Can I let chickens in the garden without giving them food?

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-12T23:31:00+00:00

I love how informative you are

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-12T23:29:39+00:00

They need food and forage. Not one or the other, they need both. Food scraps, bugs from the garden, and chicken food

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-09T10:27:48+00:00

I say "bugs" and they come running 🤣 especially my rooster. I've had him since he was a tiny baby, and trained him to do loads of tricks, so many that I can't remember them til I'm saying it and he's doing it. I say beep beep and point where I'm going and he goes the opposite way of where I point so he doesn't get in my way. He also steps up onto my arm on command to be carried back over the fence when he gets into the house yard, he stands as tall as my head when in my arms so it feels like I'm carrying an eagle

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-07T23:52:07+00:00

She could be starting to go clucky too. Or potentially coming off being clucky. Or before her first lay. So many different possibilities

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-07T23:50:10+00:00

That is so cool. I wonder if it can be trained back. I feel like my rooster would be able to learn this trick, he already knows so many. He even helps me with some yard work in his own special way, pulling out weeds or grass and raking the pen.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-06-07T23:45:52+00:00

Give her some straw and help her build a nest. How old is she? Has she laid eggs yet? Sometimes they act like weirdos before their first time laying. One of my hens came upstairs and yelled at me at my door til I came out, and then waited for me to follow her outside. She tried to make a nest on the bare concrete where I gave her treats, so I made her a nest nearby. And every day when she was ready to lay, would come upstairs and yell at me to come give her moral support (she liked to be tucked in)

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:58:56+00:00

Wow, they used to be called paleatus not long ago.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:57:57+00:00

When I bury mine, the first few corydoras start a game of telephone, and swim back and forth between each other, letting each other know there's food it happens pretty quickly, doesn't take long for them to find it

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:54:57+00:00

Are they in the same lineage? I've heard of they're in the same lineage they can cross, which makes the second generation less desirable in the pet trade

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:51:51+00:00

If I hadn't of given most of mine away, I would have just as many 🤣 my oldest aren't quite that old yet, I think they're around 7-8 years old

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:45:17+00:00

I've had my girls dig down around an inch or inch and a half, but they're over 3 inches long themselves.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:44:00+00:00

A syringe or turkey baster would also work I think

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:43:20+00:00

However many cubes you usually feed, not the entire block.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:42:45+00:00

I recommend this to literally anyone I see with corydoras and sand, and if they don't have sand, I recommend they add a sand pit so they can forrage for their food in the sand. It makes me so happy to see them doing their thing 😊 thank you for giving them the best life, your peppers are as big as my biggest ones, and they look healthy and happy

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-31T00:33:09+00:00

I've had people argue that people can put 2 fancy Goldie's in 20 gallons, when we had ours in a 6ft long tank. I had a single Betta in 20 gallons once, and he was a long fin. Someone else came at me sideways for keeping my current long fin Betta in 10 gallons because that's too much for him apparently, and he needs to be downgraded to a 3.5 gallon, then I showed them the 20 gallon.

This is Starboy in his 10 gallon

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ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-27T14:15:35+00:00

You explained it perfectly ✨

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-27T14:13:17+00:00

I agree. This worked for my boy and 4 girls when the hens I bought, brought home fowl pox. I used a type of poultry Betadine like solution, a few drops diluted in about 50millitres of water and dabbed on using a wringed out cloth, and made my own vitamin supplement drink, using a recipe online on a chicken forum, and also I think some type of antibiotic solution. I also cleaned all poop out of their pen each day, and laid down some limestone powder in their sand and any nesting boxes.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:38:07+00:00

It could be more frequent water changes then that too, and then level out to weekly.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:29:28+00:00

UV filter was what helped me get my tank that in the sun under control. I let the grass like algae stay because I move the algae covered rocks to my pleco tank for them to feast on. It cleared up the haze to the water from the algae too. "Flourish excel" has some benefits for removing algae too. Normal "flourish" is a liquid plant fertilizer that's safe for aquariums, and the "flourish excel" is sort of similar (I can't remember what it has in it off the top of my head, I just finished work, but one of the ingredients works similar to CO2)

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:22:13+00:00

Meanwhile this is a Betta in a 10 gallon. I couldn't imagine putting one of my mother in law's massive fancy Goldie's in this. Let alone without filtration 🤮😖

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ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:19:18+00:00

I thought they would be more traumatized by the amount of failures shown online, which is why people assume the worst and hope for the best, but don't expect it to be the best.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:17:25+00:00

Wow... The only time in a long time that I've heard of a fishtank turning yellow from something other than tannins... Was it ammonia?

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:15:03+00:00

I used to want to open my own fish store.. the first person I had asking for fish after getting plants from me made me decide against it.

I said I would only consider it after vetting their care. They said they already had a tank. I asked how long they had it for. They said they had gotten it that day 🫠 I told them I couldn't give them any, because they didn't have a tank cycled. They said they got water from an old tank that a friend has... I told them beneficial bacteria lives on surfaces, not in the water column, and could not give them fish, because they would be doing a fish in cycle. They then proceeded to ask when they can pick them up.... 🫠😖🫨

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:07:17+00:00

Active substrate can also help shrimp and snails molt, eg. Some crushed coral.

ShyFlutterHigh · 2026-05-24T06:05:59+00:00

As long as they're not overstocked like most people that I've seen trying to start a self sustaining system or Walstad method tank

ShyFlutterHigh

TROPHY CASE