Chickens At Home

[ThaiLife]

First I have to confess my only previous contact with chickens has been picking up a pack of meat at Lotus , we have been given 4 chickens

( nice Brown ones ) and I have built them a chicken house , each chicken has its own compartment and a nice straw bed . Ive just been to buy

a bag of chicken food which cost 400 Baht , now I am wondering if there's any way to supplement their food with some thing else , may be like

food scraps , that will help keep the running costs down. I can see that the number of eggs I am going to be presented with will not cover the 400 Bhat

food cost. So what other things can I feed Dolly / Poppy / Rosey and Tulip with that will be good for them but not cost too much .

Thanks

[jaideeguy]

The 400thb per sack is what I feed my egglaying rhode island red chickens and recomendations for full production is 100gramsper dayper chicken. you won't make hardly any profit on your eggs, but they will be fresh and hopefully humanely taken care of and if you suppliment the feed with any fresh vege trimmings, grass and certain weeds, they will reward you with tasty dark orange yolks. Avoid strong flavored scraps like garlic onions asparagus etc.....or your eggs will reflect taste.

good site for general info on chickens......http://www.backyardpoultry.com/

good luck and let us know how you're doing

[jandtaa]

Hi Folks

This is the best site I have found so far for info on chicken feed lionsgrip.com

cheers for now J

[dave_boo]

We raised egg laying chickens and after eating the eggs mixed the crushed shells back into their feed. Supposedly this helps keep their eggs hard....

[Gary A]

We normally have some table scraps. Those are mixed with cracked rice and whatever else happens to be available. There are probably about 30 chickens roaming free in a fenced in 1/2 rai area. They seem to enjoy eating weed seeds and love insects. We have an additional two rai also fenced in. The chickens easily fly over the 2 meter high block wall Those that don't return to their own area on their own end up on the BBQ.

[bina]

if they are not the thai chickens, then they really need the feed in order to produce eggs . if they are the thai yard chickens, they can doreally well on scraps also...

any make sure they really are all females! ) , plenty of drinking water, and clean nesting materials. if u want to brood them; find a good brooder, collect the eggs, set them with the brooder, and keep the laying hens laying. (u need a male to get chicks... dont forget)

bina

israel

[473geo]

They will be so much less expensive if they can be allowed to roam......keep them locked up for a week ot two so they know their new home....then let them out in the day and make sure they can access their home as evening falls - close all entries after dusk when they have returned to keep out preditors.

Free range chickens use natural resource they pick up grit to work in the digestion crop, which is a good reason to recycle the shells which work well for this purpose.......they eat all sorts so your costs should drop regarding feed, leftover cooked rice is one option widely used in the countryside, as said above many other natural food sources.

The garlic advice is surely true we once had customers complaining that one or two eggs were off, we collected everyday so we were sure this could not be the case......after a little investigating we spotted 5 or 6 chickens going into a nearby wood, loads of wild garlic, which of course gave the eggs very pungent smell as though the were not fresh!!!!

Good luck....and remember if they are free to roam and there appears to be no eggs they may have chosen to make their own nest in some tall grass somewhere.........of course as Bina says watch out if they all start crowing in the morning.....then it's time to get the barb out!!!!

Edited December 6, 2009 by 473geo

[bina]

i have to say that if they are the layer (battery style laying hens) types, they dont do to well free roaming. they get eaten, they dont eat enough cause their survival scratch and search behaviors are low due to being bred for egg production only, and they dont always have that roosting in evening instinct either.

if they are the type that we call baladi (home/common /native) chicken i.e. the thai style hens, then free roaming is no problem. u might try fencing in a free roaming area that lets them feel free and roam but actually then are penned in a bit as protection. i had three ladies: henrietta 1 henrietta 2 and henrietta 3. two stayed around their penned yard, but henrietta 3 would go all over the kibbutz, and survived the dogs, cats and children. all three were put to the stew pot by my dog sitter, while i was in thailand, as they stopped laying (three years old!!).

here is one of the henrietta's

[473geo]

We used to take point of lay chickens (about 20 weeks) bred for laying, they were trained, hand fed and watered inside in the morning,same late in the afternoon/evening, so when called they came back to eat, they had never been outside but soon learned to forage......hence the garlic......you are correct though, perhaps an enclosed pen initially would assist the survival rate. Chickens we used were sold on after one year, by me,.........my boss just used to cull them. They were too tough to eat as the breeding was not weight gain, but laying as you say.They would lay for another couple of years but not as prolific as the first year where alomost 100 percent production was reached.

[thetravellingcat]

...They were too tough to eat as the breeding was not weight gain...

[OT:]

everybody knows worn out egg laying hens end up in McNuggets pretty sure MCD cannot call them McChickenNuggets anymore due to the low chicken content. It's mostly corn. Corn fed hens, corn coating, corn starch, deep fried in corn oil. Omega 6 eat your heart out. [/OT:]

great info on rearing chickens. if they are liked then they will produce great eggs!

[Maizefarmer]

Table scraps an a couple hand fulls of crushed maize will do fine - and let them run around the yard eating insects. They'll be just fine and taste good - when the day comes, small wooden block and sharp axe, let it bleed a few minutes, get the feathers off ( a bit of hot water helps), gut and cook as normal ... job done. Nothing better for a Sunday roast! (or a piglet).

[bina]

good for chicken soup.

the problem with my henriettas was that here in israel the layers have their beaks clipped so their foraging is also not as efficient...

bina

israel

[cjustice]

i am new in the farming buisness here in thailand, my wife and i just got the land and house starts this week,, Nondingeang,,not far from Burrium,i want some good laying hens,, not sure about mass producing with a roster,,but for sure some nice fresh eggs for collecting in the morning,,and i have my eye on pigs and possible turkeys,,i have read up on all this online being i am a city boy (Houston, Tex) but i am really looking forward to this,,i will have a steady hand working daily on my small 28 rae as i work away and wife and i with new little one of 1 yr. any advice surely grateful and wish this rookie luck,, i will need it,,as for the 28 rae,,grow what i can for sell and eating,, thanks for listening,, cheers,,

Charlie 1

[bina]

i suggest u start a new topic with your question since its a bit off topic for just chicken/eggs. BUT................

oof. before u invest one baht in anything that lives, eats, shits and dies, read thru all , but i mean all, the farming threads here. it will save lots of time. then come back and ask questions.

read thru the livestock threads. and the rice/corn/cassava threads. and the swine thread. and the turkey threads.

in your new topic posted thread include a bit more info: do u want to make money or just have fun? how is your wife's family (assuming she is a thai village girl) financially? socially (hard workers, bums, mostly old folks, brothers/sisters)? and do u understand what 'a steady hand' actually is for a thai? (im being a bit 'snooty' here, but ya' ll know what i mean).

how much are u willing to lose? what are youir expectations?

post that all, then wait for answers.

bina

israel