Organic chicken keeping - Page 5

Thanks for the info...it's a good place to start! Somehow I don't think catfish would like living in Connecticut, so I'll have to look for other likely candidates.

Kind of newbie chicken person mistakes. The run is 4 feet tall (modular fencing) and I put bird netting over it to keep hawks out. Then I added arching PVC pipe under the netting so I could stand up. I planted the squash around the run and it grew up the modular fencing sides and onto the netting. Then I decided to let the chickens out into the entire corner of the yard for more running space. They chomped all but the woodiest vines and ate the leaves they could reach.They started scratching around and digging up the plants and eating the organic fertilizer, so I piled up bricks around the vines like cairns. Then the weight of the plants dragged the netting down, deformed the PVC, then hung in the doorway, so I still had to stoop. There were lots of leaves but not a lot of fruit (nitrogen from the poop?) and the chickies would peck all the unripe fruit they could reach. I must say, it did look really beautiful, nice shade for the girls. Then it all got powdery mildew, as things are wont to do around here, and looked awful. The fruit did not ripen. Maybe not enough sun, or wrong types of squash. I tore it all down. Now I have camo netting over the top and am thinking about next year's plantings. Kiwis? Scarlet runner beans? Cherry tomatos? Malabar spinach?

Very interesting, read your thread and the one article entirely.  It's got me to thinking for sure.  I was wanting to learn to fish this year, fishing in a container would definately flatten the learning curve!!!!!   

i realize this thread has been forgotten a bit - but lets try to get it restarted and have the "organic" or "all-natural" chicken (or other fowl - i have ducks as well) community come together! o-what a dream! lol

)  AHHH and then.... my 4 yrs old just touched the computer and erased everything else i had typed!!!! so here is the very short version and i will love to share more on this thread if we can get it going again....

my BRs have been the my most problematic birds - they are now just about a year and a half old  - DH had to cull one that was very ill - i think it was from mites and we had just moved and the stress was just too much for her. (also i got them at a local feed store - so who knows) but getting birds/chicks/eggs shipped here is a project and costly - so is organic feed - i read what others pay and they think thats a lot for organic - wow i pay sooo much more - 50lb organic broiler/finisher is Thirty eight DOLLARS plus TX!!   im trying to grow more to feed us and THEM!

A little back round info on my situation - we try to live/ eat organic, grow our own, organic feed no antibiotics (unless the kids really need them) I had both my children at home 1st with a midwife - 2nd she didnt make it the birth bc it happened so fast  - my second child had a freak stomach thing and was life flighted to another island when she was 18 days old and was hospitalized for 10 days in the NICU, the DR. never figured out what had happened but think that her intestine had been twisted a little and was causing her belly to swell up! while in the hospital she got MRSA (as the OP talked about - super scary staph. super strain) and i was SO upset - this is why i had my babies at home in a clean MRSA hospital super virus free zone! so now this is something my child will carry and could get very sick and or die from a wound or something getting infected - here is a great article - http://www.motherearthnews.com/human-livestock-antibiotic-resistant-mrsa-link-zwfz1203zhun.aspx

the hospital saved her life and i am grateful but also gave her something that could take her life - 

any how i digress....

we live in hawaii and there are bugs and more bugs and having a year round growing season is wonderful - but in turn the bugs are a constant battle - i use DE it just doesnt cut it -  for these super tropical mites!!! my poor little broody is covered - and i have another BR that has worms (saw them in the poop - and most likely they all have mites - also we have lots of feral chickens here and they have mites and so on and it is impossible to keep them all out of the yard all the time. i have been using garlic, flax, cheyenne pepper, DE in the food - garlic in water, - i just started the garlic a few days ago so am hoping this will help - the BR has been looking a bit wobbly and she didnt get up on the roost a few nights last week, but is still eating and now getting up there at night, running around during the day  - i am just gonna keep an eye on her and if she gets worse - not better she will be culled -

i have used pumpkin seeds in the past whenever we have - going to get some soon... they all do not grow well here unless they are japanese varieties. we have super powdery mildew too.

i have been thinking of putting some fresh bay and rosemary ( i have very large plants well bushes and trees ) of both and was curious about putting some in the nests to keep the mites away?? has anyone tried this?? i figure it cant hurt bc they brush by both in the garden all the time... and at the very least my chickens will smell pretty! 

would love to here any other ideas or methods for organic chicken keeping...

great chicken garden runs on the previous pages! love it. our garden is on the other side of the yard so i made the chickens there own little plot close by - i have bird netting over it now until things get big and then its all theirs - sunflowers, tom., kale, broc. and more to come - plus they get in my garden now  trying to keep them out! and they get all the scraps,fruit and garden trimmings anyhow. 

i have also started to incubate some eggs from a handsome game rooster who would not leave the yard - i am thinking the feral birds are much more pest and disease resistant than domestic birds and want to get that blood into my chicks to make them more resistant to the mites, etc... of course there are sick feral birds - this rooster however was a kept bird who got loose - i posted more about it in the old fashioned broody hen hatch along just recently (more detailed story of the rooster) and there is a picture of the rooster.  also game and feral birds are great broodies and i dont want to  use the incubator forever - 

wow - ill shut up now!! lol it was supposed to be the short version!!

ALOHA

so i just found my answer http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/624195/lice-wont-go-away-suggestions/10 a few ideas on page 2. glad a few people chimed in with some natural ideas and not just use seven dust and invermtawhat!

im going to try this - we shall see how it goes... on my way outside... be back laters

Aloha

I have been reading up on natural deworming plants that have been used for centuries by people for animals and people.  I am going to plant them around my yard where the chickens have access to see if they will "self medicate" w/ the plants.  The ones I can remember off the top of my head are wormwood, blood flower, calcanus, epazote.  I didn't get my seeds early enough this year to wintersow them, and I think for my climate/area they will do better winter sown, I did go ahead and try to plant them but w/o any success.  I had thought about growing and harvesting and giving them to eat, but the more I read about it the less comfortable I was w/ that, so I think I'll let nature do it's thing and see if they will "know" what they need instinctively.  If they don't well then I just have some wildflowers that will grow well in my area.

The other thing I think is important to natural deworming (and this is just my opinion) is the need for grass between my chickens toes, not denuded dirt.

i agree about the grass and my girls free range alot and im working on building a run - we have a large open air coop, so they will have more room when they are not out as long some days (im at work or the store etc..)

i also have been reading about epazote and have a small plant - from what i can tell just the leaves is the safest and you are supposed to harvest at a certain time of year when the exact substance (forget right now) is lowest. i am thinking maybe just a small amount of leaves chopped up in their food once and a while shouldnt hurt - maybe i will select the BR as the test subject - is that mean? now that i typed it it feels a bit mean...

well i did go get some rosemary and thyme, chopped and sprinkled in the nests and on the broodies (now i have 2 apparently) so we will see how it goes...

i also want to look more into flax bc i saw it was an ingredient in some organic deworm powder... ill have to find it...