Third Time's a Charm

[busymomma12]

Hi! I am a busy mom of 12 children/adults as my handle suggests!

My two oldest boys are sharing an apartment - they are 26 and 24 years old. So I "only" have 10 children living at home. We homeschool and have experimented with doing homesteading kinds of things in the past on our 3 acres of forested land - we have around an acre cleared. I also have a home business called Snap-EZ where we sell cloth diapers (newborn to adult extra large!) and training pants

We have "done" layers three times, and meat birds three times as well. That was 10 - 14 years ago. Each time we did lots of things wrong, but learned by our mistakes. By the time we were really getting the hang of how to do it right, our kids were completely fed up with dealing with the chickens.

But now I have a whole new crop of kids who have little to no memory of these great experiences, so after watching Food Inc we have decided to take the plunge and do it again.

We went from "lets do layers again" at noon to having 14 1 1/2 year layers from a friend in our coop-turned-playhouse-turned-coop by the time we went to bed, only having to purchase a bag of feed and the hens ($6 ea)! We got a nice variety too - barred rocks, a orp buff, white leg horns, rhode island reds and aracanas! So we are already getting around 6 eggs a day, in 3 colors! We felt that was confirmation that we were doing the right thing!

We are getting 4 more Americanas, 40#s of feed, a mobile coop and equipment for FREE tomorrow!

We also purchased a used 7 gallon waterer from another friend who has given up on chickens, and they gave us a beautiful brooder and all the feeders waterers for that, plus a heat lamp!

Yesterday I ordered 25 red rangers and they will arrive in 9 days. The only thing I need to get now is the chick starter!

My total initial outlay for 43 birds will be just over $200, including the cost of all the hens/chicks/feed.

My question for today is what is the best chick starter I should get - I did not immunize the chicks at the hatchery, so I'm assuming medicated feed.

While I don't think I can afford to go organic all the way, I really want to minimize putting bad stuff into these chicks, so any advice would be welcome!

Thanks!
Ruth
11blessings.blogspot.com
http://www.snap-ez.com

 

[Marthab1953]

From Jurupa Valley/Riverside CA

I use medicated and non medicated it just depends. You do not need the medicated feed. It just helps with Coccidiosis getting their immunity up. That is a decision you can only make. Good luck!

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

Wow, you are getting off to a great start!
Food wise I would say go with medicated feed. If you don't you run the risk of catching coccidiosis, which could wipe out most of your flock very quickly. Better safe than sorry! Apart from that, if you keep an eye on their living arrangements, keep it clean and safe, quarantine any new birds joining the flock to make sure they don't carry anything nasty and dust for mites and deworm your birds every 6 months you shouldn't have a problem. There has been discussions on organic food in the Feeding & Watering Your Flock section, so have a look there. The members may be able to tell you where to buy affordable organic food for your chickens. Enjoy your chickens!

 

[liz9910]

from California!

 

[bellanonna]

Welcome! I can sort of relate as we have 8 children, the oldest being twin boys who are 30 and then 2 girls 28 down to 13. I understand the 'do over' when you realize the experiences the older ones had that they are telling the younger ones about. We also have 4 grandchildren close enough to visit often and another on the way who is in Utah. It will be fun to see our younger ones show thier niece and nephews all about the animals and gardening.

Again, welcome and hope to 'see' you here often!

Bella
AKA Mommy 2 8

 

[NovaAman]

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

I think medicated feed would be better, since you have older birds on the property as well, even if they are housed separately you will be visiting them both in the same clothes and shoes. "medicated" is kind of deceptive, it contains a niacin inhibitor that reduces the ability of coccidia to multiply, it is not an antibiotic or medication to prevent bacterial or viral disease.

 

[Kevin565]

 

[jbirds2012]

 

[weimarmama]

& from Alabama. Glad you joined us.