Recent content by landgirl1775

Yes good idea! Her crop does seem to be emptying - it is not bulging. Vet said her trachea is inflamed; but I assume if there was a crop problem or obstruction she would’ve told me. Here you go:

I have a somewhat similar situation - I bought a hen at a swap a month ago and she has been coughing just about this whole time. Unlike your hen, she is energetic and eats a lot. I treated for gapeworm with safeguard, and have also given VetRX intermittently. She’s still coughing but still...

Hi all, need help with a mystery. I bought a hen at a swap 3 weeks ago who almost immediately started coughing. She is energetic, sassy, good size, smooth feathers, eats well. No gaping, gasping, swelling, liquid around eyes/nose, or other symptoms except 1 bloody poop once. I had been giving...

My duck stopped laying about 5 days ago! My hens have been molting (and thus mostly stopped laying) but the duck doesn’t seem to be molting. One hen is isolated with coccidiosis so I’m treating the whole flock. I wondered if the Corid is just hard on the duck.

I actually wound up getting a local mill to make me a custom soy-free feed. But their custom minimum is 500lb so I started selling the excess locally. It’s already paid for the month of feed.

Yes you're right, the farmer's mash is essentially a ground-down whole grain feed, a bit finer than crumbles - this one has a lot of really nice amino acid/calcium/yeast additives that I don't think most people would bother with if mixing a whole grain feed at home. I was worried it would be...

My hens don't love the pellets so I've been looking into soy-free whole grain layer feeds; but they are so expensive, and often only 16% protein. A farmer will make me a custom 18% feed but only in bulk, and it's mash. I've never given my hens mash, and have barely ever seen it or heard of it...

Picking up on this older thread, here's the latest I've seen for soy-free, whole grain options, keeping in mind I'm in Indiana: - Grubbly: $55 for a 30lb bag of feed w/ free shipping, but that converts to $73.33 for 40 lbs, to keep the rest of the comparisons simple - Scratch&Peck: $52 for a...

Wow I was hoping to find wisdom on vacuum sealing feed on this thread! It seems the size is the issue - most vacuum sealers I’ve seen wouldn’t fit even a 40lb bag of feed. Breaking it up into many smaller portions to seal seems wasteful.

Great article, very informative. Had a couple follow-up questions for the author and/or crew: 1) The article suggests you could leave the FF fermenting at room temperature indefinitely as long as there is no mold, while only removing a scoop or so at a time. This is contrary to the...

Hi all, I have been reading these posts for years but just made an account today. Here are my answers to the standard questions. (1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? Have had chickens since 2012 (2) How many chickens do you have right now? 4 hens and 1 Pekin duck...