Worming

This morning was worming day for the goats. I milked Collette early this morning then wormed her, her milk tonight went to the dogs. I will go back to using her milk tomorrow evening. I don't worry much about getting the wormer in the milk that I drink since the wormer that I use is used to worm people in third world countries.

The wormer that I use is Jeffers Ivermectin 1.87% Paste Wormer for Horses it is currently only $2.59 per tube and made in the USA. You also can get free shipping if you order $60 worth of Vet supplies from them, which is easy to do because they have so much really neat stuff at reasonable prices (I love Jeffers!). I use this wormer for the horses, the goats and the dogs.

I dose it at three times the horse dosage for my goats, so if the goat weighs 100 lbs. then I treat it like a 300 lb. horse. I hit them again in two weeks with a second dose for any worms that have hatched out since the first worming and this seems to take care of all of my worm problems. It also takes care of lice and mites if they are a problem.

I have been hurrying to get this post done because I wanted to get it in before tomorrow, in trying to blog everyday. However it is time to say "Good-bye" because the thunder is rolling outside and it is getting louder which means it is getting closer. We are under a Tornado Watch for tonight, so I hope to post again tomorrow, Lord willing!

Free Ranging

In case you don't get the Mother Earth News magazine and I don't but a friend passes their copy on to us when they are done with it. They had an article in their fall issue about Real Free Range Eggs, the article pointed out that real free range is being allowed to roam free on pasture and feed on the things that they find there. What it doesn't mean is chickens that live outdoors in a pen or that live in cages with the barn doors open.

I hate to tell you what I have seen my chickens eat but my chickens are true free range chickens. They actually eat a lot of grass and plants, they love worms, insects and grubs. They like Angel's dog food and will even eat some stuff that buzzards find appealing. They pick and scratch through the manure piles as well.

The magazine article says that after their testing of free range eggs and factory produced eggs was completed, they found that Free Range Eggs had the following:

• 1/3 less cholesterol (some that they tested even had 1/2 less)
  
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

Now if I can just find where the silly things are laying...

Egg Shells

We save all of our egg shells to be recycled. When we use an egg the shells gets tossed in a bowl and left out on the kitchen counter to dry. After a couple of days of drying, I crush them with my hands into a big mortar and pestle for grinding.

Then I put the ground egg shells out for my chickens to eat, they love them. It puts the calcium and grit that they need right back into their bodies to make their next eggs.

The trick is to make sure that they don't look like egg shells to them, so that they don't eat their own eggs or another hen's eggs. Birds love eggs as well as egg shells and when they start eating eggs it is hard to make them stop.

When babysitting our neighbor's parrot, I feed her boiled eggs and she loved them. I haven't done it but I'll bet my chickens would love boiled eggs as well.

Chickens love protein and will eat meat, worms and insects are their favorite food of choice, they prefer these delicacies over corn and seeds.

I noticed the other day, one of my Barred Rock hens running for her life past the bedroom window. So I went to see what was chasing her, it was the other hens and the rooster. The funniest thing you ever saw was this hen running all over the place with a dead mouse in her beak with all of the other chickens in hot pursuit. One of them finally grabbed it and a tug-of-war began until the other hen won the battle and ran for the hills. She found a good hiding place and enjoyed her trophy. I tried to get some pictures of the chase but they were too fast for me.