The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl
- Thread starter Beekissed
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- Jun 7, 2012
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Tell me more about the fermented layer mash you are making...
I have an injured hen right now, a hawk got at her, what are you going to feed them to get their strength up?
I have an injured hen right now, a hawk got at her, what are you going to feed them to get their strength up?
I feed my dog fermented feed. Her poop is pretty small and I do not notice an odor, but, I never did before, she is a pretty small dog and I have always fed her lamb/chicken and rice.
I have even fermented bagged dog food. I recently tried to ferment *Blue*. (I had a $5.00 off coupon) My sister swore by it so I thought i would try it. It is expensive, so I used the coupon on a small bag. It is so much cheaper to make your own dog food.
I just go simple, steamed brown and wild rice, chicken or lamb, carrots, a bit off salt. Sometimes left over vegetables and potato peelings. garlic, ACV That is it.
I have even fermented bagged dog food. I recently tried to ferment *Blue*. (I had a $5.00 off coupon) My sister swore by it so I thought i would try it. It is expensive, so I used the coupon on a small bag. It is so much cheaper to make your own dog food.
I just go simple, steamed brown and wild rice, chicken or lamb, carrots, a bit off salt. Sometimes left over vegetables and potato peelings. garlic, ACV That is it.
- Thread starter
- #5,874
I'll tell you a little story about a small town business. I buy batteries for my dog's collar and could only find them at Radio Shack 45 miles away..which is pretty inconvenient if you thought you had one left in the pack and find you didn't. Now the dog is wearing a collar with no battery and you have to drive 45 mi. to get some.
One day I am in the local hardware store and there, right by the counter, are the batteries I've needed and they were only 4 mi. away! I gushed, "Wow! You are selling these for $6.95??? I've been paying $9.99 at Radio Shack for them! From now on I'm getting my batteries here!".
The next time I stopped in for batteries the price was $7.95. I looked at the fella and asked, "You raised those because I told you how expensive they were at Radio Shack, didn't you?". He blushed, kind of shrugged his shoulders in a sheepish manner and said that he had.
My reply? "And you wonder why small businesses are going out of business? GREED. I'll find my batteries elsewhere." And I did...for $6.95 at the local feed store. Who didn't, BTW, raise their prices when I told them how much cheaper they were than RS.
May seem only a dollar's difference to you, but to me it was a strong indication of why small businesses go out of business. I've seen this all my life. I'll tell you why....they gouge prices on rural customers because they know they are the only game in town. The gas is higher, the hardware stores charge more, the grocery stores charge more....because they know we have to drive 50 mi. to find a Walmart. The only small town stores that don't price gouge are the Family Dollar and Dollar General, thank God for them!
You know what? I drive the 50 miles simply because the small town price gougers are greedy, opportunistic and dishonest. When one gas station has the highest prices around and one even tinier and further out in the boonies has the cheapest, they can't tell me those high gas prices are because they are in a rural location. Or, if you tell them that the gas in the next town is higher, they will walk out and immediately adjust the prices on the sign to reflect that higher price...have seen this with my own eyes. This tells me we have one honest business owner and one dishonest one. I always take my business to the honest one.
What you are hearing is propaganda. I've lived rural all my life and these small town businesses can choose to be greedy or not. The ones that do not are still in business, those who price gouge soon go out of business, Walmart or not.
This will help you!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds
https://www.facebook.com/NaturalChickenKeeping?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/
Blog has the FF information: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html
Lots of great information!!
- Apr 18, 2011
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Anyone else want to chime in on why you got your birds and why you chose the breeds you got? I'll try to work on it tomorrow to get some of these answers consolidated and see if I can come up with some advice on what breeds I think will be suitable...though there are many, many suitable breeds for any given purpose but I can give you some info about the breeds I have had and why.
For several years I had purchased farm fresh eggs off and on. I always like to buy food that is fresh and 'local' if possible. So with that mind set, and having grown up on a farm during my youth and I'm guessing we had chickens till I was about four or five, when chickens kinda went out of style somewhere in the late 1950's. I'm not sure just why my folks decided to quit the chicken business but one day there was this "discussion" between my folks and then we didn't have chickens anymore. Many years went by, I moved out of the country had a family and as it would turn out came back to take care of the estate after my mother passed away. An aquaintance from school from many years ago had chickens and I began getting eggs from her, each winter with the decline in light her layers would slow down enough that I wouldn't be able to get eggs from her. So in 2010 and January came around and no eggs I began to look around, still at the estate (economy not good for selling real estate), I thought to myself, I can fix this problem. I have the old hen house, the old brooder house, and the barn. I began to find out just what might be involved in this solution to my egg problem, I was in for such a shock maybe more than I bargained for at my age. Even after exploring carefully different breeds I still wasn't sure my long term goal, since I was in what I thought was a temporary situation. I figured chickens lasted for two years and then they were done, ah but so much to learn!!! After considering the types I thought I was interested in, along with another friend we ordered over 100 chicks, I took 25 of them. I thought I wanted Buff Orpingtons, she was ordering Black Australorps and my other friend said I needed to get some blue egg layers, (EE's). The Buff Orpingtons didn't seem to be hardy here, and soon I noticed that they seemed to eat and eat. Then as they began to lay I noticed that they weren't the best of layers, nothing like the description on the hatchery website. The BA's were beautiful but also haven't seen the 'great' laying that I had expected. The EE's were the most interesting to grow out, not the best at laying but made a great colored flock, and interesting carton of eggs. The following year 2011 I decided to add to the flock with some new chicks as egg sales were going good and I realized that a molt would be in full swing come that fall and the egg production would be down in the older bunch. This time I decided to get some black sex links, and barred rocks along with a few more ee's. My egg production was good throughout the summer and is now down to nothing in both flocks, haven't seen an egg now since sometime in late November from 22 layers! I don't supplement with light. Last spring proved to be much too busy to order new chicks so no new layers that were coming into lay this fall. No successful broodies this past summer either.
I've learned a ton of information from you folks, and am using ff, acv, nustock, oh yes, and deep litter. With all the information you have shared it has helped me to become more aware of what to look for when examining the flock. The information on this thread has certainly helped me with recognizing a problem, and am learning daily how to better my birds. I am enjoying them far more than I thought I ever would, and has been a very interesting time. Somewhere in there I raised 27 meaties without a single loss, (my son-in-laws idea) somehow I had to do the work, he did the butchering tho. Now that I know about the ff I might try it again, but certainly cost wise it didn't pay before, the stink, the watering, the food and bedding really wasn't economical at all. Also, I thought they were the uglyist things ever to watch grow! I look forward to learning more.
For several years I had purchased farm fresh eggs off and on. I always like to buy food that is fresh and 'local' if possible. So with that mind set, and having grown up on a farm during my youth and I'm guessing we had chickens till I was about four or five, when chickens kinda went out of style somewhere in the late 1950's. I'm not sure just why my folks decided to quit the chicken business but one day there was this "discussion" between my folks and then we didn't have chickens anymore. Many years went by, I moved out of the country had a family and as it would turn out came back to take care of the estate after my mother passed away. An aquaintance from school from many years ago had chickens and I began getting eggs from her, each winter with the decline in light her layers would slow down enough that I wouldn't be able to get eggs from her. So in 2010 and January came around and no eggs I began to look around, still at the estate (economy not good for selling real estate), I thought to myself, I can fix this problem. I have the old hen house, the old brooder house, and the barn. I began to find out just what might be involved in this solution to my egg problem, I was in for such a shock maybe more than I bargained for at my age. Even after exploring carefully different breeds I still wasn't sure my long term goal, since I was in what I thought was a temporary situation. I figured chickens lasted for two years and then they were done, ah but so much to learn!!! After considering the types I thought I was interested in, along with another friend we ordered over 100 chicks, I took 25 of them. I thought I wanted Buff Orpingtons, she was ordering Black Australorps and my other friend said I needed to get some blue egg layers, (EE's). The Buff Orpingtons didn't seem to be hardy here, and soon I noticed that they seemed to eat and eat. Then as they began to lay I noticed that they weren't the best of layers, nothing like the description on the hatchery website. The BA's were beautiful but also haven't seen the 'great' laying that I had expected. The EE's were the most interesting to grow out, not the best at laying but made a great colored flock, and interesting carton of eggs. The following year 2011 I decided to add to the flock with some new chicks as egg sales were going good and I realized that a molt would be in full swing come that fall and the egg production would be down in the older bunch. This time I decided to get some black sex links, and barred rocks along with a few more ee's. My egg production was good throughout the summer and is now down to nothing in both flocks, haven't seen an egg now since sometime in late November from 22 layers! I don't supplement with light. Last spring proved to be much too busy to order new chicks so no new layers that were coming into lay this fall. No successful broodies this past summer either.
I've learned a ton of information from you folks, and am using ff, acv, nustock, oh yes, and deep litter. With all the information you have shared it has helped me to become more aware of what to look for when examining the flock. The information on this thread has certainly helped me with recognizing a problem, and am learning daily how to better my birds. I am enjoying them far more than I thought I ever would, and has been a very interesting time. Somewhere in there I raised 27 meaties without a single loss, (my son-in-laws idea) somehow I had to do the work, he did the butchering tho. Now that I know about the ff I might try it again, but certainly cost wise it didn't pay before, the stink, the watering, the food and bedding really wasn't economical at all. Also, I thought they were the uglyist things ever to watch grow! I look forward to learning more.
- Thread starter
- #5,877
Well, it's about time you came on up on the porch!
Saw you around but didn't know you. What a great opportunity for you to raise chickens with a built in farm handy. Funny that your BAs aren't carrying their weight...I've always found mine to be laying when no one else was. But...hatchery genetics vary.
I think you will like doing meaties with FF...I was shocked at the difference in feed use, smell and activity levels on the FF.
So nice to finally "meet" you! One question....how did you get that lovely font on your post?
I think you will like doing meaties with FF...I was shocked at the difference in feed use, smell and activity levels on the FF.
So nice to finally "meet" you! One question....how did you get that lovely font on your post?
- Jul 28, 2012
- 317
- 47
- 103
even if with the time diff,I'm still late to the party.LOL hopefully a Long story ,kept short.
grew up in the outskirts of a city ,spent all my life ,til 5 yrs, ago climbing the corporate ladder .got very sick had to stop work.Other half left (no income no stay)
lost everything .so easy to go broke ,when u can't work,with high medical bills.was put on a disability pension .
ended up living in a very rundown house ( had been empty for 5yrs +) on a farm 110 miles from a town , owned by the father of an acquaintance I had helped out 13 yrs previously.
lucky or I would have been homeless.
Any hoo - about 18 mths ago,I got 4 BA pullets from the local poultry club auction, for eggs & to give me a hobby to keep me occupied.
Gradually lost one ,then another over a couple of months .put it down to bad genetics (other ppl's culls) .still had 2 going well.started searching for more (too expensive etc )so purchased a Light Sussex trio ,borrowed a incubator hatched 18/19 .
a friend that was moving, gave me deposit receipt for a good BA rooster, she had ordered.so picked him up ,now had a BA trio ,OK I can breed some more BA's.
lost my best hen to illness ?
found BYC & BEE
1 hen +1 rooster = not good for the hen-
decided to sell the Light Sussex when the chicks reached POL.currently 8wks old
reason - not good foragers,feed gluttons ,noisy, not as settled as the BA's
I would get good purebred BA fertile eggs to hatch ,purchased 1dz ($90) from a stud ,not good fertility- hatched 2.currently 5 wks old
2 wks ago purchased 3 purebred pullets from a stud that was devastated x floods (now in quarantine tractor )
so that's where I'm at now
cheers Pete
Did you know that Canadian Walmarts on the East Coast of Canada don't offer any produce or meat products, let alone alcohol? I went to Toronto this year and they DID, I was in heaven. The prices were so much better than our grocery stores.So funny....I've heard a lot of folks that think that Walmart is evil and I guess I just don't get that. Not that I want to open up an political or socio-economical discussion here but the word "evil" has truly lost its meaning if a building filled with material goods is evil.
Even the corporation....I can give you a full blown list of the corporations in this world that are what I consider "evil" and many of you would be surprised that you use their products nearly every day or frequent their stores quite regularly.
Walmart is just a store. Nothing more and nothing less. For many people who live in rural areas, it is the only store with anything in it for 50 mi. or more. You folks who live in urban areas can call it evil all you wish because you have many choices in life but some do not have so many.
On another forum I belonged to some lady was sneering at dollar stores, Good Will and Salvation Army stores. I guess there are many out there who have an idea on what they think is evil or bad.
I shop at Walmart a lot...I don't sense a bit of evil lurking when I purchase foods or goods at prices I can afford. Can't afford to frequent the places that cost more just so that folks can feel like I'm not contributing to the monster that is Wally World.
There is evidence that Walt Disney was a pedophile.....want to talk about evil, we can go there.
I remember the first time going in a real dollar store (not one of those buck or two stores). I was 14 or 15. Quite impressed with what you could get for a dollar. Now even our dollar stores are a dollar+ The products are very rarely just a dollar any more.
Was speaking with my fiancée's grandmother the other night. She grew up on a farm, and is suffering from alzheimer's, so she remembers her childhood very vividly right now. It was fascinating to hear her stories. They never bought meet, fish, eggs, grains or produce. They grew it all (except the fish, they caught the fish).They made their own clothes, and the little money they had came from selling any extras. I find it silly how far away from these times our society is right now. I'd like to get back to the basics. Everyone looks at us like we have two heads if we say that. I mean, why would I want to do that?
That would be books I'd be interested in keeping! 
Never thought of that. I currently do two yearends for two farms, but they do their own bookkeeping until December 31st. Then I review.
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