Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[pennyJo1960]

I don't separate my broodies from the flock for one big reason. Reintegration is a pain. My hens brood in a dog crate inside the coop. And adults don't usually bother chicks that are hatched in the flock. It's really funny to see them all gather round, cackling their heads off, as the chicks start peeping in their shells.

so not keeping but a couple or 1 or 2 each time
or every now and then should I hand them to a bird in a nest
one of my barred rock hens?

 

[Duck Drover]

I am all set to start up a colony of mealworms again so I was reading about how people feed them to chickens live without them escaping. We only fed them to lizards when we raised them and stopped once we were done with lizards. Apparently the chickens will eat mealworms without ceasing so no worries there. I would have fed them but I was afraid they would burrow and the chickens would never find them.

Now that I am reading about feeding mealworms to chickens I saw that black soldier fly larvae naturally separate from the colony right before they pupate so collection is effortless. The flies have no mouth parts so all they do is mate and lay eggs before they die. The maggots are voracious eaters and can be raised on coffee grounds alone (my husband drinks a pot a day due to his ADHD) but they can also handle compost our red wigglers can't digest. They eat food whole so it does not even need to decompose to break down first. Plus, the black soldier bly maggots eat other fly maggots so you can collect BSF eggs to hatch in the wild and keep an open container without other flies breeding with the black soldier flies.

I am all set to start collecting BSF eggs since they are in our zone. Apparently the flies are attracted to food sources for their eggs to hatch but the flies don't pester people or go into homes like house flies. They look kind of like wasps so that is kind of freaky but they don't hang out around people much so you don't tend to see them even when they are in the area. Their scent acts like a repellent for other flies too!

Anyone here raise BSF larvae for their chickens? They actually have more protein and calcium than mealworms but I will probably do both.

 

[pennyJo1960]

seems kinda weird to me I have fed the dried meal worms
not live ones...; recently started giving them some choke cherries we have tree here but
no one seems to want to the choke cherries from it I intend some jelly and syrup but there is still extra
many of the apples and pears went to waste on the ground or fed to birds

 

[Duck Drover]

Our birds always get fallen fruit and they try to eat all the raspberries and blueberries too. I like the idea of using compost to make chicken food instead of feeding them from our food supply.

Apparently when the BSF larvae are ready to pupate they expell all their waste material before climbing up a ramp into a feeding bowl or holding container so that is why they can even be raised on their own poop. We water our bird poop down to feed the red wigglers in the ground so we don't have poop piles to compost and we don't compost our shavings because our neighbors complained about our compost near our property line but we do compost our dog poop in green cone composters so it is underground without any venting so the worms can take care of it too. The maggots don't eat the shavings, just the poop, but alot of people have the BSF breeding in their open compost and they let the chickens scratch through it. The only harm to feeding maggots to chickens is that they will eat rancid meat and then the chickens would injest it through tbe maggots but they clean up compost so fast before there is much spoilage.

Keeping the BSF maggots contained and gathering the fattest larvae before they pupate, when they self-sort, makes the process ideal in so many ways. I wonder why more people are not farming the black soldier flies when there are so many advantages. Maybe they have not heard about them either since I just discovered information about the BSF while reading up on mealworms and I suppose that is not a topic that has a great following. Both mealworms and BSF are consumable by humans as well but I just want to farm them for my chickens and ducks, not my family.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have a live chicken in my incubator should I leave it in there or take it out
to a brooder box in made from a dog crate

 

[CyndiD]

Hi, I am in Idaho, north of Moscow and south of Coeur D' Alene. I am looking for Lavendar O cockrel or rooster. I have 2 pullets & 2 cockrel, but they are sibs &/or 1/2 sibs. i dont want to inbreed. anyone have any suggestions? thanks

 

[junebuggena]

One more big weekend of tourists to endure. Then it's back to normal around here. Already had one tourist decide that skinny dipping in the ocean at night was a great idea. Turned out she picked the beach approach with the worst undertow and rip current. Hoping that's the only case of really bad judgement this week.

 

[pennyJo1960]

One more big weekend of tourists to endure. Then it's back to normal around here. Already had one tourist decide that skinny dipping in the ocean at night was a great idea. Turned out she picked the beach approach with the worst undertow and rip current. Hoping that's the only case of really bad judgement this week.

Wow it will not allow me change text size giving me major eye strain
I hated tourist season in Juneau know what you mean there
hey 2 alive chicks 1 doa in the shell another trying to get out now

 

[junebuggena]

Wow it will not allow me change text size giving me major eye strain
I hated tourist season in Juneau know what you mean there
hey 2 alive chicks 1 doa in the shell another trying to get out now

The big Rod Run is the weekend. The street I live off is where a lot of the people like to show off and street race. Lots of engine revving and sirens. Between all the idiots and the helicopters flying over last night, I haven't had a decent night's sleep. I don't mind the average vacationer, but these big event weekends are the worst. It's like we've been invaded by muscle car morons. Too much testosterone and too much power under the hood. And they don't really start to act stupid until it starts to get dark.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Oh understand that........ I will be praying for you to have a peaceful night then :/