Hi Cedar,
To be completely honest, I don\'t have an answer for you. A couple of years ago my wife came to me with this idea. She said she had read a bunch of stuff and came of with this \"recipe\" that would make our birds look better for the shows. I didn\'t have the time to research it myself, figured it wasn\'t a \"Hill To Die On\", and so forth so I just went with it.
I don\'t know if it made a difference in their plumage but she swears it has. That was two years ago so I just kept it up. And I kept it up all last year while we were separated but it\'s a lot of work. She just moved out again and this time I think I\'m on my last batch of \"the recipe\". I think I\'m gonna just go with Layer Pellets for the chickens, Flock Raiser Pellets for the ducks, and maybe mix in some scratch every now and then especially during the winter. Maybe I\'ll throw in some VigorPlus every now and then too. I dunno. I don\'t know if I\'ll ever give them catfood, oats, and the other stuff again. I just dunno yet.
I was told some time back about something called Diamond V and was gonna try it but never got around to it. I talked to one of the Sales Reps about it. Sounds a lot like VigorPlus but I know some folks who really think it\'s making a difference with their birds.
Oh btw, Cedar, I didn\'t think you were disagreeing with me. I\'m sorry if my post came across that way. It\'s ok to disagree with me anyways. Everybody on here knows I\'m wrong more often than I\'m right anyways! :rolleyes:
Mike, interestingly enough, I started with four different lines of pullets and four different lines of cockerels. At this point I know I\'ve got at least two different lines of females and two different lines of males. I might have more but haven\'t decided yet. I\'m not sure at this point how many rotations I want to have - but that was a good point you made. I should have brought that up but didn\'t think of it.
Oh, and btw, I\'m not familiar with BYP. BYC yes, but not BYP. If it\'s similar, I hear what you\'re saying. I think a lot of folks think I\'m nuts because I tell them I\'ll just stick to working on the WBS Ameraucanas and the Barnies and Wellies that I\'ve been working with.
I don\'t know how \"good\" my record keeping is but it\'s helping so far.
God Bless,