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RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 102 days ago

Hi there
Thats great about your new chooks. I have Isa Browns which lay lay lay. I feed them everything everyday, from bread to rice fruit etc. No meat. I also give them pellets which they like. You can get pellets that don't have any chemicals or hormones. Good luck and congratulations on your new chooks. Also let them scratch around your garden for a couple of hours a day. They love to do this, but watch them if you a nice vegi garden as they can be quite aggressive diggers to get the worms!!

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 102 days ago

I have raised chooks all my life and only fed them wheet, pollard and pellets. I mixed pollard and water (to a batter), mornings feeds and pellets or wheet in the evening (it's a good way to entice the chooks into the hen house for the evening lockup), as I had a large white sow, I mixed pollard and table scraps for her. I had so many eggs, I had to sell them amongst the community. If you do not have a rooster, your hens will still get broody but you can take their eggs by grabbing their heads (without hurting them) and fishing the eggs out, of course she will be very vocal after that but this has to be a common practice or the eggs will rot under her. My chooks were on a sheep station and were not in their hen house until evening, for protection from fox. I found the best place for them was in our orchard, as they ate the fruit which dropped to the ground (we never had fruit fly). My neighbours who lived 5 miles away had fruit fly and hens in the orchard (I believe the fruit fly came first and stayed)! If you have a cat problem or a snake problem, only worry about the cats as snakes rarely bite hens unless the brudy hen attacks (whilst protecting chickens). I found the Eastern Brown or King Brown Snakes the most common snake to be after mice and eggs, if you see one in your chicken pen, just back off until it moves on as they only attack if cornered. I also find Goannas love to take eggs, but never found one in the hen house (only snakes curled around eggs laid on the ground). We had drums (smaller than 44 gallon) with half their lid cut off and sand in the other half and a plastic dummy egg (to promote egg laying). We also enjoyed many double yolk eggs (don't let anybody try to convince you that they come with more yolks). You will find the yolk much more rich in colour, so enjoy.
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A. Day

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 99 days ago

I am another that have had chooks and hatched chickens for many years, all our hens ever had were wheat seconds & shell gritt (makes shells nice & strong) if they were lucky crushed lupins, & we always had plenty of eggs, I always kept them shut in their yard (bad foxes). but used to give them lawn cuttings or weeds from the garden, or some times I used to grow spinich for them, lucerne chaff is another treat, the green gives them nice rich coloured eggs. But the highlight of their day was the food scraps from the kitchen, they won't eat what they don't like. The secret for continual eggs is to make sure they don't get stressed by being out of water or feed for any length of time, most chooks will moult every year & go off the lay for a couple of months. One thing, chooks are rather stupid when it gets very hot, they will not go through the sun to get water, so need checking during the heat. A big flat dish of water where they camp during the day can help (they stand in it)
Good Luck
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What if we!!

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 99 days ago

I am another that have had chooks and hatched chickens for many years, all our hens ever had were wheat seconds & shell gritt (makes shells nice & strong) if they were lucky crushed lupins, & we always had plenty of eggs, I always kept them shut in their yard (bad foxes). but used to give them lawn cuttings or weeds from the garden, or some times I used to grow spinich for them, lucerne chaff is another treat, the green gives them nice rich coloured eggs. But the highlight of their day was the food scraps from the kitchen, they won't eat what they don't like. The secret for continual eggs is to make sure they don't get stressed by being out of water or feed for any length of time, most chooks will moult every year & go off the lay for a couple of months. One thing, chooks are rather stupid when it gets very hot, they will not go through the sun to get water, so need checking during the heat. A big flat dish of water where they camp during the day can help (they stand in it)
Good Luck
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What if we!!

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 96 days ago

It was always my job as a child to be the 'chook lady' we had about 40-60 chooks at a time and usually some ducks too. We had a scrap bucket that all the leftovers went into. the only problem we ever encountered with the scraps was when we had excess oranges on our trees one year and decided to juice them..... The chooks got about 10 bucket fulls of orange skins and a day or two later they had turned orange!! well just their legs and around their faces. We threw the orange skins in the bin the next year.

Our chooks were suplemented with pellets and grain, and loved silverbeet - I would feed it to them so there wasn't enough left for mum to cook.


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:)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 91 days ago

You'll find the produce guys will tell you anything to sell more bags of chook feed. I have had chooks for years that get kitchen scraps everyday, they also get golden yolk pellets at night, plenty of eggs no probs.

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 90 days ago

wow... thankyou each and all for your feed back..(no pun intended)..I love duckys story about the spinach..lol.. we are now the proud parents of 3 Isa browns ( or reds.. see how much I know..) which we picked up yesterday and, this afternoon received our first tiny "grand-egg" .. I guess they will take a while to settle in and lay in the morning like the others near by do.. if not so what? .. should I be concerned??..I do have another query.. 'C' is quite nasty to 'K'.. "F" is cruisey so far .. is this the 'pecking order thing' or should I follow my mother instinct and kick 'C's butt..and if so.. how do I do that? Once again thanks heaps for your support.
Cheers. :)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 89 days ago

In my experience the chooks will eat anything you throw over the fence into their yard, although mine do not like potato peel and citrus peel.

It's best to leave them to sort out the pecking order. As long as the pen has plenty of room for K to get away from C then they will settle quickly. ( I always throw my scraps over a wide area so that the lower chooks in the order get a bit more chance at some tasty scraps.)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 86 days ago

They will always fight, its the natural pecking order, but if it gets too aggressive, you might need to seperate them till the feathers grow back.

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:)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 85 days ago

Is is ok to let the chooks loose in the mint patch what effect would lots of mint eaten have on the eggs.
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chookey

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 81 days ago

Wow, that might make an interesting omelette!!
I don't think it should be a problem, but you might not end up with much mint left. Chooks dig and scratch a lot when let out and they might tear up yor mint patch.
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:)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 74 days ago

I have chickens for years, 10-12. of them. Each year I loose one or two for something that it looks like blocked bye burst eggs inside the abdomen. One chicken I have, white, that lay soft egg and then drinking it. What shell I do to prevent that.I feed them with left over bread and leaves from Greengroser.
I have lots of eggs and in season I have to sell some.
Any solution to this problem? All comment appriciated.
Tank you.
Sugar. Vic.

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 69 days ago

If you can find somewere that sells shelgrit you could put that on the ground somewhere for them. It is basically just crunched up sea shells.

When your chook knows how to get to the yolk inside its egg it will keep doing it, they love egg and I don't know any way to stop them. Maybe try to collect the eggs more often during the day.

You do need to give the chooks a balanced diet, they love scraps etc, but they do need other foods too. Are you feeding them a lot of bread? you may need to suplement their food a bit with grain/pellets.

You could also try to find out more about the breed you have, some breeds are more prone to some problems like the blocked abdomen.
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:)

RE: Backyard chooks

Posted 65 days ago

I have more questions about my chooks and seeing as you have all been so helpful, thought I'd run these ones by you .
1/. The chooks wont sit on their roosts at night, but prefer to sleep and poop in their nest. I've tried closing off the nesting area but then they complain for ages. Is this normal? I find I have to clean out the poop in the nest each morning.
2/. Only 1 of the 3 chooks I bought 4 weeks ago, (supposedly at point of lay), is laying. I enquired about this from the source of purchase, and was told that until the combs grow in and are red they wont lay. One has 1/2 a comb and one barely the beginnings. How long does it usually take for the combs to grow fully and have I been sold young chooks at point of lay prices or is it normal practice?
3/. I'm feeding the chooks a mix for laying hens. While 2 are not laying, is this then the wrong food?
4/. How much mix should I be feeding the chooks on a daily basis? I find I am filling their feeder often and they tend to leave the pellets till all else is gone. They have a large grassed enclosure but dont seem to be eating alot of the greenery other than that close to their pen. I do throw in a few scraps each day which they devour.. maybe I have spoiled them? .. they are pigs with wings!
AND.... maybe all of this is normal and I'm a learner chook keeper but I would appreciate help. Many thanks. Tippie