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Processed Broilers
18 broilers processed yesterday and refrigerated to rest for 48 hours before they go in the freezer. Why the rest period? It leads to a more tender meat after cooking.
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Deworming Poultry
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Deworming Poultry
Yes, you need to deworm your poultry! Ideally at least twice a year, or as advised by your vet. How do you know if your birds need to be dewormed? Well, as a rule of thumb, you’re not looking for actual worms in their feces. In fact, if you do see worms, your birds are already dangerously infested with worms. I once bought a trio of birds and was horrified when I saw their poop the next morning and it was absolutely loaded with round worms. Yuck!! So, besides seeing worms, how do you know they need to be treated with an anthelmintic (dewormer)? Well, you may notice a general…
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CHICKENS AND HOT SUMMER DAYS
How can you help your birds beat the heat? Some online articles have pretty strange recommendations about things you can do for your birds in the heat. Let’s face it, ain’t nobody got time to be making frozen blocks of treats, nor will your birds really know what to do with them. Speaking from experience with doing freezer clean outs and giving the food to the birds, they don’t touch the stuff until it is thawed anyway. So, keep it simple. Open the doors and windows of your coop for air flow. Provide shade options (I have shade cloths over each run). Provide multiple sources of water and free-choice feed.…
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Deworming Poultry
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WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THESE ROOSTERS?
Now that you’ve figured out how to sex your chicks, it has become apparent that you have waaaaayyy too many cockerels (roosters under 1 year old are called cockerels). So… Whatcha gonna do with them? Here are some options: 1.) Grow them out and eat them. Heritage breeds may take as long as 24 – 28 weeks to reach a decent carcass size. You will want to separate them from your pullets and run them in a bachelor pen (aka freezer camp). Then butcher them yourself or book them in (book early!!!!) at a poultry processor like Pigeon Lake Poultry Processing or some Hutterite colonies will also process them. (No,…
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Deworming Poultry
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CHICKEN BREEDS I HAVE KEPT AND HOW I RATE THEM OUT OF 10
I’ve kept quite a few breeds over the years. Here are my ratings. *Indicates breeds I currently keep Partridge Chantecler 6/10 White Chantecler 4/10 Buff Chantecler 6/10 White Cornish (pure) 5/10 Blue Cochin 3/10 Silkies (White, Black, Lavender) 0/10 Bantam Barred Rock* 4/10 Barred Rock 2/10 Partridge Rock 6/10 Silver Pencilled Rocks 4/10 Dominique 4/10 Cuckoo Marans 4/10 Houdans 6/10 Lakenvelder 3/10 Light Brahma 6/10 Easter Egger 5/10 Olive Egger 5/10 Barnyard Mix* 5/10 Ameraucana 4/10 Columbian Wyandotte 6/10 Silver Laced Wyandotte 6/10 Australorp 4/10 Rhode Island Red 5/10 Welsummer 5/10 Sex Sal Link Browns* 9/10 Red Sussex* 9/10 Red Rock Cross* 9/10 Cornish Giants* 8/10 Random Bred 1976 5/10…
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Deworming Poultry
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DIATOMACEOUS EARTH AND CHICKENS
WARNINGS: 1. Diatomaceous earth is a Class 1 Carcinogen according to the IARC. 2. Always wear eye and respiratory protection when using this product. Inhalation of this product, even the ‘food grade’ version, causes scarring in your respiratory system. You should also wash your clothes and shower immediately after using this product, as it can cause skin abrasions. 3. Diatomaceous earth will drift and can kill bees, pollinators and other beneficial insects. Be extremely aware of this if you choose to use this product. Diatomaceous earth is mainly used as an insecticide and anti-caking agent. Legitimate uses of this product include mixing it into grain as it enters the grain…
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Deworming Poultry
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PUMPKIN DOES NOT ACT AS A DEWORMER
1.) The substance (cucurbitacin) thought to be effective as a dewormer is found mainly in the roots of some species of pumpkin, and to a lesser degree in the fruit and seeds. 2.) Unfortunately, the cucurbitacin is found mainly in very bitter pumpkins, which are not the kind that have been domesticated and are commonly available.“The bitter and toxic compounds inthese vegetables are cucurbitacins, which are well known in wild varieties of these food plants and their related species. The cultivated forms, on the other hand, have during the time in cultivation been selected for being free of the bitter and toxic compounds.” This is a very good thing, because…
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Deworming Poultry
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CHICKEN HACK FOR COCCIDIOSIS PREVENTION
This evening I cleaned the brooders with my broilers in them. They are now at the age where they eat a lot and poop almost as much! They also look like hideous little half-feathered dinosaurs. It’s not the best stage. Anyway – after scooping out their old shavings and replacing them with new ones, I did something that might seem counterproductive: I scooped some dirt from my outside runs and sprinkled it in the clean brooder. Seems crazy, right? Not so! I chose not to vaccinate this batch of broilers against coccidiosis because I know that in the past, I have sometimes had trouble finding unmedicated chick starter. (Remember –…
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Deworming Poultry
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EGGS: TO WASH, OR NOT TO WASH?
This topic comes up frequently, so here is the low down on the egg regulations for Alberta small flock producers:If you are selling your eggs, or they are otherwise leaving your farm for human consumption, they MUST be washed and refrigerated. https://qp.alberta.ca/documents/Regs/2004_023.pdf “The provincial egg regulation, the Purchase and Sale of Eggs and Processed Egg Regulation, affects the sale of eggs direct to end consumers. According to the regulation, uninspected, ungraded eggs can be sold directly to consumers for their own personal use provided that:§ the eggs are produced on the producer’s own farm§ the eggs are clean, have no visible cracks and are not leaking§ the eggs are kept…
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Deworming Poultry
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HOW TO DETERMINE GENDER ON YOUR CHICKS
It’s that time of year when every second post on every chicken group is asking people to sex their young birds. Here are some tips on how to figure it out for yourself. 1.) Colour. In many breeds, other than solid colours (buff, white, black etc.), the cockerels are more colourful than the pullets when they begin to feather in. 2.) Pullets may feather in faster than cockerels. 3.) Leg size. Cockerels will have thicker legs. 4.) Comb colour. If your chick’s comb is turning reddish by 8 weeks old, it is probably a cockerel. 5.) Comb size. If you have purebred chickens, the ones with larger combs are probably…
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Deworming Poultry
