Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What types of chooks do you have and what do you feed them... and what do they prefer? I purchased some leghorn poults and are raising them for eggs. Seemed like a good choice but I'm now thinking I may have been able to get good laying hens that could cross to produce meat broiler chicks. I've seen several definations of cornish cross chickens but from what I've found its a white Cornish male crossed with a white Plymouth Rock female to get the overly fast growing broilers that you have to withhold feed to keep them from outgrowing their skeleton. I understand the White Plymouth Rocks are good layers, just not as good at food conversion. The Leghorns are supposed to get a dozen eggs per 3.75 lbs of layer feed. It is also my understanding that the breeders use a "double cross" excuse the pun, two breeds for meat production on the male sid and two breeds for reproduction on the female side, to keep the traits from consistantly reproducing in the offspring.

And the fodder part. I found my chickens do not care for corn. They will eat anything else first including paper plates first
I've been feeding them "scratch" which is a mix of cracked corn, wheat and milo/sorghum. The chickens will eat it all but love the milo seeds They also eat the wheat and leave the corn for last. The quail also love the milo but do not eat the wheat at all. Of course the table scraps are tops for them as well as the occaisional BSF larva meal. They also eat of the fresh grass clippings so with a full stomach the scratch is like a buffet where they pick out the good stuff. It is getting too late for milo/sorghum to be planted (in the old dirt garden location) but I may plant winter wheat. Any experience in growing fodder would be appreciated.

I have just got into Australorps which are an Australian version of the Black Orpingtons. They are nice big meaty birds but still lay very well and are perfect for hot conditions. Another option I found that would be good for meat and eggs in a hot environment is the Transylvanian Naked Neck, plus the lack of feathers gives you a good aiming spot for the axe.

Well we recently got some silver laced wyandottes to go with our three isa browns and the sole little silkie. They free range as often as possible, so we tend to only give them grain in small amounts early in the day and more often then not only on week days.

We did have a rooster to go with the dotts but he dropped off the perch a couple of months back. We will need to replace hism as one of the Isa browns has taken on the duties of the rooster , if she wasn't a good egg producer she would have been introduced to the axe by now.

As for feed, I have noticed that it depends on wheather as to what they preffer at the time (grain wise), It also depends if they are molting. mine have gone through periods where they will hit the corn/maize and leave the wheat until last and at other times it's the reverse.
My feed mix is about 50/50 wheat and maize, and the feeder doesn't get topped up until it's all gone, as I said they free range so only small amount is given anyway. I have tried a shop prepared "free range" mix during winter when we don't have many hours for them to wonder around the yard, I can't be too sure but I think that they only ate most of it because they were bored.

Himzo.

i have a small back yard so i have gone with Old English Game bantams and have crossed these with Black Leghorn bantams, the eggs are small but in MHO a good size for the size of the bird and they tast good, because they are a small bird i keep a rooster as the crow isn't to loud and i haven't had any complaints yet, i have one plymouth rock that lays very well to.

i feed them one cup of poultry mix most days and they tend to hit the corn first then the other grain leaving the wheet til last so when there is a lot of wheat left in there pen i dont feed them till its eaten, they get scraps and greens and seem healthy to me.

cheers

Simo, that Australorp is one big fat chicken! Seriously is that yours or just a breed photo.

My last sack of scratch was 50/50 wheat and maize. The wheat isn't still in the husk this time. It looks better and the birds aren't as picky as they were. They like the milo the most.

I've got Rhode Island Reds and one or two New Hampshire Reds. At peak most of the girlz were producing about 5 eggs a week each some a bit more. Lately not as much. A few of them are looking a bit tattered, I think some feather eating might be going on.

They always have some layer feed available to them and they get some scratch but I really try to give them as much green paddock as I can. I have portable fencing and large netting that I move around the yard to allow the girlz to work on different areas and get as much bugs and greens as they can.

The girlz also get treats like left overs, or the pumpkin halves after I remove the seeds. Sometimes the cook gives them real treats like oatmeal with bacon fat. I will often give them treats of yogurt (when I make a batch of yogurt, I usually make the whole gallon and I'll flavor half for us and leave half plain for the girlz.) One of the fav treats for the chooks is small tilapia. When the fish were breeding out of control and I had an aquarium full of pumpkin seed size fish, I would scoop a net full and give them to the chickens. Boy do they love food that moves!!!!!! They also really like a treat of fish food on occasion but I don't want to give them too much of that as the protein level is a bit high though it is good for the ones molting.

I think before we get any new birds, we are going to build a portable hen house for them (nest boxes and night time perches) that we can wheel around to different parts of the yard and put up the paddocks around the movable hen house to make giving them fresh ground easier as well as avoiding having to clean out a coop. I intend that the bottom under the perches will allow the poo to simply go to ground and avoid me having to haul it anywhere.

I saw a pick of your paddock with the netting overhead. nice set up. One of my hens got out and all day didn't roam more that 10' from the pen. At the end of the day her craw was full the size of a baseball. They are not getting the greens they should as the cage is still hard/heavy to drag around. I need to look over that chicken chopper thread for an auto door that works on a photo cell. Or put a trailer axil on it.

I expect the picture you saw might have been of just the chicken wire yard right in front of their coop. We have done far larger paddocks since.

We had been closing the pop doors on the coop at night in the beginning.
Then as there is a small run of chicken wire right in front of the coop we were leaving that open so they could get out and move around first thing in the morning.

And I'll admit now that we have gone over a year without any predator problems, we have not been closing the door to the extended runs or paddocks either. (See we were going out of town and having a neighbor collect eggs and fill feeders and such and didn't expect them to come over early in the morning and again at dusk to open and close the coup so decided to leave them access to a relatively secure portion of the extended run. Have been lazy ever since about locking them in. Granted, we are in the middle of a neighborhood and not on the edge of a forest or anything.

I like leaving them as much yard space as possible since it means I spend far less $ on commercial feed.

I have also planted garden beds with cover crops that we give them access to when we are done letting them grow. I got one section that we will give them access to in November that is planted with cow peas, flax, buckwheat, a sunflower, grass and weeds. Then I will probably re-plant it in December or January with pumpkins or something.

I currently have 1 5+kg Plymouth Rock rooster and a Australorp hen.

I am a little put off the Australorp as it seems too heavy and fluffy feathery requiring trimming, will hopefully sit some eggs this season though Sussex or Plymouth rock depends what I can get hold of.
Feed is just some Vegelayer crumble and whatever scraps I get them

As for portable housing check my link for a light easy design, that said I freerange them all now so am just going to build them a permanent sleep box with automated open shut.

http://evansmotorcycletraining.com.au/backyard.html

Hum, I think I need something that can hold nest boxes as well as perches. I want basically a movable Night house with nest boxes. I've only got hens and the current perm coop is not really sound muffed anyway. I think I'll need something with at least two wheels.

That is a breed photo, I believe it is a rooster. My hens are a similar size, they are primarily a meat bird with the advantage of being regular layers.

Chooks (chickens) also love raw meat scraps. I have dogs so mine don't get any and I feel funny about feeding chicken to my chickens.

Tagasaste or Lucerne Tree is also excelent fodder for chickens, they can eat the leaves and the seeds dropped, it is an evergreen legum so it puts nitrogen back into the soil and is a great place for chickens to shade and roost.

I've got 16 Golden Comets, brown egg laying machines. Probably not a good meat bird as they do not feel real thick when I pick them up, but they layed well even through last Winter... Short days and no light supplementing, yet they consistently threw large eggs every day.

We feed laying pellets supplemented with BSFLs and any suitable scraps from the kitchen. Also, they are in a movable chicken tractor, so they get grass and 'free range' everyday or so...

Adding another tractor to our yard late this month with three Rhodes Island Reds and 15 20 more Golden Comets. Demand for our eggs outstripping production... The girls more than earn their keep.

CB