The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[delisha]

Quote: I candle. Not every hen will kick them out unless they are dead and rotting.

Don't even bother candling Marans eggs though. You'd need a super flashlight for that!

With broodies I'll candle once around day 15. I candle weekly when incubating in the incubator.
I do not candle at all.. I pick up the egg and smell it. I try to leave it all up to the hen. I have found ducks need more egg attention than chickens. My chickens always kick out the dead and weak.

 

[aoxa]

The hen will kick out all the ones that are bad. You might want to set the eggs pointy end down for at least 12 hours before giving them to her. Eggs that are shipped can have detached cells and she might not like that and kick them all out. Chickens are pretty smart and they can tell a bad egg better than we can.

Interesting...they can really tell?  So do most of y'all that incubate eggs candle or not candle? 

I candle. Not every hen will kick them out unless they are dead and rotting.


Don't even bother candling Marans eggs though. You'd need a super flashlight for that!


With broodies I'll candle once around day 15. I candle weekly when incubating in the incubator.

I do not candle at all.. I pick up the egg and smell it. I try to leave it all up to the hen. I have found ducks need more egg attention than chickens. My chickens always kick out the dead and weak.

Well silkies aren't really chickens, are they? lol

They are the only ones I really bother with. They will never kick eggs out. At least mine. They try to hatch golf balls, rocks, whatever they can get ahold of.

Never do they abandon even golf balls!

I find it entertaining to candle too.

 

[lalaland]

I am so excited because I found a better egg mash at a feed mill just a little farther from me. This new mash has corn, oats, soybeans, alfalfa and all the vitamins, etc. Would prefer no soybeans, but still think it will be better than the mash I am currently feeding, which is corn and then something called grain processing byproduct.

This winter is going so much easier now that I have made some changes because of this thread: keeping the water outside the coop, using the ice cream bucket of water placed in the dog heated water bowl, and FF.

I am not feeding FF every day, this is just because I keep getting out of the rhythm with a tough work schedule, but I would say half the week at least they are getting the FF. Still working on reducing the vinegar, and it will be a whole new ball game with the new feed as I think the reason I had fermentation in less than 24 hours was because of the grain byproduct which had something to do with brewers.

About fat hens! My two buff orpingtons are heavy, and don't lay, am hoping to bring them back to laying as they are only 3 or 4 years old. Not sure if it will work, but we will see come spring.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so excited because I found a better egg mash at a feed mill just a little farther from me. This new mash has corn, oats, soybeans, alfalfa and all the vitamins, etc. Would prefer no soybeans, but still think it will be better than the mash I am currently feeding, which is corn and then something called grain processing byproduct.
This winter is going so much easier now that I have made some changes because of this thread: keeping the water outside the coop, using the ice cream bucket of water placed in the dog heated water bowl, and FF.
I am not feeding FF every day, this is just because I keep getting out of the rhythm with a tough work schedule, but I would say half the week at least they are getting the FF. Still working on reducing the vinegar, and it will be a whole new ball game with the new feed as I think the reason I had fermentation in less than 24 hours was because of the grain byproduct which had something to do with brewers.
About fat hens! My two buff orpingtons are heavy, and don't lay, am hoping to bring them back to laying as they are only 3 or 4 years old. Not sure if it will work, but we will see come spring.

I have a light Brahma hen that is 3 yrs old and have hopes with the ff she'll be back to laying too.

 

[aoxa]

Can anyone tell me why ACV and Aluminium don't mix? I know it leaches toxins, but so does plastic apparently

I want to create a feeder like Bee's, but there isn't any gutters that are coated here, and no 4 inch PVC in our stores (not to mention I don't want to use a skill saw to make it!)

 

[off-grid hen]

Oops! Nice kilt, Hope!

 

[Pullet Surprise]

The acid in any vinegar eats away at metal...and I THINK aluminium is particularly suseptable to that, guess it depends on what particular metals are composed of ?????..as far as plastic goes...I really don't know about that one and sure would like to know.

 

[delisha]

Can anyone tell me why ACV and Aluminium don't mix? I know it leaches toxins, but so does plastic apparently

I want to create a feeder like Bee's, but there isn't any gutters that are coated here, and no 4 inch PVC in our stores (not to mention I don't want to use a skill saw to make it!)

Well I use metal pans to feed some of the birds the FF. I feel comfortable doing this because my FF is never in the pan longer than a minute. They scarf it up like they have not been fed in months. I just came back in to grab the pans for the dishwasher and they don't look used.

 

[aoxa]

The acid in any vinegar eats away at metal...and I THINK  aluminium is particularly suseptable to that, guess it depends on what particular metals are composed of ?????..as far as plastic goes...I really don't know about that one and sure would like to know.:/

I was just looking up info on the aluminium only and found a site that said plastic.

Some sort of containers for food and water. If you use garlic and apple cider vinegar in your chickens' water, then you will need a stainless steel, ceramic or glass container for the water. Waterers purchased at the feed store will leach toxins to your chickens if apple cider vinegar is used in it, as will an aluminum or plastic container.

Though I don't trust everything I read, it does make sense.. Unless it is free of those chemicals that we've recently uncovered that leach in certain baby bottles and water bottles.

BPA. That's what I was trying to remember!

 

[delisha]

Metallic aluminum has an aluminum oxide layer on the surface which protects it from most chemical reactions, hence, it does not react with vinegar. Apple cider vinegar even less. Tomatoes have a higher reaction and can pit the pans and cause discoloration.