed not the chickens. After temperatures get above 20 I don't give any anymore. Though this year my numbers may prevent it, we will see how guilty I feel when we hit -20 degrees.

I'm healing up well after my surgery, though my insides still feel a bit tender so I continue to wear my binder for a bit longer.

I wish I didn't have my rabbits, they aren't my thing. They were adorable until they reached sexual maturity, but now they as moody and the males piss on me if I don't watch it while they are out. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I can't see keeping them long term. My husband is willing to eat them.

I am fighting the puppy demons, but I think I have convinced myself not to get one right now. My husband said I could have one for my upcoming 50th birthday, he should know better than to say that to me. Maybe next year.

I will get more shed pictures today. It's turning ungodly hot for the weekend, 90's with high humidity. I'm hiding in the house. It will be the hottest it's been here all year. Yuk!

 

[speckledhen]

I have a feeling 90% of those claiming to ferment are just wetting the feed. It is weird how people want to push certain stuff onto others.

It cannot be denied that doing fermented feed of any sort from sauerkraut to silage to chicken feeds, that if done incorrectly you have have what is the equivalent to poison. We sometimes had moldy silage back on the farm, it had to be thrown out. Moldy silage killed my first bottle raised sheep. I'm not getting on that boat ever.

Now in the winter here I make up a warm mash with feed, oatmeal, and water to warm my birds up, which freezes pretty quickly, the feed not the chickens. After temperatures get above 20 I don't give any anymore. Though this year my numbers may prevent it, we will see how guilty I feel when we hit -20 degrees.

I'm healing up well after my surgery, though my insides still feel a bit tender so I continue to wear my binder for a bit longer.

I wish I didn't have my rabbits, they aren't my thing. They were adorable until they reached sexual maturity, but now they as moody and the males piss on me if I don't watch it while they are out. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I can't see keeping them long term. My husband is willing to eat them.

I am fighting the puppy demons, but I think I have convinced myself not to get one right now. My husband said I could have one for my upcoming 50th birthday, he should know better than to say that to me. Maybe next year.

I will get more shed pictures today. It's turning ungodly hot for the weekend, 90's with high humidity. I'm hiding in the house. It will be the hottest it's been here all year. Yuk!

Lisa, I put your town on my Kindle weather app so I saw you're having temps about the same as us! Crazy!

I'm fine with warm oatmeal and stuff like that. I don't mind wetting feed for certain reasons, but I'd never leave it overnight, especially in summer heat. And I think you're right about folks completely not understanding fermented feed, what it really is. Their reasoning is that yogurt is fermented so all fermented feed is safe. Well, it's a completely different animal! That is lacto-fermentation, not something that ends up being alcohol like the way these folks seem to be doing it, the blind following the blind. Trendy is the thing. I'm just gonna say it-trendy is stupid, a stupid reason to do things, a stupid criteria for marking something as good. Now, I'll be accused of calling people "stupid", watch.