I heard this from some old timer at one point in the past and decided to give it a try on this crop. Well, I'm a believer. It seems near miraculous. I'd encourage at least giving it a try--and certainly trying it on any young bird that gets sick and has the stumbles. It seems to almost breathe life into them. Go figure.
You'll notice a couple of things.
First, they do grow faster.
Second, they'll eat and drink more than you'll expect.
Third, they're pretty hyperactive on the dope.
Fourth, they're awful aggresive. Sounds like a modern day classroom, but really. I ought to post a video. . .you wouldn't believe it. Watch them. If there's a sick bird in there they'll eat it.
In my experience it's rare to have this many birds and not to have one "get off the bus" at this point. They're pretty fragile. So, I'd suggest give it a try and tell me what you think.
So. . .good or not? I guess we'll see. Once they get started on sweet water they want it and not water without it. Of course I knew that would happen which is why I owned Coca-cola stock for years. I suppose thats ok and they'll get weaned off it at some point. I'm putting a teaspoon perhaps in a cup of water. I've 16 chicks and they'll go through 5 or 6 of those a day. This seems like an awful lot in my experience. They're flying, mind you. Half-assed, but they can get a foot or two off the ground now. . .that's not even two weeks.
Huh. You have Buff Orphingtons this time around, right? I'm going to try this on my girls. They already sound like they're doing extreme fighting in there sometimes, this should ramp thing up even worse! Are you using store bought honey, or something local from the farmer's market?
Regular stuff in the bear with the hole in its head. Tell me what you think. You'll see effects in 10 minutes.
I'll try it with the morning cage clean. I don't want to give the kids sugar right before bedtime (today), lol.
Wise move.
Tell us what you think, or whether I'm tripping.
You realize of course that Buff Orpingtons rule !
Buffies grow a little slower than many other chicks but they get much bigger too.
Roosters may go as much as 12 pounds. Beautiful gentle birds. Tastey too !
Nice brown eggs with bright orange yolks are very good.
Buffies will go broody and make very good moms.
If everyone had a few Buffies and some of Jay's sweet potatoes
no one would go hungry if the barges stopped.
They seem to be good birds for sure. I need big chickens out here because I've had so much trouble with feral cats and some animal rescue group dumping TNR cats out here, which has been a huge hassle for me. The mongoose haven't been near the trouble, at least once the chickens get to any sort of size.
Yeah, Buffies are big enough to stand up to a cat. We had one back in Idaho that thought she could chase away a black bear! Maybe it worked - the bear eventually lumbered away. ;-)
Never heard of feeding honey to chicks... It will be interesting to hear how it goes for your little ones.
If anyone hatches out Buffies this spring/summer, please let me know.
I have a 40 egg incubator and try to hatch a few to
pay for laying pellets every now and then. How many do you want ?
I have some duck eggs and about a dozen Buffie eggs in there now.
The ducks are for a friend and the Buffies will be for sale or trade for
a bag of pellets.
Or if you have cucumbers or fruit. I like to make pickles and jams.
Chicks should hatch in about 3 weeks since I just put the eggs in yesterday.
Has anyone tried caponing you cockerels?
Buffychick, I have 11 Ameraucana chicks I'm tending too at the moment. I think I wouldn't be ready for Buffies for 6 weeks. Would you be willing to hatch some out for me then? I had cucumbers out the ying yang over Christmas, but the vine dies off last week. If it comes back I'll bring you cucs!
Sure Hooligal. It takes 3 weeks in the incubator to turn eggs into
chicks. I have a dozen that will be available April 12th ...probably more like 9 by the time you account for the cold weather playing havoc with the incubator
yesterday.
So I could set another batch and hatch them around May 6 th.
How many do you want ? I could maybe get around 3 dozen max.
Too bad about the cucumbers. They make great bread an butter pickles.
Maybe next time.
May 6th sounds like a good date. My current chicks should be self-reliant by then - they're quite a bit of work right now :D I would like 6-12. I'll narrow down the number by April 10th. I'll be happy to pay you for them up front so you know I'm serious.
I'm replanting the cucumbers, so there will be more. I found some pig tracks at the vine this morning, so that might explain their overnight demise. I'm moving the new plants inside the pig fence. I like cuckes too much to give up on them that easily. I use them instead of crackers for dip & such. I also found that slicing them up & letting them sit in my leftover commercial pickle juice made delicious fake pickles. Very light & crispy, like a cucke, but with a hint of pickle flavor. It also let me recycle my pickle juice for a few days!
There might be an advantage to honey if it draws ants, give the chicks a taste of the good stuff.
Has anyone tried caponing you cockerels?
-gkomohana
I haven't tried it, but there was a caponizing set at the antique store awhile back. I almost bought it just because it was such a bizarre thing.
Considering the high percentage of cockerals that don't survive the process, the amount of time it takes and the benefits you get, I don't see much value in capons. Have you tried it and found it worthwhile?
I haven't tried it, but there was a caponizing set at the antique store awhile back. I almost bought it just because it was such a bizarre thing.Considering the high percentage of cockerals that don't survive the process, the amount of time it takes and the benefits you get, I don't see much value in capons. Have you tried it and found it worthwhile?
-chooks
No but I plan to. You have to practice
on fresh killed and after you get good at it the survival rate should be better
than 90%.
A capon is a much better feed to
protean converter than a hen or a rooster, not to mention more amiable.
I'll make my own tools when I start
doing it. When I do get it down to a science I'll be glad to share any
techniques that develop.
The antique store only wanted ten bucks for the whole caponizing kit. It had lots of long pointy things, long hook things, some knife things, some hold open the hole things, etc. All nicely put into a leather case. I really should have bought it, I even went back to see if it was still there but it was gone. Perhaps you could find one on eBay or somewhere. I don't even know if they still make them, is caponizing still legal for commercial chicken raising operations?
I'll be trying this honey bit when i get my BLACK STAR chix at the end of the month. Last year, I offered some crickets to the day old chix and it was instant rugby. Who knew they were so lively at a day old.
If they are mail order chicks, they are more like five days old and extremely hungry when you get them. Locally hatched, then they could be just a day old. Jay has some Black Star chicks (those are the black ones, Jay. Two hens and one roo.) and they would run for food and fight over tasty bits the day they were hatched, so it might just be a chicken thing and not necessarily a starving chicken thing.
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