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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2007 16:13:47 GMT -5
Homeade Laying mash recipe
25 lbs wheat meal 25 lbs corn meal 25 lbs other grains (oats, barley, or rye) 25 lbs fish meal 7 lbs dried milk 5 lbs ground sea shells 1 ½ lb salt
Soy beans or other bean sources can replace fish meal or other dried protein source.
At the price laying mash is going for these days... for many, this would be cheaper.
Kaza
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Post by Kathy on Sept 23, 2007 17:32:50 GMT -5
Thanks Kaza, I used to have my livestock feeds mixed at the mill. Do you know in this part of AR there are NO feed mills open to the public! So I either would have to buy the premixed such as Purina or come up with a homemade mix such as this. I'm going to see what I can find to make up my own. Thanks again!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2007 15:27:18 GMT -5
Hey Kathy... Are you planning to get just chickens or do you plan to have other poultry as well?
Kaza
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Post by Kathy on Oct 27, 2007 18:13:55 GMT -5
I'm planning on chickens and come spring I'll be adding 6 turkeys and possibly a few muscovy ducks. I'm getting chickens sooner than I thought; the end of next week! 12 Black Austrolorps that are 1 yr old and laying beautiful brown eggs!
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Post by bbird on Oct 27, 2007 19:29:22 GMT -5
I love B. Austrolorps, they are so docile and sweet. We've never had a blink of trouble with them, and they were very hardy, didn't peck ya and laid huge eggs. I really can't say a negative thing about them.
Whoa..I just noticed they are a year old. How cool, no pampering them needed and you'll start getting eggs right away. Are you going to try and sell the eggs too?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2007 19:36:15 GMT -5
The guy we got Bandit from has Black Australorps and he swears by them. He likes that they lay every single day like clockwork. He told me he likes the blue and green of the Easter Eggers too, so he's going to hatch out some crosses next spring and see if he can get a hen that lays a blue or green egg every day (the EEs don't lay every day, I guess, just every other day or so). I told him to let me know if it works because I might think of doing that later if I ever have to replace any of my Brahma girls. I bet you can't wait, Kathy! Don't you just love going out and picking up fresh new eggs every day? ~Lannie
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Post by Kathy on Oct 27, 2007 20:26:00 GMT -5
I'm so excited, things just fell in place in a weird way. I stopped to get eggs at the one farm that sells eggs in the next county over. We always talk and she knows I love chickens and wanted to get some. She is selling all of her Australorps and getting more Red Stars-this reason is hilarious to me and to her too-the customers complain about the size of the Australorp eggs-they're too big!! They really are huge-the donated XL size egg cartons won't close over the Aussie eggs. She said the Aussie's consistently lay at least an Xlarge egg and many times a Jumbo or Double Yolker. I guess city folks want a nice Large egg; not Xlarge or Jumbo. I helped her collect eggs so I got to see the girls and their daily gifts. She wants to sell all 25 but at $7 each that's a bit much for my wallet. Anyway, I was talking to Buddy today and told him I'm going to get chickens and would it be ok if I put the pen over what had been a thornless blackberrry patch that never produces. He said sure but said if I wanted I could put them closer in; like behind the garage! Not only that but he said since I don't use the garage for my car, if I wanted to save money I could wall off half of the double car garage and predator proof it for my chickens. He told me to go down to the big barn and see what lumber, Tposts and gates were available and I was welcome to anything I could use. So tomorrow I'm walling off half of the garage and clearing out the area behind the garage so I can use it for the chicken run. I noticed now that the leaves are falling that there's at least one 330' roll of farm fencing behind the garage-not good for chickens but real good for goats! ;D So if all goes well I'll be getting about a 6 dozen eggs a week assuming someone doesn't keep up their daily quota. I use maybe a dozen & a half normally & 3 doz would be tops if I'm baking which is not a weekly thing so I should have a few dozen to sell. I plan on giving Buddy & Bob whatever they can use every week since they're so nice & are being so generous. Now I'll have to look for a rooster since I really want to hear that morning crow!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2007 10:18:48 GMT -5
Ooooh, if you can find an EE rooster, and hatch some eggs out next Spring, you can try that experiment with the large blue/green egg every day! I LOVE big eggs! I just love eggs, period! I'd eat 4 or 5 for breakfast every day if Rich didn't frown at me so much! He thinks I'm a piggie! LOL! Two of those extra extra large jumbo eggs would probably be just perfect for me. One of these days, I'll have a larger coop, then I can get MORE chickens! I only wish there was someone around here to sell eggs to! ~Lannie
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Post by bbird on Oct 28, 2007 11:45:23 GMT -5
Funny story.... We decided we were going to get Araucana chickens, we wanted blue eggs. Not green but blue. This was way before we knew about Easter eggers, Americana, ect. Actually, I knew nothing about chickens, lol. I started going to a poultry auction about 2 hours away every saturday. I watched how people brought their chickens in and put them in the cage, I learned how to do a silent bid (I'd never been to any kind of auction before) I thought I had everything down pat! I was ready! It took about 4 weeks after that before I saw any Araucana, but I watched this real old guy lovingly carry each chicken in and put them all into one cage. This was important because I hated how people carried their chickens upside down, lol. I then watched the old man get a piece of paper and write "True Araucana, guaranteed to lay ALL lay blue eggs. I hit the jack pot, no one else labeled their chickens and he was an old guy so had to be trustworthy. I stood right by that cage, wouldn't let anyone push me aside...I was ready to bid. The bidding started and I thought we were bidding on the LOT, not individual chickens. My mistake, in my excitement I didn't listen to well. $7, $8, $9 (I kept bidding, cause those were my chickens!) The price got up to $23. I WON!! Went to pay for the chickens and found out the $23 was for each chicken, total price....$161!!!!!!!! I just knew dh was going to kill me, and I felt so stupid for not knowing how the bidding was going but I was so excited. When dh asked how much the chickens were I said $23. He said great buy! lol Took me until he just loved those chickens to tell him it was $23 each, not total but by that time they were worth it because we loved the chickens, lol. I have since learned that finding true araucana chickens is rare, so I doubt if mine were. I have no idea, but all 7 hens did indeed lay blue eggs, sky blue eggs! We later got easter eggers as chicks and most of them laid green eggs, even the bluish ones were nothing like the blue from those 7 hens from the auction. Now I did breed them with a easter egger rooster, but their babies still didn't come close to getting the true blue but more a bluish green. Funny how your first kinds of chickens are always the most memorable. We started out with the araucana, b. Austrolorps, and the buff orps. All seperate coops, they never mingled. But we went from that to raising many different kind for a meat factory and got overwhelmed and started throwing all the chickens in together. Total chaos, lol. Kathy- take lots of pictures of your new hens!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2007 10:59:08 GMT -5
Whoa!! Congrats Kathy!! Just be carefull when baking with those double XL eggs, they do tend to 'measure' diffrently in most recipes. Kaza
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