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HI,
I just purchased your chicken nipples and bit, but I have a question since I’m new in the chicken world. Do chickens need direct sun almost all day to lay eggs or are they happy with a few hours in the morning and streams of sun through the trees. They are out in there pen from 8am until dusk.
thanks
Especially in the summer, chickens will actually gravitate toward the shade. They do like to have some sunny spots for dust-bathing, and like more sun in the winter.
The longer the day length, the better your chickens will lay. But that doesn’t mean they need to be in direct sunlight during that time, just that there needs to be enough light to keep them awake and active.
My chickens go out of there way to try and find sources of the stuff, I have Styrofoam (polystyrene actually) insulating the outside of my package heat pump. They finally figured it out and have peck/eaten a large chuck out of one section, maybe 1 ft in diameter. They have found the stuff before, and they didn’t seem to have any adverse affects, I try to keep them out of harms way. I assume they will be fine this time, and I have blocked them off from the area. but my question is, Should I eat the eggs?
I have 2 buff orpingtons and a white silkie(the bad influence).They are known as betty white and the golden girls. the buffs had just started laying a few days ago. Any ideas?
I’ve heard from other people whose chickens go after styrofoam. I figure it can’t be good for them, so I’d do my best to keep them away from it. As long as the chickens are healthy, though, I doubt it will affect the eggs, but I don’t really know!
i have a week old chick that was doing fine until yesterday. Now he is not eating and just standing around or sleeping. I put him in a box by himself with a heating pad. I have been trying to get him to drink water with probiotics and electrolites. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Anonymous — I’m so sorry to hear about your sick chick! Unfortunately, chicks sometimes just dwindle away, especially if they had some trauma in the egg or soon after hatching that didn’t show up at the time. That said, solitary confinement in a warm place sometimes helps them bounce back, so it sounds like you’re doing just the right thing.
I cook for my chickens.I have four girls. in the morning they get laying food and cracked corn then I give then lettuce and bread they go gaga for it. in the afternoon they get a combo of rice flax seed sucker seed canned green beans. they don’t get anything green in Michigan in the winter unless I give it to them. they never got the memo that they don’t lay in the winter. their pen is protected and there is no snow in their pen i live my girls.i live in the city and have never had chickens before
Linda — Sounds like you’ve got happy chickens!
I was contemplating buying a hydroponic system for Fodder production (green forage) for my horses. With the rising, and unrelenting price of fuel to make the hay, hay has become very expensive ($5.50-7/bale)with NO end in sight. I wanted to be sure that my horses would eat this type of forage readily. I started to grow it in my DARK- no light available- cellar. Fodder can be grown without any light source, but it will be white and not green. I did, however, use a grow light for 2hrs/day. This made the fodder very green. It took a little bit of trial and error to get the water amount needed just right, but it worked. The animal consumes everything in the tray at the end of the week, seed casing, roots and all. There is no dirt, and the animals do LOVE it.
Since fodder can be fed to ALL livestock, I fed to my ducks, chickens, and horses throughout the winter. basically as a treat, as I was only using seed starter trays, and my cellar isn’t that big to have the number of trays I would need on a single layer all over my floor. 😉
You need to soak untreated seed- Barley works the BEST! And, 85% of it is digestible, so they get a lot of good nutrition from the fodder, unlike hay which is 15% digestible. Protein levels of barley fodder equal that of corn, so you can save on feed!
Steps-
1) soak seeds 15 minutes in 5 gallon bucket with 5% solution of bleach or peroxide:water ratio. You just need to make sure all the seed is covered. (you can use this solution to clean your trays after your seeds are soaked, so after the 1st day, don’t throw it away. Literally, it takes only 10-15 minutes/day to maintain this feed source!
2) Rinse and fill up with only water- seeds need to soak 24hrs additional.
3) then drain again, after the 24hrs.
4) Place soaked seed inside your trays. 7lbs of DRY seed/day will fill a 12′ long channel, and feed 4-6 horses and 100 chickens for the day. SO measure, and adjust the amount of seed you need, to account for how long your trays are and how many animals you need to feed. whether this is going to be your feed source, or if you are just giving them a treat.
50 for the 2nd day, I usually just use a spray bottle to water the seeds- enough to thoroughly soak them, but not enough for a lot of standing water. Then, spray every other day, put in 2cups water/tray every other day, starting on day 3.
5) Each day do a tray- with just enough for each days use. This gives you fresh fodder daily. Each tray takes 7 days to reach the right height.
6) Turn grow light on, if green fodder is wanted, for maximum of 2hrs/day.
Materials needed:
5 gallon bucket; (2) 5 gallon buckets with lid are ideal!
Spray bottle
Water
bleach or peroxide
scrub brush to clean out trays before 1st use, and after every use to kill and inhibit fungi and mold growth
7 seed starter trays
liquid cup measure
SEED from seed distributor (online) and place to dry store seed. Garbage can with lid works great!
Grow light bulb and brooder lamp works great!
Spot where water run off/spillage won’t damage property. I placed trays near our sump pump.
You can make your own feed, know what your chickens, ducks, and other animals are getting as a seed (you can be sure that there are no GMO’s in your feed, and thus end up in your belly) And, they get fresh feed which they gobble up!