The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia,... - Page 78  

@bekissed

Can you lead me in the direction of the main FF thread? My search turns up several results where it is mentioned, but none that look like the "main" thread if you will

I mentioned this on the FF thread but I think it bears mentioning here as well.  There is something I've noticed about the eggs since these hens have been on FF, instead of the feed I used to feed.  All the yolks, no matter which egg from which hen, are E-normous! 
 

I've eaten thousands of eggs and always look closely at the yolks as they are cracked into the pan.  Since I haven't really been eating these eggs until I knew the chickens were back to normal in health, I hadn't gotten a chance to compare their yolks to one another.  They are all, each and every egg, huge...no matter the actual egg size itself, the yolk is HUGE. 

I'm wondering if this would mean the chicks born to these hens would have much better nutrition from the get go and naturally thrive better, grow faster and larger and just start out as a better bird all around due to this enormous amount of nutrition while incubating. 

I think folks who are familiar with fermenting foods like kraut, pickled corn, sourdough biscuits and such are much more comfortable with it all...as are the folks who make wine and beer.  It's just one of those country things that the new generation were not brought up knowing or eating.  I don't know too many people anymore who eat pickled corn or buttermilk but those are the two best foods ever to ferment on this Earth!  Two of my favorites...

Anyhoo, once you've moved a scum of green mold to one side and reached past it to pull out that golden ear of pickled corn and ate it right there without bothering to rinse it off, nothing much else concerns you when it comes to fermented things, molds, yeasts, etc. 

With exception of Middle Sister, I consider this flock out of the woods in regards to health.  They are free of parasites, free of gleet, the bumblefoot is not progressing and is slowly going away, the new scales are growing in on their legs and old scales sloughing off and they are all putting on weight and feathering out nicely. 

I don't think we'll need anymore comparison pics unless it's a group pic maybe next spring but I will still document any changes for the better here and any rise in egg production or any culling for such next spring. 

I feel that my experiment has been a good one and I feel even Middle Sister would make an eventual recovery to stable health but her swollen feet are an issue that I feel will probably not go away.  I'll be mulling over what to do about her before it gets too awful cold and if I think she is suffering too much from the cold, I will give her mercy. 

I've been very pleased with the results of my little experiment and it turned out much like I expected....not only are these methods good for preventative, but are real handy on the curative side and I hope this has been a help to any of you who wanted to see if these types of all natural remedies and methods really work.  The pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll let them speak for themselves.