#Combining two flocks of chickens how to
#Combining two flocks of chickens free

They process their old chickens for stew meat and switch to their new laying flock.įrankly, that’s about the easiest way to do it – especially if you have production layers like commercial white leghorn chickens. In either case though, there will come a time when you need to introduce new chickens to your flock to keep up egg production. Depending on their genetic background, they either produce a lot of eggs upfront or a more even amount over a longer period of time. That’s because chickens can only produce so many eggs in their lifetime. If you have production, commercial layers, they lay heavily the first two years and then experience egg-haustion. If you have heritage breeds, they can have fairly good egg production for about 5 years. Some keep on laying, but at such a low rate, it costs you more to feed them than what you get back in production. Others live on but don’t lay eggs anymore.

Some chickens die young for various reasons. Then, as they age, their productive systems slow down too. My books,Natural Dyes on Wool with Timber Creek Farm, Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals,50 Do-it-Yourself Projects for Keeping Goats, 50 Do-it-Yourself Projects for Keeping Chickens, Chickens from Scratch, Habitat Housing for Rabbits, and Margarita and the Beautiful Gifts are all available in our shop.Ĭoming soon! A Natural Dye Instruction course on the Teachable platform.Laying chickens, just like crops, time out. I speak both locally throughout the US on homesteading, poultry and livestock management. You can find my writing in Countryside Magazine and Backyard Poultry Magazine. My love for sustainable living gives me purpose in life. My background of a degree in large animal farm management and animal science from the University of Maryland, has helped me focus my energy toward helping others learn to raise livestock, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and small farm management.

#Combining two flocks of chickens free

In addition to writing the blog posts, I manage the online shop, seek out new products to add to our Free Range Yarn lineup, and write books and magazine articles. I am the writer and animal wrangler here. Timber Creek Farm is our family farm and we share our stories and information with you through the blog.

#Combining two flocks of chickens how to

(links to other posts on fermenting chicken feed Natural Probiotics for Chickens, How to Save Money by Fermenting Chicken Feed Fermented Chicken Feed) Fermenting increases the nutrition available in the feed. A second way to increase niacin content is to ferment the feed you use. Adding this to the feed will not adversely affect the chickens. An easy way to increase niacin for your ducklings is through supplementing with Brewers Yeast. Our ducks would rather eat grass hay than duck pellets any day of the week. feed some forage material to the ducklings and chicks such as fresh grass clippings (chopped small to avoid choking) or timothy/orchard grass hay. if possible, keep the ducklings separate from 3 weeks of age until 10 weeks of age. There are a few ways to work around this in a mixed flock. Ducks are excellent foragers and when they get most of their nutrition from a processed poultry food and not enough green grass and bugs, they can have problems. The wing condition known as Angel Wing is a result of commercial food for ducks and not enough forage and insect eating. Too much protein can lead to wing abnormalities and leg bone issues due to too fast of a growth rate. When ducklings are growing it is important to monitor the amount of protein that they are receiving if their diet consists mainly of commercial feed.

Most of the time, my ducks have very strong shells without adding calcium to the pellet feed.

The laying ducks will need some extra calcium from time to time. Ducks have a few special requirements in a search for what to feed a mixed flock.Excess calcium in feed can lead to extra fast bone growth in growing chicks and result in weakened bone structure. The chicks who don’t need it will not eat it, and the hens can eat all of the free choice calcium they need. In the meantime, supply the laying hens with free choice calcium in the form of crushed oyster shells or dried crushed egg shells. The key, to put it simply, is to feed them all a non medicated chick feed and then add the extra nutritional requirements of laying hens and ducks in separate feeders. It is possible to house chickens, ducks, partially grown pullets and ducklings together, and still provide the nutrition that each requires. The important thing for any animal is getting the best nutrition. How do you feed a mixed flock of poultry with differing food requirements? What can a chicken owner do when they want to add more chickens or even add ducklings into the mix? Let me give you a few pointers that have worked for us concerning how to feed a mixed poultry flock.