Blessedfarmgirl's Journal

[eldy]

I may try that. Our hens egg production peaked last winter because we had fall chicks, but this year they are spring pullets. I don't know how well they'll lay through the winter. I'll find out I guess. Our few hens left from last year are moulting, looking awful and not laying. Except my faithful green egger, Paisley. She has laid and egg almost every day ever since she started. I'm definitely getting more Starlight green eggers next spring.

I had issues with our hens laying thru last winter, until we switched back over to our home made chicken feed. For awhile we were using pelleted feed from tsc or your local farm and barn store because no one wanted to brave the cold weather to mix up a new batch. Then we noticed there output dropped so low and a difference in the flavor of the eggs that we said what do we have to lose switching them back to home made mix. So I threw on my cold weather gear and made a batch. About 2 weeks later they stopped molting and started laying eggs like it was spring again in the middle of December in wisconsin.

We had so many eggs out of 20 chickens from the beginning of december to christmas we gave 2 dozen of eggs to everyone for christmas. Plus we ate eggs and bacon for breakfast for every day in December until one of my kids said they need a change.

 

[Baymule]

I had issues with our hens laying thru last winter, until we switched back over to our home made chicken feed. For awhile we were using pelleted feed from tsc or your local farm and barn store because no one wanted to brave the cold weather to mix up a new batch. Then we noticed there output dropped so low and a difference in the flavor of the eggs that we said what do we have to lose switching them back to home made mix. So I threw on my cold weather gear and made a batch. About 2 weeks later they stopped molting and started laying eggs like it was spring again in the middle of December in wisconsin.

We had so many eggs out of 20 chickens from the beginning of december to christmas we gave 2 dozen of eggs to everyone for christmas. Plus we ate eggs and bacon for breakfast for every day in December until one of my kids said they need a change.

That’s it? You report glowing success with your homemade mix and don’t even tell us what it is???? LOL

 

[canesisters]

That’s it? You report glowing success with your homemade mix and don’t even tell us what it is???? LOL

I know.... right??!!

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

We've never tried homemade, but we've had good success with production using Nutrena Naturewise 18% protein feed. We tried several other brands and egg production went down each time.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

The bucklings were disbudded this morning. Apparently the vets around here disbud goats by cutting off the hornbud with a knife, then cauterizing the blood vessels with a calf disbudding iron vs. burning the hornbuds with an iron made for goats. It was pretty bloody, but he did use lidocaine to numb them so I felt a little better about it. Poor babies. One of them had a blood vessel that opened back up, so we had to put pressure on it for ten minutes after we got home before it stopped bleeding.

 

[Finnie]

Sounds like a more surgical technique. I hope the recovery goes well.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

We have a chicken unceremoniously dubbed "Houdini". She is a lovely fluffy-butted golden laced wyandotte with absolutely no brains. She knows how to get out of the fence, boy does she know! But she doesn't know how to get back in without a lot of help on my part and much panicking on her part.
It takes a lot of brains to outsmart a dumb chicken.

 

[canesisters]

We have a chicken unceremoniously dubbed "Houdini". She is a lovely fluffy-butted golden laced wyandotte with absolutely no brains. She knows how to get out of the fence, boy does she know! But she doesn't know how to get back in without a lot of help on my part and much panicking on her part.
It takes a lot of brains to outsmart a dumb chicken.

My 'regret guinea' was just like that! Out EVERY DAY, and could figure out how to get onto the branch overhanging the pen... but never figured out how to drop down into the pen! I'd go out after dark to lock up the chickens and she would leap off the branch, FLY 15-20 feet in the wrong direction and land in the yard screaming her head off and running around and around the chicken yard banging into the fence. I finally learned to bring a long 2x2 and knock her off into the pen BEFORE going inside.
She eventually stopped getting out.. not sure why.

 

[Mini Horses]

My guinea would fly over the 4' pasture fence and run the fence trying to get back on side he came from

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

That's why I don't have guineas.