The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

fox and coyote can and will climb if given enough incentive...

Well, I'm no fox or coyote, but I like chicken enough to climb for it (and I'm not that good at climbing lol).
Were you able to take care of things?
I think you said you were going to leave the dead bird out so whatever it was would leave the rest of your chickens alone, is that right?
I hope you can avoid anymore losses!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Grey fox in Northern NE are adept at climbing trees, and there are reports of red fox in Southern Maine where their range over laps doing the same. Presumably the reds are learning from the greys?

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
Hey Justine, I finally got around to reading "Must Love Chickens". Really good read and loved your portion. Great info

 

[Scott H]

Quote:
Got home at 3:00 PM...chickens standing under the bushes doing nothing so I heated up some frozen corn, leftover yams and put it on warm FF. Corn and yams were a big hit. I just looked out and Oprah, who has lost even more feathers,and the other two are happily scratching through the leaves.
I'm going to have to come up with another FF recipe....they have tried this and voted it just plain nasty. I'll try more of a pellet base with 3 grain scratch mixed in

 

[TeaChick]

Got home at 3:00 PM...chickens standing under the bushes doing nothing so I heated up some frozen corn, leftover yams and put it on warm FF. Corn and yams were a big hit. I just looked out and Oprah, who has lost even more feathers,and the other two are happily scratching through the leaves.
I'm going to have to come up with another FF recipe....they have tried this and voted it just plain nasty. I'll try more of a pellet base with 3 grain scratch mixed in

Glad the corn and yams got them going.

When I try a new recipe (she says on the day she didn't do this

), I try to follow the recipe the way it's written. Then tweak from there.
Where did you start?

 

[TeaChick]

I and my minions finally replaced the shoddy roof on the new hen house. It's much better now!!!

Pics tomorrow.

 

[Scott H]

Quote:
I took a grain based organic food that they were wasting horribly (so nothing lost), added water and fermented. Pretty simple...

I was thinking of taking pellets and adding a little of my nasty FF to get it going and some 3 grain scratch. Whatcha think?

You got a written recipe?

 

[TeaChick]

I took a grain based organic food that they were wasting horribly (so nothing lost), added water and fermented. Pretty simple...

I was thinking of taking pellets and adding a little of my nasty FF to get it going and some 3 grain scratch. Whatcha think?

You got a written recipe?

Well, that sounds practical, especially if it's just being wasted anyway. *nods approvingly*

I'm so funny. Not really, I'm just tired.

Maybe, instead of adding the nasty FF, just start with water and maybe a splash of ACV? Maybe it's what's been growing in the stuff they don't like that's got them not liking it.
Did that make sense?

No, I bake; today it was Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake, but I don't have a springform pan, so I had to make it in my muffin tin with cupcake liners. I'm not holding my breath for perfect results, but I'm pretty sure it's going to taste good, so... eh.
I think about the closest thing you're going to find to a written recipe for FF on BYC is on a thread about who does it. BeeKissed is an expert. I'll see if I can post the video I saw on that thread; I'm not making any promises, I stink at this internet stuff.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I took a grain based organic food that they were wasting horribly (so nothing lost), added water and fermented. Pretty simple...

I was thinking of taking pellets and adding a little of my nasty FF to get it going and some 3 grain scratch. Whatcha think?

You got a written recipe?

I started by soaking cat kibble in buttermilk and adding a little molasses to it. Not fermented, but wet food. Day one they were shy about it, but by day two they came running when they saw the dishes. It was a protein supplement for their bad molt. After I gave them this treat for a while I started fermenting their pellets and adding a little of the fermented feed to the treat. Everyone still comes running and now I don't even soak the cat kibble in the buttermilk ... I just let the kibble soak up the fermenting liquid from big scoops of FF, then I feed it. I'm adding more and more of the FF. So far so good EXCEPT ...

... I have a breeding trio that I tried to start feeding the current mix to but they won't touch it. I'm thinking of backing up for them and trying cat kibble soaked in buttermilk with a little molasses ... Or just wetting their pellet in the buttermilk and molasses.

 

[TeaChick]

I took a grain based organic food that they were wasting horribly (so nothing lost), added water and fermented. Pretty simple...

I was thinking of taking pellets and adding a little of my nasty FF to get it going and some 3 grain scratch. Whatcha think?

You got a written recipe?

Here's a link to the thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/645057/fermented-feeds-anyone-using-them

Okay, I copied and pasted the "embed code". I think it will come up with the video in the post, but just in case it doesn't, I'll stick the link to the page of the thread after them that it's on.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7upxHZ_r_Ec?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/saSLX5pTffM?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/645057/fermented-feeds-anyone-using-them/1120
It's at the bottom of the page, she quoted me and posted the videos. =)
They're really short, like 2 min for the first one and 1 for the second, something like that.