Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Gatewayto]

Good morning! The weather has been amazing so far. Hope it keeps up for the rest of the season, though I wouldn't mind leaving out the few 90 days we had last year. Ouch.

Chickies successfully defended their coop against the first invader.

I guess all that food they've been inhaling provides lots of energy. I need to pick up another bag of it today. The only difference between starter and grower seems to be a percent of protein, and a little extra protein never hurt a chicken, did it?

Shouldn't harm them for a short deration. But too much of anything is bad especially protein. Their kidney will have to work much harder. If you notice your chicken drinking water more than normal (not due to heat) then it is a sign there is a problem with their kidney.
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[Leigti]

Congrat Leigti - your chicks/chickens are all well train -

Thanks, I think I can officially say that this integration process is complete. Today is their first full day out in the yard.
I have some modifications I'm going to do to the coop, I'm going to lower the roosts and poop board. And I have to put up the hardware cloth around the openings at the top. But otherwise it's pretty much done. I'm glad I placed it on the East side of my garage, the cool side. It has been very warm the last few days and I am worried about them getting too hot.
Maybe I'll try to make a coop thread once I finish with the modifications.

 

[junebuggena]

Shouldn't harm them for a short deration. But too much of anything is bad especially protein. Their kidney will have to work much harder. If you notice your chicken drinking water more than normal (not due to heat) then it is a sign there is a problem with their kidney.
.

You have to feed a lot of protein for it to do harm. I'm talking a heck of a lot more than is in the average grower or starter mix. As long as the feed is under 30%, chickens will be fine. Go higher than that, and the issues can start. It's the high calcium content in layer feed that can be devastating to a young bird's system if fed before they are ready to handle it. Excess protein is easily expelled in the feces. It's calcium that builds up and eventually destroys the kidneys. That is why layer feed should only ever be fed to actively laying birds only, and never to roosters, young birds, or hens that are molting or broody.

 

[Leigti]

You shouldn't feed layer feed to molting hens? I didn't know that. I did increase their protein but kept them on the same feed. That's going to be difficult with chickens of all different ages in the same flock.

 

[Rod-T]

How does everyone feel about cull lentils? 27% protein. . Mixed with layer feed at 1/4 lentils 3/4 layer?

 

[junebuggena]

You shouldn't feed layer feed to molting hens? I didn't know that. I did increase their protein but kept them on the same feed. That's going to be difficult with chickens of all different ages in the same flock.

The simplest solution is feeding grower, all flock, or flock raiser, and not buying layer at all. Just be sure to have a crushed oyster shell available separately for those that need it. You don't need to feed layer to get eggs. There is no magic ingredient in it, just more calcium and the bare minimum in terms of protein. Layer feed is actually a pretty poor choice for those keepers that like to give treats regularly, or for flocks that free range a lot. The extra goodies lower the overall protein intake, and the hens just don't produce efficiently.

 

[Rod-T]

 

[Gatewayto]

The simplest solution is feeding grower, all flock, or flock raiser, and not buying layer at all. Just be sure to have a crushed oyster shell available separately for those that need it. You don't need to feed layer to get eggs. There is no magic ingredient in it, just more calcium and the bare minimum in terms of protein. Layer feed is actually a pretty poor choice for those keepers that like to give treats regularly, or for flocks that free range a lot. The extra goodies lower the overall protein intake, and the hens just don't produce efficiently.

Thank you June - that helped a lot. We will keep layer feed for our quail and go with oyster shell instead of added calcium in layer feed.

 

[Scram85]

How does everyone feel about cull lentils? 27% protein. . Mixed with layer feed at 1/4 lentils 3/4 layer?

My co-worker mixes it with red wheat for his pheasants and chukars.

 

[Melnurse]

The nucs were in cardboard boxes, so the bees were able to get in and out of a gap... I wish I would have known that before I drove three hours to pick them up and had to drive home wit a butt ton of loose bees in my jeep with me! My bees are several hundred yards away on the other side of the house, so I THINK that these were just loose bees from his nuc. It sat there overnight and then until about noon when he picked it up. There was a small swarm there for several days after, but I wasn't sure if my hive would see them as intruders if I tried to integrate them. Didn't want to scare mine away when I just got them by making them think there were intruders lol.

LOL, that made me laugh. We've had loose bees in the car too... had to drive with the gear on! We just did a hive check and the swarm we caught last year - which we did not support with sugar water all winter - has a weak queen - lots of stores, a little bit of brood, lots of pollen, but she's not laying robustly. I've heard that you have to re-queen a captured hive after a year or two, so we're going to try to re-queen tomorrow. How are yours fairing?