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I had a thirty year old hot box that hadn't been used in decades. We dusted it off and my husband grounded it and I found a bucket full of old insulators and handles. Bought a roll of fencing wire and went at it. I string the wire four to six inches from the ground around all outside pens and...

X 2 Having gone through a disaster by predation in late winter myself, vigilance is everything. Since the coyote attack, we have wired the outside of all pens. Last night around midnight a pack of coyotes woke me up yipping and howling right outside the bedroom window. I went outside at day...

I had a couple chicks like that years ago and I did the same thing. It looked awful but they were meat and egg birds not destined for the show bench. They were eating each other alive. Those were hatchery stock. Never bought them since. I have one bantam rir hen that is a notorious feather...

Salt is a chemical. Salting the earth is poisoning the soil. It will kill trees. I can't believe anyone would seriously consider doing that and post about it on a natural chicken keeping thread.

Did anyone ever think that maybe poison ivy IS nature's way of over compensating for man's encroachment? Man ruins the earth, earth ruins man. Man poisons the earth, earth poisons man. Ironic? I don't have this scourge where I live but have total sympathy for you Leahs Mom. I have no...

I'm so sorry for you problems. I know exactly how you feel. If the chick is dry, this is what I do. I keep a couple old soft tooth brushes in my emergency supplies next to the incubator. When the chick is able to stand on it's feet with no worries, I gently brush it's down. Hold the chick...

Thank you Sally. I do love gardening. For now, watering is all we do to keep choice plantings alive through the summer. Yes. Closing my flock has been a good decision. Because I do not medicate or vaccinate for anything, all birds must build an immunity from the beginning. I lose a very small...

I live in a temperate area in the Puget Sound. We haven't had snow for two years now. We get some cold weeks in January and February but nothing horrible. I had only four adults and five juvie HRIR to winter over with my mixed layers. They were all fine as can be. The coyote killed half my...

You are welcome. This thread has changed many of my old way of doing things. Sometimes you read something on here and it just *clicks* and you think "That could work for me." And then when you just do it and it not only works but makes life easier for the you AND the flock? Well...Never to old...

Some where back in the mists of missed posts a question was asked about when we might t integrate chicks with the adult flock at free ranging? or something like that? I don't integrate chicks under seven weeks into the adult flock in the coop. I have a grow out pen of eight week old that free...

It was a rough winter and Spring but Summer is here for us. The best June in years. High 70's, blue skys, and lovely. Four Silkies hatched out nice hatches and two are still on nests. This resupply's my pens and gives me a good challenge to sort out the best of the best. Put one of my HRIR...

Checking in at long last. The past winter and spring has been personally brutal. For both husband and I and my flock. Rather than write a blog about it, hello, hello, again. I've missed you all. The short version: Health issues for both of us and not out of that yet. A coyote got through my...

All of the big reds have that look. This big boy is so large, I'm sort of afraid to pick him up and lug him around. He could do a lot of damage if he wanted to. I tuck him under my arm facing backwards and he is calm as can be. He lets me open the cage and stroke his back and smooth his feathers...

Thank you. This would certainly explain why a visibly healthy looking eight month old cockerel would die over night and have a huge clot on his weird looking heart. Keeping back four of the best cockerels to grow out for a year was a good judgement call on my part.He was #4 choice. My hunch was...

At first I was skeptical it would work but that ribbon that is kind of like holograms, mylar and highly reflective like the shiny side of foil can be seen far up into the sky. I'm sure planes and helicopters flying over my place must take a double look when they see all the fluttery reflective...

Yes. It is strange when you find an otherwise robust virile cockerel in good flesh stone cold under the roost with no apparent weakness, illness, or wounds. The first thing I do in necropsy after a thorough external examination is pull the internal organs. His heart was the only thing that...

This is my first bird dropping dead off the roost over night. I would be interested on learning Stony's theory. That blood clot in his heart was the size of my thumb nail. For hawk deterrent I cut down dozens of long bamboo canes out of my garden. I used long mylar ribbon and streamers from...

I popped in to see what's happening. Fun to see "Johnny Cakes' are still being made. I'm getting ready to feed some to my flock now that the weather is changing. Cold, rain, wind,....same old same old this time of year. One of my HRIR cockerels dropped dead off the roost last night! Really a...

I've been fortunate not to have to deal with catastrophic disease with my flock in over twenty years. Never seen bumble foot or heavy worm loads either. I raise like del in lot's of ways. I have a closed flock since last winter. I practice bio-security with strangers or those that also raise...

I raise the Silkies separate for that very reason. And I don't move the food and water dish once the crest grows out. They can find the food and water without searching. The whole flock free ranges everyday and eat everything from raw squash and pumpkin to boiled chicken carcass. They are little...