Backyard Chickens

[1nick]

http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

Poultry love it,they know it's coming when I bring the bag out to their dusting area.

[flamingfingers]

^I use DE in their nest boxes and even add a handful to their pellet dispenser. I take wood ashes out of the fireplace (cold of course) and put that in their favorite dust bath places inside and outside. My coop floor is mainly sand so they can dust bathe even in winter - they don't care that the floor also has shavings and dry leaves and grass hay. They can always find a place to scratch out a basin to lounge in. Haven't found a louse, mite or intestinal worm anywhere. Touch wood!

[omisimaw]

http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

Poultry love it,they know it's coming when I bring the bag out to their dusting area.

Thanks, very interesting but yah hmmmmm do not think I am going to eat 1/4 c a day in my smoothie....

[flamingfingers]

My araucana is the smallest of the lot but the earliest and most consistent producer. She has been bullied by one evil-tempered RI whose head I would take off if I knew for sure another hen-bully would not take her place.

[omisimaw]

They are mean aren't they? I remember a friend who had birds and one rooster decided it did not like another and pecked it to the end.
I also remember that when she fed them a lot of green stuff the egg shell had a green color to them... kind of turned me off..
Also can eggs be bad and make you sick?

[flamingfingers]

The araucana hen you saw is responsible for the green colored eggs in this dozen. And no, shell color is not affected by their diet. All my hens get LOTS of greens, plus food grade veggie cuttings and I even cook liver for them and give them well cooked beef and pork leftovers.... (giving them chicken meat seems to me so wrong on so many levels.)

[omisimaw]

Nice! Too bad eggs are not on my diet anymore.
The green eggs I was talking about were way more green than yours though... they were about as dark as your brown ones..
Which leads to another dumbarse question....
do brown eggs come from brown chickens?
LOL cause someone told me choc milk comes from brown cows!

[flamingfingers]

'Chocolate milk comes from brown cows'... maybe you were that naive when you were 5? And you got milkshakes when you held a cow upside down and shook her?

[omisimaw]

tongue in cheek "so you can do that without a blender?"
No seriously there is always the question brown eggs or white. I suppose there is not any difference in nutrition and that it is the type of chicken but I am guessing.
And is there a diff with the color of the yolk between the two.
I love getting free range eggs when I need them for company. They look so much better and are fresher cause I go down the road the day before and get fresh.

[flamingfingers]

No nutritional difference between white shelled eggs or brown shelled. Yolks are pale in battery raised chickens as opposed to free range or semi free range where chickens can get into a yard and actually scratch around and find greenery to eat which causes the darker colored yolks.

However, some battery raised chickens are fed a dye in their food that will cause a darker colored yolk.

I simply prefer to raise my chickens where they can eat a commercially balanced diet which is supplemented with free ranging and the occasional treat of cooked meat, human grade food trimmings and of course, a clean and vermin-free coop.

BTW - eggs can make you sick... I would not eat an egg that had a crack in its shell. If I happen to get one, I will cook the life out of it (I used to give it to my dog), but now I feed it back to the hens. Keeping chickens clean, well fed and providing good food sources for them gives you a superior product. I would not hesistate using one of my own chicken eggs in steak tartare.

[1nick]

Anyone interested in some roosters R.I.R,Amuricana & Silkie.This years birds free o charge.
I'd put them in the freezer,but I fractured my elbow and its hard to chop their little heads off with one arm.

[cheese8000]

I live in rutland and looking at getting some chickens in the new year. We get some free range eggs right now from friends but our demand is too high to keep up (2-3 dozen a week).

Looks like its still illegal here as my lot is only 1/3 acre and i dont have 50ft bylaw room from side yard and/or other dwellings. ... BUT, consideing doing it anyways (properly, just ignoring bylaw).

Does anyone have any info on penalties or problems they've run into? Is it enforced by complaints only?

I have a hard time accepting i cant provide food for family due to bylaws and from looks of this thread and who we vote back into office dont want to wait around for that to change.

[Nom_de_Plume]

I don't know what the fines are, but I do know the whole thing is complaint driven. So if you keep the neighbours happy you should be good. They usually give you a couple of weeks to get rid of the animals before the fines happen.

[cheese8000]

ok, thanks for feedback. I have a good location in my yard away from houses and I doubt it'd bug any neighbours if I'm keeping it clean and quiet. I'll revisit in early spring and see where I'm at then. Gotta learn more on chickens first :)

[flamingfingers]

Check you PM cheese.