Coffee anyone ?

[Ridgetop]

I know some of y’all probably have a random chicken or 2 running around. Have y’all been feeding purina or purina owned brands? Because I was and I got no eggs and then I switched and I’m getting tons. Apparently there is some crazy theories out there but have y’all had a problem?

DH mentioned that to me the other day. Not sure where he heard it but called DDIL1 who has raised chickens and other poultry for years and she said she heard it too. It is apparently one brand that changed their formula - ("improved it"?) and somehow it caused the hens to stop laying for some people. Thought it was a brand from TSC but not sure. Some people thought it was Purina, others said Pilgrim's Pride, whatever it was it started with a "P". After a lot of complaints they may have changed their formula back, not sure.

Winter is definitely the time when laying hens slack off due to daylight length. It also seems to coincide with molting of hens that were bought as chicks in the spring. They lay fewer eggs during molting as well as during winter naturally. When the now 1 year old hens start laying again in the spring the eggs are slightly larger, but you get fewer eggs since old hens lay less frequently than young poults. You can circumvent winter egg laying losses by using a timer in the henhouse that turns on a light several hours before actual dawn. This will give the hens the extra hours of "daylight" while allowing them to find their roosts at dusk. If you hook up the timer to add light after dusk, then when the timer shuts off the chickens are left in the dark without time to find a roost.

I used to buy my chicks at the end of summer when the feed store was closing ut the older chcks that had begun to feather out. They would be half price and I would stock up with fewer weeks to keep them in the brooder. Since they were on a different age clock than spring hatched chicks, they tended to over winter with laying and molting. Since I used the light trick too, I rarely had any loss of eggs in the winter. Here in Southern CA it stays warmer in the winter too.

 

[Show Sebright]

DH mentioned that to me the other day. Not sure where he heard it but called DDIL1 who has raised chickens and other poultry for years and she said she heard it too. It is apparently one brand that changed their formula - ("improved it"?) and somehow it caused the hens to stop laying for some people. Thought it was a brand from TSC but not sure. Some people thought it was Purina, others said Pilgrim's Pride, whatever it was it started with a "P". After a lot of complaints they may have changed their formula back, not sure.

Winter is definitely the time when laying hens slack off due to daylight length. It also seems to coincide with molting of hens that were bought as chicks in the spring. They lay fewer eggs during molting as well as during winter naturally. When the now 1 year old hens start laying again in the spring the eggs are slightly larger, but you get fewer eggs since old hens lay less frequently than young poults. You can circumvent winter egg laying losses by using a timer in the henhouse that turns on a light several hours before actual dawn. This will give the hens the extra hours of "daylight" while allowing them to find their roosts at dusk. If you hook up the timer to add light after dusk, then when the timer shuts off the chickens are left in the dark without time to find a roost.

I used to buy my chicks at the end of summer when the feed store was closing ut the older chcks that had begun to feather out. They would be half price and I would stock up with fewer weeks to keep them in the brooder. Since they were on a different age clock than spring hatched chicks, they tended to over winter with laying and molting. Since I used the light trick too, I rarely had any loss of eggs in the winter. Here in Southern CA it stays warmer in the winter too.

Well producers pride is owned by Purina so they’re all the same thing. I’m about to order chickens. Finally getting blue eggs!

 

[Mini Horses]

@Show Sebright I love the colored eggs! What breed are you getting?

 

[Mini Horses]

For cream in coffee drinkers...

Adding This to Your Coffee Could Fight Inflammation, Study Says

Your morning cup of joe could have major anti-inflammatory benefits.

www.prevention.com

 

[Honeybee Hill]

Good morning! 2 cups in, and I've been doing school work since 6. I'm really questioning my sanity in doing this at my age.
Since last week, I've been quite overwhelmed with reading and papers-all while my older cat, Sonny Be-Bop (don't judge-my daughter named him when she was 14..) Has been diagnosed with Hepatic Lipidosis. Apparently, my younger cat, Jefferson Starship (I hear you laughing) has been bullying him away from the food, and in cats, a few days of no eating causes huge problems-anorexia which leads to Hepatic lipidosis. Poor little guy is jaundiced, so he's on 3 different meds, and I've been syringe feeding him 3 times a day. He's looking better, but we have a long road ahead.
Hope everyone has a great day. I'm off to spend some quality reading time with Piaget.

 

[Blue Sky]

Four bottle lambs. Found three this morning abandoned in the barn. Converting spare bedroom into Lamb Hilton. Haley is in a crate in the garage bored but fine. New lambs have issues. One was butted by an old ewe, ouch. One is having trouble standing (white muscle disease? New pasture maybe selenium issues?). Hubbs informed me that we need to start chickens and he’s shopping for a bottle calf. AND he would like to start entertaining clients, have barbecues etc. since we have a new house.
*long gap in post because I fell asleep*
Groping for the high octane Cuban coffee. On the bright side I may be done lambing.

 

[Finnie]

Straight up - TOUGH ****! He lives there, he is an adult, he can feed and water the chickens while you are away. It isn't like you are asking for 8 hours of hard labor every day.

I don't spend 1/2 hour a day on the chickens. Go out in the morning, open the barn, add water, put out feed, rake the coop, check for eggs. Go out about 3 PM, feed again, check for eggs. Back out as it starts to get dark, explain to the girls that think they should sleep on the alpaca stand that they need to go in the coop. Count beaks, check for eggs, lock up. It isn't that much work.

Got back from Chicago yesterday. I found several things that were just unacceptable, but I can see that the problem lies with my junky, fiddly setup. All my pens are kind of hacked together, hard to open and close, and easy to break. So three of them weren’t actually closed, just wedged, and I am lucky there weren’t more predator attacks or a chicken escape.

I joined the sitters for their last lockup visit and talked to them quite a bit. I did not call them out in any of the issues. I had already decided never to hire them again, so there was no point in further “training”. However they really are nice people who thought they were doing a good job. There were some things that they went above and beyond. It’s just that they don’t understand chicken behavior and needs.

What I really need to do is improve my setup here (before I go on any more trips). I need to fix things so they are easy to use and not half-broken and about to break further. This will make my daily life easier as well as being easier for sitters

@Bruce , your opinion doesn’t really fit my situation, which you have no way of knowing because I’ve not explained it. I read your post while I was away, and was just going to quietly ignore it. But this morning as I was doing chores and getting everything back in “order”, I was looking around at everything through the eyes of a sitter, and I saw what a thankless job this is. And I thought about what you said about my son, and I wanted to put a plug in for him.

(But first let me explain that I have over 120 birds of 3 different species in 10 different pens. It takes ME 40-60 minutes each morning to do just the bare bones feed and water, let alone how much extra it takes for someone else who is not used to it.)

Now as to my son: Of our 5 children (he is the youngest) he has ALWAYS been the most helpful. Whatever we ask of him he does without complaint. (Ok, nobody’s perfect and there have been the random dragging of feet here and there as he grew.) But over the years he has been such a blessing and helped me with many things. And if I want to hire someone else to do the chickens since I know he really detests that job, then I am happy to do it. He would have done it if I had needed him to do it.

 

[Bruce]

OK, I didn't realize how many birds you have, nor how your son is actually helpful in general. My 27 Y/O DD2 is the opposite. She grudgingly does the dishes after dinner. She will sometimes help move firewood and did take care of the animals when DW and I were gone for a week. She will mow the lawn (riding mower) but again, not exactly with a "sure thing" smile on her face.

I expect you will also be happy with less work if you can get your setup more "work friendly"

 

[Finnie]

Yes. We are planning to move to a place in the country (instead of suburbs) after DH retires, and he has said all this crap is not coming with us! I told him, nope, my plan is to only have nice efficient chicken housing there.

 

[Finnie]

And fewer birds.

He has declared no new species, either, but I have a diabolical plan to hopefully get sheep. Bwaa ha ha ha ha!