Quick tips for small flocks of birds.

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I have just two chicks this year, and six is the most birds I've kept for myself, so I was thinking about the money saving ways to keep these mini-flocks in good health. Most info on poultry is geared toward more birds than some of us keep, so what are your tips for the,"just a few" birds you keep?

I bought grit for the first time ever, and the feed store didn't have the starter size, so I got the layer/production size, a 50 lb. bag,[about $6] and took it home.

To get it small enough for my about two week old chicks, I put a small hand full on a paper plate, covered it with some plastic wrap or else to shoots all over, [oh, and I should say that I have concrete floors, this would damage wood a floor] then I tapped it down to size with a hammer.

I sifted it every so often in an old tea strainer [it has about 1/8 inch size mesh] and re-tapped the big stuff until it all passed through. It didn't take too long at all. I just sprinkle a pinch onto the food, so they pick it up as they go, ever other day or so. and as they get bigger, the less tapping I'll need to do.

I also use CITRICIDAL,[grapefruit seed extract] in the water instead of anti-biotics, and give kelp powder, and pro-biotics, instead of poultry vitamins, [all stuff I already have in the house for us to eat].

I grind up some grain in my mill for them too, they really like corn flour!! I started them on game bird starter, that was left over from last springs ducks, it still smelled good, or I would have bought new. Now I am reading up on how to mix feed rations on the chicken feed site, so I can keep them healthy with out having to buy those big bags of feed.

-- Thumper/inOKC (slrldr@yahoo.com), March 10, 2002

Answers

My 8 chickens use about 50 pounds of layer feed a month, so if you just have 2 birds a bag would last about 4 months. I also give my birds table scraps: like us, they eat a little of everything. Back when I had just 4 birds, I was getting a dozen eggs for $.25 worth of feed. The scraps don't do for 8 birds as well as for 4, but I cook up extra eggs for them when I have them, which helps a little. In the mid summer, if the bugs are very bad, I switch to grain since I figure with the clover and bugs they can supply themselves with protien. My birds enjoy foraging and will head into the yard without first stopping to eat feed if the hunting has been good lately: they eat the commercial feed AFTER they have foraged for a couple of hours!

I like to start my chicks on mashed hard boiled eggs and either oatmeal or layer pellets that have been mixed with a little milk. They love it and it seems to get them off to a very good start. I keep up with feeding them eggs even after they are old enough to eat chicken feed because layer pellets don't have enough protien for chicks.

Oh, I often crush eggshells for the chickens also, but on an on again, off again basis. They like them, but it is a nuisance when I am busy. I have oyster shell in the garage that I give them if the shells look thin.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 11, 2002.


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