The Omega Rocks: The Last & Ultimate Barred Plymouth Rock Flock

[speckledhen]

The only problem I've had with them is the chicks like to perch on top. This leads to poop in the trough. It gets cleaned often. I wish I could find a solution to this.

I've been known to use duct tape to cover one side of the holes, which leads to less poop in those long troughs. See if that helps.
My dividers are out for delivery!

 

[NanaK]

Thanks! I had not thought of that. I'll give that a try this year.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks! I had not thought of that. I'll give that a try this year.

Hope it helps. Mine is one of the longer length ones so there are plenty of holes on one side that I can cover the other, unless there are a ton of chicks and need all the space. It did help, but they still sit on top. You just hope they hang their little tush over the covered side, LOL.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I had ordered my sister some shampoo bar soap and she let me know the other day it had not been delivered. When I went into track the package, there was a picture of the package on a porch in front of a door. Unfortunately it was not her porch or door. Amazon gave me a immediate refund, and I reordered the bar shampoo.

We don't have a lot of buying options up here where I live. And I don't think we have Tucker feeds in Michigan at all. Our local feeds are kind of disgusting, they look like someone swept them up off the floor and put them in a bag. So I usually get Dumor. I've never had a bad bag yet.

I'm trying to figure out what I will get for my chicks. I can't get dumor here. I used to buy that or Armada brand years ago. Now I can't find either one. I have a week to figure it out

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Hope it helps. Mine is one of the longer length ones so there are plenty of holes on one side that I can cover the other, unless there are a ton of chicks and need all the space. It did help, but they still sit on top. You just hope they hang their little tush over the covered side, LOL.

My husband made one with a PVC pipe and then added a smaller diameter PVC pipe to the top so it would spin and the chicks couldn't roost on it

 

[speckledhen]

I just picked up a bag of starter/grower from Tucker Milling at the co-op, their Nature Crest GMO-Free line, but since it's 18% protein and these are exhibition type Rocks, I wanted to add the small 10 lb bag of game bird grower, but TSC had none like I used to get occasionally to supplement the other feed. I opted on a different tactic and got the 24% Meat Bird Starter to mix with it. That is still vegetarian, but at least the Nature Crest has porcine meat and bone meal in the mix. Plus, mine will have time outside quite a bit when they're larger/older and have access to bugs and such on a regular basis, unlike many penned birds. I'll try to find something else when this runs out more like I used to get, maybe game bird grower from a different place, to mix with the 18% starter, but this will get them going.
(Adding that the meat bird start to finish feed will only be added to the Tucker Milling Nature Crest starter at less than 50% mix ratio to up the protein level since I could find none of the usual stuff at TSC today as far as game bird starter or grower)

https://tuckermilling.com/product-items/naturecrest-chick-starter-grower/?portfolioCats=120
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dumor-meat-bird-poultry-feed-50-lb-bag-1900169

AND the dividers arrived!!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I just picked up a bag of starter/grower from Tucker Milling, their Nature Crest GMO-Free line, but since it's 18% protein and these are exhibition type Rocks, I wanted to add the small 10 lb bag of game bird grower, but TSC had none like I used to get occasionally to supplement the other feed. I opted on a different tactic and got the 24% Meat Bird Starter to mix with it. That is still vegetarian, but at least the Nature Crest has porcine meat and bone meal in the mix. Plus, mine will have time outside quite a bit when they're larger/older and have access to bugs and such on a regular basis, unlike many penned birds. I'll try to find something else when this runs out more like I used to get, maybe game bird grower from a different place, to mix with the 18% starter, but this will get them going.

https://tuckermilling.com/product-items/naturecrest-chick-starter-grower/?portfolioCats=120
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dumor-meat-bird-poultry-feed-50-lb-bag-1900169
View attachment 4074818View attachment 4074819

AND the dividers arrived!!
View attachment 4074820View attachment 4074821View attachment 4074822

Yay

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

We don't have the nature crest here and the feeds I've looked at at either tractor supply or family farm and home looks like it's all vegetarian.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm trying to figure out what I will get for my chicks. I can't get dumor here. I used to buy that or Armada brand years ago. Now I can't find either one. I have a week to figure it out

I don't like Dumor at all anyway. The only full bag I ever got was moldy. I do like the smaller bags, especially with the clear window to see the feed itself and that's all i'd buy at Tractor Supply. I did, however, buy two peach trees today, one bare root and one 5 gal pot, two different varieties that TSC had in stock for good prices. We planted them both this afternoon with secured cages around them so the deer can't think we left them new goodies.

We don't have the nature crest here and the feeds I've looked at at either tractor supply or family farm and home looks like it's all vegetarian.

Tucker Milling is the brand that has the Nature Crest line, but they are only in the southeast, I believe. Rare to find anything with animal protein still in it these days. They claim vegetarian is just as good, but it isn't by a long shot for many reasons, for chickens or human beings. My exhibition size/quality birds need higher protein and better quality protein to reach their full potential so I try to make sure I can find that type feed. It isn't easy anymore and most are at the mercy of what is available. Feather quality and other things are better on better feed, but again, you're stuck with what you can get in store or find for shipping (latter raises the price by a lot and that isn't fun at all).

 

[speckledhen]

I set up the brooder today on the dining table in front of the picture window. I have the tiny zip ties in different colors to ID each group. I'm ready for the BR kids to show! We planted the two new peach trees today as well. I thought my 20 year old peach tree was stone cold dead, but out of the blue, some blooms popped out on one of the three main limbs way up high, plus a couple of blooms on another. The 3rd branch of it does seem dead and the tree is already at the end of its lifespan so I was happy to find those at TSC today when we bought the chick starter. My roses are leafing out and two peony shrubs I thought might be goners are growing. I was insanely happy this afternoon about all that!

It's been a trying winter here, at least for us, for several reasons, extra cold for our location and I'm ready for spring or will be once my back is healed up. I'm lucky I could even do the digging at all, even though the dirt is located in the former, very conditioned garden I retired last season, because I pulled something in my lower back when I hit the dirt trying to get that silly Dove back into the barn. I've have been living with heat on my back and a massage device I borrowed from my husband. It's getting better, I can tell, at least the muscle pull is (stupid cough was re-activated when my feet went out from under me) but I always do too much too soon and set myself back. I do need to heal up because we have the new fencing and steel posts to replace one side of the perimeter livestock fence. We also have seed packets and after the chicks are out of the brooder, we'll be starting those on the same dining table in front of the windows. I have too much to do to be down and out, for cripes sake!
Athena was breathing open mouthed at roost time so her time is near. She didn't stand much today and seems very tired, but she kept going outside with her peeps and basking in the sunshine. She made her 9th hatch day so that is a good, long life for a hefty hen. If Maddie and Jill weren't so old and would produce more, I'd put them in with one of the new cockerels, but I wouldn't do that to them at this stage in their lives. Jill is so cantakerous, she might kill one anyway, LOL