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Chickens!

#41
boynamedsuse said:
The shell strength is determined at least in part by the diet. Although not a rule, the Ameraucanas I've seen are often more passive and therefore lower in the pecking order, which means they don't have as good a diet. Giving a chicken calcium (and magnesium) is probably beyond the scope of this thread, but it becomes increasingly important as the hens age.

Our chickens are somewhat spoiled. We use organic lay crumble ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] in our case). It doesn't cost much more than regular feed and I think they actually eat less (being more satisfied perhaps).
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I haven't really been supplementing their diet beyond crushing up their egg shells and putting them into the compost pile next to the coop. Only the one Ameraucana lays the fragile eggs. They eat a half bag of laying mix a week, but they follow me around as I tackle landscaping projects and feast on everything that turns up. They also hang around the back door and eat sandwich crusts and other scraps that the boys throw out. I saw one of them running around with a mouse hanging out of its beak yesterday and another one was eating a little snake last week.

How big is your operation?
 
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#43
bolophonic said:
I haven't really been supplementing their diet beyond crushing up their egg shells and putting them into the compost pile next to the coop. Only the one Ameraucana lays the fragile eggs. They eat a half bag of laying mix a week, but they follow me around as I tackle landscaping projects and feast on everything that turns up. They also hang around the back door and eat sandwich crusts and other scraps that the boys throw out. I saw one of them running around with a mouse hanging out of its beak yesterday and another one was eating a little snake last week.

How big is your operation?
Click to expand...
Try crushing the eggshells up and putting them in cups so the hens can eat them like grit. You should probably microwave the particles first (in or out of water) to sterilize them.

Unfortunately, bread and other products don't have the right mix of nutrients and can lead to health problems. OK as a treat, but try to keep the percentage down. :) Although not related to chickens, health problems caused by feeding food like bread is easier to visualize in aquatic fowl when they get Angel Wing. Angel wing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We are down to 5 chickens these days. The most we had at any given time was about 16 - 18 (it varied over time).
 
#45
Downunderwonder said:
Risky business feeding eggshells back. We were told they can get a taste for eating their own eggs. Oyster grit is cheap enough.
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That is the reason I suggested crushing them up. A blender or food processor makes quick work of egg shells. I talked to my wife about this to confirm, and although chickens are smarter than pretty much everyone gives them credit for, in our experience they don't seem to make the connection if it no longer looks like part of an egg.
 
#46
oneday, my neighbor killed a raccoon that he trapped because it killed & ate a chicken. the next night a huge raccoon showed up and slaughtered all my chickens. :nailbiting: it was a massacre of legendary proportions! feathers & blood everywhere!
after that event i started a "raccoon relocation program" because they never forgove a transgression against their own,... at least it looked that way, lol. :chicken::help:
 
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#47
Sux. Wifey was given 2 Great Danes about a year ago and one is a VERY protective male. Between him and the 2 hounds outside, coyotes and raccoons have decided to avoid our property. The male Great Dane will take on any animal his size or smaller and win with the hounds boxing in the poor critter who came on our land.

With coons, prior to the Danes showing up, they always appeared to have a leader that needing relocating and then would return again and again with the next "leader". They eventually learned.
 
#48
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I will always connect this first generation of chicks to my cancerous prostate surgery. We stopped and brought these peeps home 7 days after I got cut.
Renovating this 20 yr old coop is the first thing of any consequence I've done in the wake of being punctured...and, as much time as I spent locking this sucker down using hardware cloth, I came to know more about being punctured than I wanted to.
The girls have already named 3 of the 6...the others are mine to name...2 black ones and one Red Star. Suggestions are welcome.
Here...toward the end of the day...this project has been very good for me, and to me.
I can feel my blood pressure go down as I walk down the slope toward the bottom of our yard...:thumbsup:
 
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#50
the harp unstrung said:
View attachment 861903 View attachment 861902 I will always connect this first generation of chicks to my cancerous prostate surgery. We stopped and brought these peeps home 7 days after I got cut.
Renovating this 20 yr old coop is the first thing of any consequence I've done in the wake of being punctured...and, as much time as I spent locking this sucker down using hardware cloth, I came to know more about being punctured than I wanted to.
The girls have already named 3 of the 6...the others are mine to name...2 black ones and one Red Star. Suggestions are welcome.
Here...toward the end of the day...this project has been very good for me, and to me.
I can feel my blood pressure go down as I walk down the slope toward the bottom of our yard...:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Nothing quite like chickens to take the rest of the world away.

Naming them is not a good idea. Takes away the roast chicken option for most townies.
 
#58
Congrats - that is a big first egg. We are starting to get eggs from our chickens but they fit comfortably in a teaspoon.

I just put an automatic door on the coop; best investment ever - the girls used to cluck up a storm until one of us let them out.
 
#59
So a couple of weeks ago, we hatched out 20 chicks in an incubator. I'm still not sure what we are going to do with them all, but whatever.

Anyway, we had a problem with one of our roosters going super hostile and attacking everyone in the family, so I gave him the axe over the weekend. Yesterday, I was dropping off his replacement when much to my surprise, another brood of day-old chicks came wobbling out from under the coop! It looks like we are up to around 30 chicks now.
 
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