Bare butts

I should apologize for being absent without leave, all I can blame is a busy month of June and a heat induced apathy during the month of July. We spent weeks fencing; repairing, renewing, dividing into smaller lots and herding sheep and goats from what we considered the wrong side of the fence back to where we felt they should be. Lambs creeping through small gaps encouraged mothers to  rub and poke at fence clips till they could join their offspring in a daily walk around the boundary fence. They could escape but they seemed to need a gate to return from whence they came, which of course, required a bipod with opposing thumbs to manipulate the chains. 

We built the bachelor pad for all the boys and relocated them in June. Nigel and Fred, the sheep, seem appreciative of the rest and luxurious surroundings but helped prove, yet again, that sheep in no way resemble goats. Randy missed his family, he was lost without Daisy to tell him when and what to eat. Four foot cattle panels and electric fence were no problem for him, by next morning we found him laying in the arms of his women folk! We decided we can cope with two kidding goats in winter and gave in to his demand to stay.....I agree we followed the path of least resistance and demonstrated our total lack of moral fibre! 

The last post was about our newly arrived chicks and I have attached a short slide show. They have passed the ugly stage and are beginning to show signs of their gender, some time in October we should start seeing their first eggs.

  

This blog is titled Bare butts, so I should start talking about our mature chickens; they suffer from bare rear ends. It isn't due to mites as we give our chickens wood ash to dust themselves and we see no signs of mites or other parasites. The girls are healthy and happy. They lay plenty of eggs which are large and have a sturdy shell and rich colourful yolk. They free range and alter their own diet as they move from the pasture to the barn and out into the front yard. They are not pecking at each other and we do not have too high a ratio of roosters to hens. Other than their bare butts there is nothing wrong with them and truly, it seems to be more of a problem for us than it is for them.

Apparently this is a more common problem than we had first thought. Online chicken forums, homesteading sites, vet sites all have questions from small flock owners about this problem and it seems there are all sorts of views on how to deal with it. We have researched extensively and eliminated what we considered silly, unlikely or illogical remedies. Even in the first week of us taking action the chickens are starting to get fluffy areas rather than bald red patches.

We now give four separate feeds, allowing them to decide for themselves just what they need, rather like a chicken buffet.

1. 20% protein hog feed from our local grain elevator. They mix it for us but I think you could use high protein layer feed in bags if you can't get hold of healthy hog feed.
2. Cracked grain. We use cracked corn but you could use wheat if that is cheaper
3. Oyster shell
4. Grit

Effectively their buffet gives the chickens a choice of high protein/ low energy food (Higher cost) or high energy/ low protein food (lower cost). They ration themselves, also free feeding on oyster shell and grit as they need it. Of course, while they free range at this time of year they also eat whatever bugs they may find, which also reduces our feed bill. In winter our chickens stay cooped up and we anticipate that the new style of feeding will reduce our overall costs as well as cover their butts.