|
Oklahoma | Not that I know much but heres my thoughs and some experiences. We have been raising a few Buffs and a few game bantams for about 4 years now. Got the bantams for the wife and I to play with some genetics and the buffs were intended to provide some meat, some eggs, and insect control as well as some "cheap" responsibility for our kids. We currently have about 20 buffs and have had up to 50 at times. Of the 20 that we have one group is penned every night, gets regular feed, and eggs are collected every night. The other group is some rouge hens and a rooster than we never got penned back. They survive off what the can find, mainly bugs and spilled feed/grain in the sheep pens. They have several nests and we have let them hatch what ever on their own with out any help from us.
I have been really pleased with the laying of the buffs, they have actually produced more eggs than we really wanted from the standpoint that after 2 years of laying, they are just about laid out. The first winter we put a heat lamp on them every night that it got below 32 and they went to town on the egg production. The last few years we left the heat lamp off and just bedded in really deep straw and they did alright (even the week we spent with highs in the teens). As for meat production I have been disappointed in how fast these have grown. They can put on a really good frame and you will think they are ready to butcher, grab one and he's all feathers. They apparently taste good, I sell them to some relatives that like to put up their own meat and they have bought anything I didn't want. They say there is alot of flavor to them that store bought chicken doesn't have.
If you are wanting a meat bird, when I was a kid we raised some White Laced Red Cornish. Those things put on some meat. I really liked those and the only reason we don't have them instead of the buffs is my wife was intimidated by the look of them.
As for care, the chicks we hatch out and stick them in a very small box with a heat lamp and some hard boiled egg yolk until they are about 24 hours old. Then they go to my homemade brooder (old crossover toolbox with a heatlamp on one end) until they are about 3 weeks old. They get fed chick starter and hard boiled egg. After 3 weeks, they go to a bigger pen with a heat lamp in one corner, feed and water in the other and they stay there until they can forage for their self.
The full grown chickens get treated for mites with Basis every now and then. If I think it is really bad, treat the house and pen with Malation. I don't remember the name of the wormer that I have used. It was a yellow pill that you mix in 5 gallons of water. The penned chickens get Layena mixed 50/50 with chopped corn and what they can forage for around their pen when the weather is nice and we let them out. Avoid any feed with milo in it. They have a hard time digesting it and don't seem to do as well as with the layena type products.
Sorry, got a lot longer than intended. Hope some of this helps. Good luck.
Edited by jcs 4/13/2007 12:19
| |
|
|
Ok, Chickens ???
