Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

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Okay, I have a chicken eating question: I have a GIANT willow tree in my backyard that the girls get to go and play under on a regular basis. The leaves are turning yellow and are falling onto the lawn below.....my chickens love eating them. I watch them out in the yard just "hoovering" (sucking) those leaves down every day when I let them out. How does a chicken digest an entire leaf? Is there any food value? funny stuff they eat.....oh....and I found them eating a piece of styrofoam that blew out of the shed the other day....Now I know that has no food value.

Even more strange, I have my flocks in seperate pens, and every day one of the pens gets opened and the birds can come out and free range...and the Blue,Black & Splash Marans LOVE petunias...they will hide around a corner and waite for me to go inside and then attack!!!
No other birds even remotely like petunias, but I must cover them when the BB&S Marans are loose....now the Olive Eggers seem to ADORE short new baby grass....nothing else grabs their attention like this baby grasses...the Guineas LOVE tall grass, they bite the bottom and slide their beaks up, raking off the seed heads.
The Ameraucanas seem to love tiny strips of paper from the paper shredder...My Mom and Dad saved the soft paper shreds for me for nest and egg packing material and every so often some is spilled and the Ameraucanas come running for the little white worms...The Cuckoos, and Brahmas and Wyandottes LOVE worms more than anything, and run to the compost pile and will rotovate in there eating the fat nightcrawlers all day long...funny birds...

 

[Chickielady]

I Love this skeleton...watch him walk !
Is he a cool dude or what ?
We had the well/septic dept of ecology dude here this afternoon, along with the well driller dude...and my DH dude...all having a good time walking the property and measuring distance from the septic feild to the well site, etc...and they all got along and then the dudes left and all is well...the drilling permit is OKd and happens next week.
This thing is nasty:
EWwwwwwwwww!

And why is no one into cool Halloween Smilies but me ?????????????????

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

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Okay, creepy pictures.

Regarding hens with different tastes..it is crazy. I do have petunias that they have scratched to bits, but I have never seen them eat them and I was surprised with that. Like I had said, they are currently desimating my garden: tomato plants, pepper plants, kalarhabi plants. all the left over veggies that did not get picked, the dirt in the beds, themselves. They eat to their little fat heart's content....into the coop at dusk...but, if I try to come out the backdoor too early and it is still too light out, they all come running to see what I am bringing. Fat butts. I do see them eating the lawn occasionally and they do graze in the lower portion. It is funny to watch chickens graze.

 

[hallerlake]

We're not as cool as you.



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[CIgal]

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I never knew how to get them!
(but now I do thanks to you!)

 

[Imp]

Well, apparently some willows do have nutritional value.

http://www.weightchart.com/nutrition/info-willow-young-leaves-chopped-alaska-native.aspx


And this one's for you chickielady

Russ

 

[monicas]

You gotta see Monicas place, WOW so beautiful, and no heaters!
No wood stove !
The geothermal system heats liquid that circulates through the slab floor and the house stays comfortable year round.
Maybe we can talk her into posting some photos.

you are too kind. I don't have any good pix of the inside but the outside is here. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=223699&id=1208482768&l=662157c678
the floor you can see in the cat pic and it's a cement slab and heated by the geotherm coils under the driveway and the converter in the garage.
I love the in floor heat but as an only heat source it's a little slow when weather changes drastically. and if you lose power for several days... it takes time for that slab to heat back up. but in summer it's cool and in winter it's warm and it's pretty cheap.​

 

[LaSombra]

man, I'm such a wuss... So I have this rooster that I was going to give away and not care what people did to him, eating or whatnot. He's not a purebred and I have too many roosters. However, I hatched him from an egg. Well, my husband had it lined up with a guy at work and he was going to bring him to work. Well, at dinner the other night, my husband says, "I'm going to bring that rooster in to that guy tomorrow. Can you have him ready?" I said, "sure" then we got to eating dinner and I asked, "So, what are they doing with him? A pet or eating or what?" all nonchalantly and all... then he said the roo would be eaten. We went back to eating again and I kept thinking about them eating my rooster and started crying.... I was all worked up about it and finally my husband decided he'd call off the deal and leave my rooster alone. I couldn't do it. I am so not a farmer. I can't kill my babies

I think I'm just going to build a chicken tractor and put my extra roosters out there. Then I won't have to kill them... For now on, I'd better not hatch any mixed breeds because I won't be able to cull the roos. *sigh*

 

[hallerlake]

I'm thinking about getting eggs next year, but I wonder if I can cull the extra roosters. I'm not too sure I can.

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[Rainwolf]

Well I'm the cull'er in the family.

I figure the chick was raised with love and good food, etc. which is much better then any store bought chicken to eat. This way I am not supporting mass produce meat factories and I know I'll get quality food from animals that were humanely raised and culled.

My mom on the other hand is the one that has issues with culling, every animal is a pet for her. so she just says we have to many roosters they need to go. I take care of it and put in the frig or freezer. she does not ask any questions lol