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Post by harrys on Mar 1, 2012 13:00:50 GMT -5
Debi, Have you wormed them and treated them for coccidiosis prior to breeding season? Not at the same time since the medicines do not mix well together.
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Post by korfuskluckers on Mar 2, 2012 1:14:10 GMT -5
I have a question to ask all of you. My birds just aren't laying. The weather has been a bit odd here in Northern California but it was odd last year too and by this time I was getting about 70 eggs a week. Right now I'm lucky to be getting 30. I feed a very high quality feed with a good 20% protein content. About three times a week I give them a game bird feed, whole grains, just as a treat. I also started giving them Kings Feed supplement. About a cup mixed in with their daily ration. They get to free range on an acre of pasture grass and love eating the walnut meats from the 13 old walnut trees on the property. I don't use lights although I do have them installed in one of the larger coops. My Orps were laying an egg a day until about a week ago and then some of them just quit altogether. No one is molting or broody and every one looks very healthy and not over weight. My Marans, 21 of them, are laying about 6 eggs a day. I just don't get it. Anyone have any suggestions?? Debi Heaven Sent Ranch Red Bluff, CA When the weather changes here, egg laying stops for a while. It usually takes a week or two and they are back laying well again. Do you feed 20% protein to your breeders as a sole ration?
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 2, 2012 17:43:02 GMT -5
Yes, that's what they get full time. They do free range a lot and I give them TMC Game Bird two or three times a week as mostly a treat.
What would you recommend?
Debi
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Post by d12chandler on Mar 2, 2012 20:45:42 GMT -5
If I feed my buffs all they can eat I get very few eggs. I was talking to Christina and she said she fed her std orp females a cup of feed a day and had good egg production. If she fed them all they could eat she didn't get many eggs either. I cut my feed down to a cup a day and my egg production came up and they layed very good. I feed gamebird breeder and thats it. I do soak oats once a week for a treat.
don
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Post by korfuskluckers on Mar 2, 2012 22:27:18 GMT -5
Yes, that's what they get full time. They do free range a lot and I give them TMC Game Bird two or three times a week as mostly a treat. What would you recommend? Debi I feed a 17% to 18%. I get a little leery feeding my larger girls anything else with a higher content. I had a few over the years come down with gout from the high protein. I feed my girls a cup and split it between morning and afternoon feedings this is mainly with the large fowl. My girls tend to get obese even with free ranging. If you do cut back feed with the females you have to watch that the males don't get to thin. If they do I keep them cage separate and free feed them over night. Since I have started this my birds lay really well. I do once weekly, give them whole oats covered lightly in red cell and the hens really love it. I am building a sprouting box this year. I will let you know how well it works!
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 3, 2012 16:29:02 GMT -5
Well, I'll give it a try. The feed I use is the 20% lay pellets from Farmers Best. This morning I gave them grains with Red Cell. I usually put the Red Cell in their waterers but I like this idea better.
Don had mentioned that the problem I am having with one pen, where the rooster is losing his hackle feathers, may be related to a feather eating hen. Never had this problem in the past but a friend of his suggested hanging a ham hock in the pen, something to do with the salt. So I have one in that pen today. So far, they are just looking at it like, "What the H**L!" I'll try it for a few days and see if they go after it.
Sprouts are a great idea. I have so much pasture grass that I don't do that, even in the winter months there is PLENTY of clovers, sweet grasses, etc for them to forage on. There was an article in Backyard Poultry were a woman uses Mung Beans. She has quite the set up for sprouting them and has it organized where she gets a fresh basket of sprouts out to her pens every three days. I've been considering doing that in my spare time. lmao
Debi
Still looking for Black Orp chicks if you have any! :-)
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Post by matt1616 on Mar 6, 2012 11:56:49 GMT -5
I guess I should introduce myself, my name is Matt Ulrich and I live in South Alabama. I just got into showing about a year ago and I just had to have some Buff Orpingtons as they have long been one of my favorite breeds. I want to thank Doug Akers for sharing some of his birds with me and I have been very pleased with the birds that I got from him.
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Post by Goldmt on Mar 6, 2012 17:16:05 GMT -5
Hi Matt!!
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 8, 2012 16:40:06 GMT -5
Hi Matt and Welcome! I'm new here also and have found everyone to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly, especially "Don Juan"! lol Speaking of knowledgeable, does anyone have a sure fire way to get a hen to stop pulling the feathers out of my rooster's hackle. I have 9 hens in this pen and don't know which one is the culprit. My first rooster lost almost 80% of his hackle feathers and originally I thought it was mites or something. After treating him and the girls and the pen for mites, I've come to the conclusion that mites weren't the problem in the first place. I moved the original rooster out and replaced him with another. Within two days the new rooster had started to show missing feathers in the hackle. So it can't be mites. I also don't have any other birds (86) showing this problem. Someone on here said it was probably a feather eating hen and I am now convinced this is the problem. Someone else suggested hanging a ham hock in the pen, something to do with the salt, that may keep her off the rooster. Nope, only the flies are showing any interest in that darn ham hock. Any ideas? Debi Heaven Sent Ranch Red Bluff, CA www.heavensentranch.com
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Post by Goldmt on Mar 8, 2012 18:29:17 GMT -5
Debi, maybe this helps:
Increase the space that the chickens have to roam. Oftentimes, when a chicken feels cramped, it will start acting hostilely toward other chickens in the coop. Simply spread the fences out farther so that the chickens will have plenty of space to stretch and move around.
Increase the amount of food and water you give to the chickens. If the chickens feel like they do not have enough food, they may fight for the rights to what little food there is. If there is no food left after the chickens are done eating, simply increase the amount you are giving them until there is some left over.
Keep the temperature comfortable. In a chicken's environment, it should never be hotter than 70 degrees F or cooler than 40 degrees F. If it is, the chickens might become agitated and violent.
Remove weaker chickens. If a chicken has been sick or is noticeably weaker than other chickens in the coop, it might be a target for attack. Remove it until it is back to full health and then replace it into the coop. This will prevent it from being attacked.
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 9, 2012 1:37:20 GMT -5
Debi, maybe this helps: Increase the space that the chickens have to roam. Oftentimes, when a chicken feels cramped, it will start acting hostilely toward other chickens in the coop. Simply spread the fences out farther so that the chickens will have plenty of space to stretch and move around. Currently this pen has access to about 1/2 acre of pasture grasses about six hours a day. Then they get locked up and still have an 8X12 coop and a 12X12 run.Increase the amount of food and water you give to the chickens. If the chickens feel like they do not have enough food, they may fight for the rights to what little food there is. If there is no food left after the chickens are done eating, simply increase the amount you are giving them until there is some left over. They are allowed to free feed and have auto waterers.Keep the temperature comfortable. In a chicken's environment, it should never be hotter than 70 degrees F or cooler than 40 degrees F. If it is, the chickens might become agitated and violent. Man, I wanta be YOUR chickens! :-) Where I live it gets down to 20 and as high as 112. We can easily have 40 dregree swings in temp from day time to night. I've lived here ten years now and I don't even have an AC in my house, never the less in my nine coops. Remove weaker chickens. If a chicken has been sick or is noticeably weaker than other chickens in the coop, it might be a target for attack. Remove it until it is back to full health and then replace it into the coop. This will prevent it from being attacked. I don't have any weak or sick chickens. Do you have any other ideas? Maybe something I haven't thought of yet. Not that I expect you to know what I think. :-)))
Read more: orpingtonclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gpd&action=post&thread=132&page=5#ixzz1obAVeNvS
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Post by Goldmt on Mar 9, 2012 2:12:04 GMT -5
Debi, Another round of ideas:
Picking is usually the result of a lack of protein in the chicken's diet. You can prevent this deficiency by chopping up some dry cat food into bite-sized bits and feeding it to the birds.
Feed your chickens pieces of meat left over from your dinner table. Chickens actually love meat, including chicken, so feel free to give them your table scraps for the protein values.
Buy vitamin powder for your fowl and add it to their drinking water. It requires two tiny cupfuls of powder per gallon of water. These vitamins usually come with their own little measuring cup. If not, use a teaspoon. It turns the water brown but chickens love the stuff.
Buying vinegar is a lot cheaper than special ready-made avian vitamins and it contains a lot of the same stuff. Put a couple teaspoons of vinegar into a gallon jug of water and pour it into a watering station for the chickens to drink.
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 9, 2012 14:57:42 GMT -5
Hi again,
Quite a few people have suggested cat food. I give my birds so much protein now that I can't imagine that it is a lack of protein. I'm starting to think that, at least for this one hen, it may more of an inability to assimilate the protein being provided. Which would lead me to believe there is probably something else going on with her.
Currently I am attempting to determine which hen it is. When I do, I will pull her and work with her in an individual pen. She does seem to have slowed way down on the feather picking. Maybe he has had enough of her nonsense. :-)
I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for all your input, Debi
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