The Front Porch Swing

[enola]

Yes TRUE Araucanas

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Just pinging for signs of life out there because I'm feeling like I've slipped into an alternate universe ...

I've been on this quest to find sources for various ingredients for poultry feeds. I want the info as much so I can communicate intelligently with my feed mill as I do to maybe possibly buy something direct. But finding this information has not been easy! Google has been useless unless I have a brand name for a specific product, and even then I can't always find a company website or get any product details. I can see how a sales person might not want to waste time with me, but why is google giving me the cold shoulder?

Regardless:

I found out that there is a local company we deal with a lot for soil amendment type things & seeds & such that also has an animal feed division ... but when we called them to ask about some of their products, they acted as if they've never heard of the feed-grade versions. My feed mill person confirmed this is the case -- the two divisions aren't friendly with each other. So ... I recently found the web page for the animal feed division of this company. There is ZERO information about their products on their web page, just a lot of blah blah blah about how eager they are to form partnerships. There is a whole lot of contact information (maybe 20 different contacts across N. America), with every e-mail link being identical. It almost seems like a joke to me.

I e-mailed that link and asked for a product list -- I've not had much luck with this technique up to this point, most of my e-mails go unanswered, even when I send very specific questions. This time I got an answer back, "Tell us what you're looking for and we'll tell you if we've got it."

I told them we could keep each other busy for days with that strategy ... and further more I'm just too ignorant at this stage to even know what I want or what might exist ... but that I'm particularly interested in "stuff that would/could be useful for poultry"

and that I had a preference for stuff that was locally produced, GMO free, corn free, soy free. I did give him a few vague examples.

The guy wrote back saying he is local to me and wants to buy some eggs. I said if he got me the info I'd give him some eggs.

When I do make contact it seems to be with an interesting person, but so far I'm not much more informed than when I started digging for this info a couple years ago. I feel like I'm in some bizarro bubble. It's exhausting.

 

[Triple Willow]

I breed Araucanas. Can you post a picture of the chicken like a profile?

Well that is the best I can do for now. Hopefully I can get a better pic later. Any idea?

 

[Triple Willow]

TRUE Araucana? Where did you get them? Pretty uncommon I think.

How old?? It helps determine what you might expect to find in a cockerel.

Bruce

I forgot to add in the first post, 5 weeks. Got the eggs from a friend and hatched them out. I don't care if they are "true" Araucanas - they come frome some perdy blue eggs.

 

[enola]

To tell if they are rumpless just see if they have the little "tail part" at the end of their back (called a parson's nose).

My Araucanas are all rumpless, clean faced birds that lay blue eggs. But every breeder I have contacted has acted like they don't want anything to do with selling me eggs or chicks because I have bred different colored Araucanas on purpose........

I got my original birds from people on BYC.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Are there any Auracana folks here? Pullet or cockrel? Sorry the pics aren't any better. These chicks are wild as a buck, couldn't turn loose or it would be in Montana by now! LOL
...also, chicks are 5 weeks old. I don't know but I'm guessing and HOPING pullet.

I'll guess pullet. Just to have a guess. Not that I know what I'm talking about. But that's a wee little comb and normal neck feathers?

 

[enola]

I would guess pullet also.

 

[lazy gardener]

Ditto, pullet. Behaving like a pullet? My cockrel EE showed comb quite early, and had a lot of 'tude early on. He's now mounting the pullets and only 9 weeks old. Not crowing yet. If he turns out to be a nice roo, he gets to stay. His brother is at a friends house about 2 miles away, so if my guy isn't nice, his brother will get the option.

 

[lazy gardener]

I love the DL. The lower level of my hoop coop is DL, and there are way too many birds sleeping in it. (that will be somewhat rectified when the roos go to freezer camp) There's no poo to be seen, even after they've been shut in all night. I did clean it out last fall when i had a mite issue. But thinking that even if i do have mites again, the DL would perhaps have some active insect diversity that would help to control mites. Any thoughts on that one, Bee???

 

[enola]

The ONE time that I had lice on my whole flock of hens I treated the chickens, did a follow up treatment and ended the problem.

I actually never changed the litter. I used it my garden and I sold some to a gentleman that used it on his rose gardens. $5 for a sackfull of composted chicken poop made us both happy!