Jim Hermes our OSU poultry specialist was in Grants Pass last night. He presented 2 1/2 hours of solid information on care, maintenance, feed, brooding. lots of good info on having a home flock or going small commercial.
Probably the most interesting thing he talked about
was a proposition currently in committee in the Oregon Legislature to make it easier for small poultry (1000 or less birds) producers to get their meat to market.
Things are looking up for people with a desire to have a small flock of poultry within city limits all over the state. Salem just passed an ordinance to make it possible to have a small flock of layers within city limits.
The main thing is if the flock (sans rooster) is clean and quiet and they don't fly over fences they are allowed in most towns in Oregon.
Josephine County is a rural county with only two incorporated towns and many wide spots in the road. Poultry are allowed everywhere in Josephine County with guidelines about quiet, clean and maintained areas.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Eight eggs per day. Woo-hoo!
My hens are doing great but I've got to do something about that crazy white Moscovy Drake of mine. He is lonely--he needs a girl duck. All he has done for days is chase every hen that looks remotely white.
Its getting embarrassing.
Yesterday while I was mucking out the lambing stalls I hear this enormous ruckus and sure enough it's D.B. Cooper the name he has earned by degrees.
His name started out as Duck Breath--but was shortened to D.B. the other day which of course lent itself to D.B. Cooper because I am going to have to pen him up because he can't leave the girls alone.
Yesterday was kind of hilarious because several hens and the Wyandotte rooster joined me chasing down that perverted Duck. This current group of hens are way cool---they look after their own.
Here is a portrait of the culprit ---peering in the door of the coop. Never let him near your hens unchaperoned.
Its getting embarrassing.
Yesterday while I was mucking out the lambing stalls I hear this enormous ruckus and sure enough it's D.B. Cooper the name he has earned by degrees.
His name started out as Duck Breath--but was shortened to D.B. the other day which of course lent itself to D.B. Cooper because I am going to have to pen him up because he can't leave the girls alone.
Yesterday was kind of hilarious because several hens and the Wyandotte rooster joined me chasing down that perverted Duck. This current group of hens are way cool---they look after their own.
Here is a portrait of the culprit ---peering in the door of the coop. Never let him near your hens unchaperoned.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Mineral supplements
McMurray sent me an email this morning about a water soluble mineral supplement that they now carry. Touting it as a supplement to prevent picking. Worth looking at.
http://www.seedfactory.com/Bird-Grit/bird-grit-mineral-grit-grey.html
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/avian_charge_2000.html?aid=ws20110218ic&utm_source=ws20110218ic&utm_medium=email&utm_content=imglink&utm_campaign=ws20110218
When I was at the feed store the other day I saw a type of grit I had never seen before. It's from The Seed Factory something called Mineral Grit. It's a mixture that seems to be mostly calcium carbonate although when you click on the link it has a fairly wide spectrum of other minerals and oyster shell. This grit is very fine and looks like it would work for chicks and pigeons. I am looking into its value for chickens. It might be just the ticket in places that are mineral deficient. I included the link for those who are interested. The mineral Grit is the one on the upper left.
http://www.seedfactory.com/Bird-Grit/bird-grit-mineral-grit-grey.html
They say it reduces picking. Picking can be a huge problem when you are brooding new chicks or mixing new birds with the old flock. (No-- I never off my old hens. Any one who has laid eight times their weight in eggs during their lifetime gets a free pass here at .410 Acres when they get old.) Besides even when they are old they still lay a few eggs.
This, however, is not the case for boarding hens (non-layers). I will cover the boarding hen dilemma in another post.
Personally I find picking to be more of a pecking order problem contained in a constellation of other semi-related issues.
Here's a general check list to help sort out whats happening:
1.) Dominance or in other words the pecking order. If there is a single bird of another breed in the flock it is almost always the one to get picked. I always to try to have several of each breed so that they have a group.
I recently acquired one Red Ameraucana. She arrived with some Rhode Island Red hens. At first glance I thought she was a Rhode Island---it was dark in that coop and I was trying to lift the hens off their roosts with a minimum of flapping and squawking ---but a couple days after she arrived I saw the ear tufts and muff when the other hens chased her into a corner. This hen---even though the coop is very large and I put out feed in three feeders was chased relentlessly. Sadly I found her a new home since my flock has not one Ameraucana at the moment--which is unusual.
The down side of dominance-pecking is the pecked hen will go down in condition and not lay eggs and be a vector of bird lice and mites. I have seen this happen consistently enough that I cull the bird or find it a flock in which it will be accepted before it goes down in condition.
BTW that Ameraucana mentioned above had really bad lice--had to dust her from head to toe. The other hens wouldn't let her near the dust bath either.
2.) Space. Every hen needs room to roam and scratch. This is the biggest issue for cooped hens because they cannot get away from a more dominant hen. Cooped hens should have at least 4 square feet each to be comfortable. They will cluster together to feed and socialize but conversely when they need space--they need space and if they are too crowded they will select one bird to be the pecked bird--even a bird of their own breed--usually a smaller hen.
3.) Food. Picking can also be caused by nutrient deficiencies if dominance or space is not an issue.
Hens are naturally omnivorous. They eat a mix of green foods, insects and other protein sources. A laying hens diet should be about 16-20% protein. Now this is fairly easy to achieve with most ready made feeds available at the local feed store. The other important factor is the quality of the protein---the amino acids in particular. Some of the organic/vegetarian feed mixes a few years back were met with this problem--head on so to speak. When the hens raised on their feed mixes were relentless pickers throughout their lives--no matter the space given or breeds involved.
A whole lot of research was poured into this problem and it was discovered that hens have a need of the amino acid methionine --an amino acid that is found in rich supply in insect life and is completely unavailable in vegetarian sources.
Of course the answer is let your poultry out to hunt for insect life and they will conversely do you the favor of keeping bugs out of the garden.
Unfortunately it is not always possible to let your poultry out into the garden or pasture where predators are an issue.
As long as I follow the general guidelines listed above picking is minimal and limited to the occasional dominant hen who thinks she should be first at the feeder. More about this later.
http://www.seedfactory.com/Bird-Grit/bird-grit-mineral-grit-grey.html
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/avian_charge_2000.html?aid=ws20110218ic&utm_source=ws20110218ic&utm_medium=email&utm_content=imglink&utm_campaign=ws20110218
When I was at the feed store the other day I saw a type of grit I had never seen before. It's from The Seed Factory something called Mineral Grit. It's a mixture that seems to be mostly calcium carbonate although when you click on the link it has a fairly wide spectrum of other minerals and oyster shell. This grit is very fine and looks like it would work for chicks and pigeons. I am looking into its value for chickens. It might be just the ticket in places that are mineral deficient. I included the link for those who are interested. The mineral Grit is the one on the upper left.
http://www.seedfactory.com/Bird-Grit/bird-grit-mineral-grit-grey.html
They say it reduces picking. Picking can be a huge problem when you are brooding new chicks or mixing new birds with the old flock. (No-- I never off my old hens. Any one who has laid eight times their weight in eggs during their lifetime gets a free pass here at .410 Acres when they get old.) Besides even when they are old they still lay a few eggs.
This, however, is not the case for boarding hens (non-layers). I will cover the boarding hen dilemma in another post.
Personally I find picking to be more of a pecking order problem contained in a constellation of other semi-related issues.
Here's a general check list to help sort out whats happening:
1.) Dominance or in other words the pecking order. If there is a single bird of another breed in the flock it is almost always the one to get picked. I always to try to have several of each breed so that they have a group.
I recently acquired one Red Ameraucana. She arrived with some Rhode Island Red hens. At first glance I thought she was a Rhode Island---it was dark in that coop and I was trying to lift the hens off their roosts with a minimum of flapping and squawking ---but a couple days after she arrived I saw the ear tufts and muff when the other hens chased her into a corner. This hen---even though the coop is very large and I put out feed in three feeders was chased relentlessly. Sadly I found her a new home since my flock has not one Ameraucana at the moment--which is unusual.
The down side of dominance-pecking is the pecked hen will go down in condition and not lay eggs and be a vector of bird lice and mites. I have seen this happen consistently enough that I cull the bird or find it a flock in which it will be accepted before it goes down in condition.
BTW that Ameraucana mentioned above had really bad lice--had to dust her from head to toe. The other hens wouldn't let her near the dust bath either.
2.) Space. Every hen needs room to roam and scratch. This is the biggest issue for cooped hens because they cannot get away from a more dominant hen. Cooped hens should have at least 4 square feet each to be comfortable. They will cluster together to feed and socialize but conversely when they need space--they need space and if they are too crowded they will select one bird to be the pecked bird--even a bird of their own breed--usually a smaller hen.
3.) Food. Picking can also be caused by nutrient deficiencies if dominance or space is not an issue.
Hens are naturally omnivorous. They eat a mix of green foods, insects and other protein sources. A laying hens diet should be about 16-20% protein. Now this is fairly easy to achieve with most ready made feeds available at the local feed store. The other important factor is the quality of the protein---the amino acids in particular. Some of the organic/vegetarian feed mixes a few years back were met with this problem--head on so to speak. When the hens raised on their feed mixes were relentless pickers throughout their lives--no matter the space given or breeds involved.
A whole lot of research was poured into this problem and it was discovered that hens have a need of the amino acid methionine --an amino acid that is found in rich supply in insect life and is completely unavailable in vegetarian sources.
Of course the answer is let your poultry out to hunt for insect life and they will conversely do you the favor of keeping bugs out of the garden.
Unfortunately it is not always possible to let your poultry out into the garden or pasture where predators are an issue.
As long as I follow the general guidelines listed above picking is minimal and limited to the occasional dominant hen who thinks she should be first at the feeder. More about this later.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Snow
The Henny Penney's braved the snow day before yesterday but the Moscovy came out of the coop and made an immediate u-turn and went back inside--no snow for him.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
I am excited I just found a source of incubators that are so much better than those old school styrafoam incubators from the feed store.
Which only keep good temps and humidity for a season or two. After which you have to replace the thermostat. Only to find that they then begin to leak from collected moisture.Thus not keeping humidity levels at the optimum. Just a pain in the neck.
http://www.brinsea.com/products/choose.html
Great quality with all the options to make hatching go off with out a hitch. So now I can turn these beautiful eggs into chicks.
Which only keep good temps and humidity for a season or two. After which you have to replace the thermostat. Only to find that they then begin to leak from collected moisture.Thus not keeping humidity levels at the optimum. Just a pain in the neck.
http://www.brinsea.com/products/choose.html
Great quality with all the options to make hatching go off with out a hitch. So now I can turn these beautiful eggs into chicks.
Friday, February 11, 2011
If I can find her a Barred Rock rooster this spring I will let her set a nest because everyone I know wants laying hens these days.
Dogs killed my old Barred Rock cock--arrrgh--I am a real dog lover so it irritates me a lot when people let their dogs run and get themselves in trouble.
Here's my free range flock on bug patrol.
My yard and garden were overrun with slugs, snails, sowbugs and earwigs last year. Oh, and Black Widows were far too common.
After a year of letting my hens free range there is nary a bug in sight.
The hens only pay attention to their feeder in the hen house when they have thoroughly combed the yard and garden.
I give them egg pellets these days which hold well in the feeder until they come looking for something extra.
Egg Pellets are 16% protein which is about 1% lower than an All in One food which is usually (depending on manufacturer) about 17% protein.
If the hens had to be penned because of predators I would use a higher protein feed to maintain egg production and quality, something like an All in One crumble. It costs a little more but if it doesn't have too much corn it will be okay. Corn is cheap and it adds fat which can reduce egg production
I will explain more later about the pros and cons of different grains especially corn and wheat.
My yard and garden were overrun with slugs, snails, sowbugs and earwigs last year. Oh, and Black Widows were far too common.
After a year of letting my hens free range there is nary a bug in sight.
The hens only pay attention to their feeder in the hen house when they have thoroughly combed the yard and garden.
I give them egg pellets these days which hold well in the feeder until they come looking for something extra.
Egg Pellets are 16% protein which is about 1% lower than an All in One food which is usually (depending on manufacturer) about 17% protein.
I will explain more later about the pros and cons of different grains especially corn and wheat.
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