The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

Quote:
When my supplier had not ordered one week, I was forced to use Game Bird chick crumbles. It is also higher in protein.

 

[waddles99]

My chicks are also 6 weeks old. Start and Grow Medicated is what I used for all my hatchery chicks, and even these reds when they first hatched. After a couple of weeks of this, I switched to DuMOR Starter/Grower because it has 20% protein. If I had known about the 24% DuMOR Chick Starter before now, they would have been on it since day 1. Show Gold Trio Chick Starter has 26% protein for show birds ages 1 day to 6-7 weeks. Show Gold Chicken Grower Pellets has 21% protein and is for ages 6-7 weeks through final show dates... which I assume is late fall. Since my chicks were on 18% - 20% protein for the first 6 weeks, they may be a little behind in development. I'll use this feed for a few weeks to allow them to "catch up"...

My older (hatchery) birds now have free choice of Purina Layena pellets and DuMOR Starter/Grower, and it's made a world of difference in their appearance. I don't know how old my laying hens are (mature when bought), while my 5 Barred Rock pullets are 6 months old. They have all filled out, their feathers have never looked better, and egg production has increased. Out of 10 layers, I'm averaging 6-8 eggs daily. I know 2 of my older birds aren't laying, but I'm not sure which ones. Since they were our first, the wife has instructed me to let them live out their lives in peace. I'd rather get something in return for feeding and housing the boogers, but what she says goes...

In that case, I'm probably going to switch them over to a high protein grower ration right now. As I said they are only 6 weeks, so it isn't too late to switch. The birds in question aren't looking too bad. But, every bit helps. I have a couple smaller ones who look like they could use a bit more bulking up.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

Hubby tilled an area with one of his tractors and tiller and already planted it. He planted it more for the quail. They like to get in it and when it's ready to harvest the seed heads will bend over and the quail can eat it. We are thinking of selling this tractor and several implements including the 6' tiller. You can't really see it in the picture, but sitting in front of the tractor is a 6' bush hog. We also have a 3 pt chipper/shredder an chain harrow with a lift. We are getting old and my husband has Parkinson's. He can still get on this tractor and his John Deere front end loader but he uses the John Deere mostly so we will keep it. We also have a 1952 Farmall Cub he restored we are also thinking about selling..


For this tractor we have cultivators, discs, belly mower. This was set up for cultivating and hilling corn. It's on the trailer because I took it to a antique tractor show.

I kind of got off track on this post but the area hubby planted the Egyptian Wheat is pretty large.

I'm always a little off track... lol!!!

The wheat grass I'm referring to isn't mature wheat... it's the young wheat plant usually fed when it's a week or less old. This is the stage when the leaves have the most nutrients. You can feed chicks clippings of the grass if you want to get a couple of feedings from each batch, or you can let them devour the grass and seeds while it's mat form. You can easily grow a large, thick mat in a week's time, and your only limit is the size of the tray used to cultivate the seeds in. Rich soil would be nice, but growing it with nothing more than water results in an extremely nutritious product.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

In that case, I'm probably going to switch them over to a high protein grower ration right now. As I said they are only 6 weeks, so it isn't too late to switch. The birds in question aren't looking too bad. But, every bit helps. I have a couple smaller ones who look like they could use a bit more bulking up.

We don't co-own the same birds... do we? I have a couple smaller ones who look like they could use a bit more bulking up, too!

One of my cockerels seemed to have some difficulty swallowing as a newborn. It took several weeks before he could eat and not appear to be choking. He's definitely lagging in development compared to his siblings and hatch mates, so hopefully this will get him back on track. Of course, the other chicks will also be accellerating in growth as well. I'll have to keep a very close eye on all of them to make sure they don't gain too much weight....

 

[Matt1616]

I highly doubt them gaining to much weight would be an issue. You would have to feed something more than what your feeding to cause that.


Matt

 

[Fred's Hens]

The Rev Jim Fegan stopped by again yesterday. Always great to spend some time with Jim, who is getting up there in years. Jim was telling me about a big Reds show he was asked to judge out east recently. As he did his chicken pickin' he found most the Red bantams quote: "didn't have any black in their wing cuts". He was sorely displeased with that.

He did find one good Red, he said. In fact, he took him up to Champion row and the bird was made Champion American.

@Matt1616 Jim looked over a bunch of these bantam chicks. Took two pair home with him. I was delighted to have him do so.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I highly doubt them gaining to much weight would be an issue. You would have to feed something more than what your feeding to cause that.


Matt

Thanks, Matt. I've been comparing ingredients and (especially) levels of nutrients of different feeds, and the levels in this feed are very similar to poultry conditioner and feather fixer feeds... usually within less than 1 percentage point in variance.

I put some of this feed in a 3" PVC pipe with a couple of elbows that I threw together for a temporary feeder, and set it out with the chicks while they were free ranging. Once they spotted it, they swarmed it like Ethiopian chickens. It's like they were craving protein and somehow knew this feed has a good bit of it...

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I keep my feeders full and have not had a problem with the birds being too bulky. They eat what they want then go out and scratch around or dust bathe.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I keep my feeders full and have not had a problem with the birds being too bulky. They eat what they want then go out and scratch around or dust bathe.

In that case, I'll keep my feeders full indefinitely. Extra protein obviously isn't an issue for these birds...

 

[Matt1616]

In that case, I'll keep my feeders full indefinitely. Extra protein obviously isn't an issue for these birds...    

I have always fed my chicken game bird feed as chicken feed did not have what it took for my birds to mature out properly. I was told by a poultry nutritionist that if you give a chicken excess protein that they just expel it in their waste. He said it didn't hurt them. You may get a different opinion from someone else. I know people that feed show birds 30% Turkey starter their whole life so I don't really consider 20-25% protein to much. My starter is 26% and the grower is 20%.

Matt