Simple Idea For Winter Feeding of Chickens

Here at The Halpern Homestead, we are always looking for ways to substitute the chicken's diet in the winter. Winter for many chickens is fed based on a packaged chicken feed offered at all hours of the day. Us, as well as many of our blog friends and local friends, choose not to follow this practice as the only source of feeding during the winter. 

Summer around our home is a great time for the chickens. The hens are free range. Meaning they have unlimited access to all the bugs and vegetation that they can forage in the daylight hours. In addition to extras we provide our chickens with: garden overgrowth/weeds as well as produce damaged by the voles, daily kitchen scraps/spoils that they love so much, and any other 'human' waste that the chickens just love (rinds, cobs, seeds, anything too bitter or sour).

The winter complicates things since we aren't growing extra produce in the garden and the vegetation in the fields is limited. One idea that I really like, is buying organic produce at sale prices and feeding it to the chickens. Now in an ideal world, we would grow enough food in the garden to support us and our animals throughout the winter. Someday this will be our goal, but for now we are doing the best we can with what we have.

I was at our local natural market 2 weeks ago and found a 25lb bag of organic carrots for only $15. Screaming deal on carrots! 

Now carrots may not be a 'complete' feed for chickens in terms of needed proteins, fats, carbs, and minerals; but they have a lot more minerals and vitamins than one would think.

Nutrition facts according to the USDA

Vitamins according to http://nutritiondata.self.com.

Minerals according to http://nutritiondata.self.com.

Plenty of trace minerals such as: calcium/manganese. Electrolytes such as: potassium and magnesium. Vitamins such as: vitamins A/C/K/B6, thiamin and the wonderful folate. Small amount of protein, a large amount of dietary fiber and even iron. What more can you ask for in a low carbohydrate snack?

Carrots are well tolerated among our animal friends from the dogs to the geese, they all enjoy them. We have found that the carrots are better tolerated by the birds if shredded first.

Luckily we have a food processor with a shred blade.

It makes quick work of pounds of carrots. The usual batch is 1.5 gallons of volume.

The shredding power is almost excessive. Even the largest of carrots are gone in seconds.

Every time I take a late night snack to the birds I feel like they know I am coming.

It is well past bedtime and these birds are cruising the floor like they knew it was too soon for bed.

All birds from the hens to the ducks come running and flying for carrot time.

May not be a common practice for most, but the extra produce and attention shows in these beautiful eggs!

Thanks for reading!

We Have Mites. Updated with a solution to the problem 12/2/11

Gross, ugly, disgusting, nasty mites. Let me show you what I am talking about.

Perhaps, now you are thinking.. 'That's it? It's not so bad.'

Perhaps you need a more detailed photograph.

SICK. 

Those repulsive and foul creatures have infested my poor birdies.

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Anywho, we lost little Myrtle yesterday and noticed that the coop was covered in those vomitous little creatures.

Poor little Myrtle. 

It was time for a little defensive action. Mike did some research and we decided to try putting garlic in their water to make the chickies less desirable to the little bastards, as well as, sprinkling some diatomaceous earth in their feathers, roosts, coop, and dust bathing areas.

I bought this at Aslin-Finch. It was pretty pricey, but since I am in a bind, I didn't mind.

The chickies have taken over this area in front of the living room window to use for their hygiene facilities. They dust bath here, and I am hoping they will dust themselves with this beautifully fine powder meant to kill those little jerks by cutting them up and drying them out. Take that, you stupid mites! BRING IT ON!

Update 12/2/11: 

The D-earth worked very well. 

All of the mites were gone in 2 weeks. 

We did two separate dustings, 7 days apart. 

There has been no sign of the mites since then. 

If anyone out there tells you that this stuff doesn't work, don't listen. There is no reason to use harsh chemicals on your hens when this works just as well. Just don't forget to wear a mask. The dust can irritate your lungs due to the sharp edges on the little dust particles.

We now use D-earth each time we clean out the coop as a preventative solution. Azurestandard.com has the best deal on D-earth. 20 bucks for 50pounds. 

Hope this helps those out there with the same problem. Feel free to comment and ask us questions about it.

Making Your Own Chicken Feed

Does anyone have experience mixing chicken feed from whole grains? We are going to try it, just looking for some pointers. We found a good Organic source to buy whole grains from. 

What To Do With a Lettuce Tree?

We grow a lot of lettuce and sometimes they get away from us.

Like this one that Kelsi is holding. The only problem is that when lettuce gets this big, it gets really bitter.

So we give it to the chickens!

And ducks, and geese.

Big party! Everyone's invited!

They love lettuce! Even though it's bitter.

Automatic Chicken Coop Door

I spent yesterday installing an automatic chicken coop door. I have been wanting one since we first got chickens. Imagine being able to sleep in or stay later at dinner parties without saying "sorry we have to go now, have to lock the chickens up".

I am becoming handy when it comes to tools and building, but I still have a lot to learn. I had a door on a vertical slide in place as of yesterday morning. The door motor can only lift up to 4pounds so I had to pull out the old door, it was more like 10pounds. So after making a smaller nice looking door out of 1x4's, I had to make a smaller frame to accommodate a smaller door. Unfortunately, I weighed it, and it weighed too much. I needed to make another smaller door. I settled on an old 1/4in piece of scrape plywood we had laying around. It looks like garbage, but it is the only thing I could get to work.
There was a lot of fixing a readjusting yesterday. So, I called it a night and came back to it today. I took the whole thing down and started all over.

So, this morning I went back to it. I made a really nice frame with an internal area for the door to slide. It took a long time, but it came together well. Take a look!

It is operated by a standard outlet timer which has been set to open in the am and close at night. I am probably going to replace the door when something better comes along. It will do for now. Fun project and I learned a lot while doing it.

Thanks!

The Down Side to Being a Long Haired Hippie Chicken

Meet Roberta AKA "Bob". Bob is a Black Crested White Polish, or a long-haired crazy chicken.

The problem with the long hair is clearly demonstrated in this photo. Bob cannot see things above her, which happens to be a lot of the world! Bob has no idea that Julies is standing above her. She seems to be oblivious to any direction you approach her from. She will only notice you when your right under her beak. The white color on the head also makes her easy to spot by the flying predators. This is a problem for free range chickens.

As most of you know, I love the hippie hair. As of this spring I had long hair too, so I understand how Bob feels. The hair really does obscure the peripheral vision. 

So what is a young homesteading couple to do in a situation like this?

A haircut of course.

Walter came over to give Bob some kisses during the trim.

Bob had the eye of every animal in the house.

Watching his every move.

Carefully watching.

Here is the after photo.

Kinda of a poopy cut job. Home haircutting is trendy right?

The great thing about Bob is that she has no fear. She'll walk right up to you and saw hello. 

Well, curiosity killed the cat right? We have had overly curious/confident chickens before. They don't last too long here. Jump the wrong fence, hang out alone in the far field, and general misbehavior. Oh well. Hope the haircut helps her vision.

Maybe Juliette will keep an eye on her?

Doubtful.

Thanks for reading.

How we relax at The Halpern Homestead

It has been busy at The Halpern Homestead ever since the weather has finally turned for the better in Spokane. With all the work in the garden and the greenhouse, we have been very busy. Our busy spring schedule has been hard on the animals too! 

We always have the animals running around, coming, and going at all hours.

So when the time is right, our animals like to rest. Like walter here, taking a break in the lawn.

Or Khma, resting on the sidewalk.

Henry's dirt nap!

Juliette, resting by the tree, looking over the land.

Greenhouse naps are a must when helping mom and dad run the greenhouse sale.

Dust baths and naps.

Hammock naps.

Pillow hogging naps.

Raised bed naps.

Hoses are the best nose pillows naps.

Daddy's lap naps!

Hope you animals are enjoying the warm weather as much as ours are!

Poor lil Dolly!

Our Barded Rock Hen (Dolly) had been limping around for a couple days for an unknown reason. We thought she would just 'walk it off'.

This never happened. We brought her inside for a closer look and noticed her right leg was very swollen and she had a wound to her knee area. 

It appeared to have been very painful for her. She refused to stand on it.

So, we went to work. Warm salt water bathes in the kitchen sink!

She would watch herself in the mirror.

She really didn't care for the baths. 

She was very happy when we were done!

and curious.

All better!

It has been a few days now since we started treatment and Dolly is doing much better! Some of you may find it strange that we brought our chicken into the kitchen, but all of our animals are like family.

Thanks for reading!