Jamie Holcomb

I will do my best to answer these questions. No not at the same time, one died on Friday night Saturday morning, not sure exactly this one may have been left outside over night. The other one died in the coop last night. I did not see any signs of stress or marks. I believe the water supply is good, they had plenty of water. They have plenty of shade as their runs are in the woods. and the temperature has been between 45 and 80. Haven't tried giving more food at this time. What I was doing was taking the food away during the day and giving it back at night until last night which was the first night without food in the coop. I hope this helps. And thanks for any input.

We have chickens for the first time and we are trying to have them be more or less self sufficient. We got them back in March and they have been outside now for 3 weeks. We have started to ween them of store bought feed and they seem to be scratching good for food. My concern is we have lost to chickens in the last 3 days and I don't know why. We had 12 chickens (now 10) that range on an area 25X50 for one week then they move to the next 25X50 area. They will rotate on 5 paddocks. The night time coop is basically 4' X 4' with 3 roosting ladders and 3 nesting boxes. Any thoughts on what might be happening would be greatly appreciated as I would like to not lose any more.

I posted this in the other feed but seems how you started a new one I will ask it here as well. Question though I live in Michigan and I am not sure if we have BSF's or not. How do I go about getting some to start with or do I just set up the compost and let nature run it's course? We certainly have plenty of fly's in our neck of the woods so would any type that happened to set up shop work the same way? We have an abundance of deer fly's I am sure would be willing to help out if any type of fly will work.

This is a very interesting thread. Question though I live in Michigan and I am not sure if we have BSF's or not. How do I go about getting some to start with or do I just set up the compost and let nature run it's course? We certainly have plenty of fly's in our neck of the woods so would any type that happened to set up shop work the same way?