The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[NikkiMiChickie]

Move the chairs. 

X2. LOL!

 

[jockeyeba]

Does anyone have a suggestion how to get chickens to pick another tree to roost in? Their pooping on chairs in his "Cibolo Creek Social Club"

Move the chairs. 

That ain't gonna happen

 

[maidenwolfx80]

When my glass viewing window on the top of my incubator is steamed up,,, too much moisture? Man I have lots of tweaking to do

 

[delisha]

You can temporarly cut up an old aluminum disposable pie pan. Poke a hole in the pieces, add a string and bell. Depending on your birds, the difference will make them not want to go in the tree, however, it might also make them more curious if they are really confident. I did that in my garden and it worked for a few weeks. They eventually grew more confident and realized the noise and movement was not going to hurt them.

 

[delisha]

How big does the run need to be? I made a 2 panel hoop house this fall with 2x4 framing, it's holding up well, and shouldn't be hard to move especially if 2x6 was laid down ahead of it so it could slide on the 2x6 to the next location, I have moved the 2 panel unit a bit by myself, but if moving it much would lay lumber under it to prevent tweaking the frame. Also could use pieces of 2" PVC for rollers. However, a 3 panel unit would be much more difficult.

Do you have to make a run? Can your birds free range? If you are going to cage your birds I would not be any help. I do not have any experience with that.

 

[delisha]

When my glass viewing window on the top of my incubator is steamed up,,, too much moisture? Man I have lots of tweaking to do

You know it is too much moisture. You are ok if you dump out the water and let it be dry for a day, than add one teaspoon of water eod if it is empty. If it still has water, do not add more.

 

[delisha]

So if I got more birds, from an outside source, how far away from my flock do they need to be?
I'm not sure I'll ever have to buy more birds, but it's always good to have a plan. I'm actually looking forward to my Cochins having babies, and maybe some mutts with the BR.

Unfortunately there is no answer to how close or far is not enough or too much. It will never be far enough for some diseases. With so many chickens being caged up, running through poop constantly, people buying birds from who knows where and selling or getting out of business, or giving them away, you simply can't stress about things you have little control over and just do the best you can with what you have. You are on BYC and reading and learning. That is one of the best things you can do. Absorb what you can, implement what you can, cull for disease and suffering. Do not give away your problems because you can't cull them yourself. Simply love your birds and do what is best for them. That does not mean moving them into your living room and putting diapers on them. That is taking the love to a whole new dimension. If you have to put diapers on your chickens and keep them in your living room well..to each there own and i don't care if you are weird!

I welcome you to this thread.

I just want to add a note about natural chicken keeping.

I answer questions from my own experience. I do not have experience in caged birds. I believe in letting the chickens be chickens and use natural means. However, if I butchered out one of my birds and found worms i would know I needed to do something. That what i was doing was not working. Perhaps I was neglectful or too busy to toss out seeds or this or that. I can get lazy and complacent. I would worm my birds, beat myself up for being neglectful and go back to doing what i was doing after i cleaned up my mess. Natural chicken keeping is the best you can do and sometimes you need to make other choices. I think people who cage birds might have more of an issue with worms. I recommend worm testing yearly for those who cage them. They have more of an opportunity to run over poop often. Exterior runs have more moisture and hard packed earth, more poop.

Please don't beat me up about this. All chickens have worms. Natural chicken keeping keeps them at a good level, with culling for weaknesses and illnesses you keep it in a better balance. If you are just starting your quest in natural chicken keeping, test your birds first. The FF , UP/ACV, garlic, pumpkin, cucumbers keeps them at good levels. If the birds are compromised with an over load it might take way to long for these to get the birds healthy just doing FF and UP/ACV. it will get them there eventually. .....

 

[delisha]

I feed duck eggs to my DH. He will not eat them if he knows it is duck eggs. I bake with them and make egg salad. Yummy

 

[jockeyeba]

You can temporarly cut up an old aluminum disposable pie pan. Poke a hole in the pieces, add a string and bell. Depending on your birds, the difference will make them not want to go in the tree, however, it might also make them more curious if they are really confident. I did that in my garden and it worked for a few weeks. They eventually grew more confident and realized the noise and movement was not going to hurt them.

 

Thanks we hung up some shiny CD's this afternoon but it didn't help at all My husband kept running them until they picked another spot (all but 1),

 

[aoxa]

I feed duck eggs to my DH. He will not eat them if he knows it is duck eggs. I bake with them and make egg salad. Yummy

I haven't tried them in egg salad, only scrambled. Just not my favourite. The only duck eggs we've had are Muscovy eggs. Do other duck breeds differ in taste at all? I know Muscovy really aren't ducks. That's what I keep hearing. They are more like geese.