Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[neopolitancrazy]

The sugar would help reduce swelling.

 

[Robert Blosl]

if you ever seen chickens running free in barns they love to eat cow and horse manure. Cockers throw four to six horse turds in a round pen to give the birds exercise . I can tell you one thing on R I Reds it puts a finish on them like no buddy's business. The scratch like crazy and just ad more to it then clean it out every once in a while.

These horses I get my feed from are stable pets that people pay to store at this twenty horse stable. They get just hay and feed and water and get rode once a week if lucky. They are little girls pets till they grow up and go off to school. A few are owned by older lady's who still love horses. I have been using he stuff on Rose Bushes when I use to show Roses and never had any problems with Roses or Chickens.

If you can get Alafia hay or leaves they make great feed to finish a bird off for a show. I had a friend who paid a guy to sweep up the loose leaves on the floor of Race Horce stables years ago and give to his birds. The finish was simple unbelievable. If you can grow this in your yards up north makes the best free range grass you can find.

 

[RiddleMe]

You are correct it was iodine

This is unusual. I was just reading today in a book on...actually it was an old book I just bought from England ,"The Burn-Murdoch Poultry Course", circa 1919. Anyway, there is a section on   illnesses and how to deal with them. I noticed the bumblefoot section since we were discussing it here. On Page 218, the author writes: Causes: Sometimes constitutional, and often caused by bird jumping from a height on to a hard, rough floor.
 Treatment: If not too advanced, paint with iodine and bandage tightly, repeat this treatment daily. Not worth mentioning the instructions on lancing and treating the severe cases. I am sure we have better medicine now. I just thought it was interesting they used iodine even way back then.
 Best,
 Karen

Iodine is great stuff.  My grandmother swore by it.  I can't figure out the logic of mixing it with sugar though. That just seems weird. (snipped for brevity)
Sarah

Sugar in a poultice draws out infection and helps re-establish healthy pH balance to the tissue, which aids in healing. I believe it also acts as an antibacterial/anti-fungal, though the iodine would as well. But I've used a sugar/betadine poultice before to help treat a hoof abcess in my horse, at my vets recommendation. Same basic treatment, pack with poultice and wrap with duct tape.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Well, having read this discussion on bumblefoot earlier today, I found myself holding two of my leghorns on my lap, playing with their feet (because I love chicken feet, they remind me of baby hands, LOL) And as I'm squeezing the girls footsies, I think, what is that rough spot, and when I look, both of them have bumblefoot on both feet! I've been thinking all day, what could possibly have caused this? I have deep shavings in the coop, sand under the roost, and grass clippings over 8" deep in the run! Soft soft soft!

But now I just realized that I have a board that separates the sand from the shavings in the coop, and that board is out a bit from the first roosting 2X4, so when the birds jump down, they could be hitting the 1X separator! I didn't realize! Now I have to do surgery on the girls tomorrow, and I need to come up with a solution to this problem. I think I might just put a lower 2X4 bar right above that separator so that it acts like a step down from the roost. I'll do that first thing!

Anyway, I'm glad that was at the top of my mind when I was holding my girls so that I could notice it before it got worse. Also, I'm thankful only two of my hens have it. Now I have to see if I have the stomach and stamina for my first surgery

Oh, I just thought of something else! Could my ramp, which is a board with 1X1's spaced horizontally at about 8" oc be causing this? The coop is over 3' off the ground, so it's a long ramp, though they mostly fly out of the coop, but use the ramp to half fly back up into the coop. Do any of you know of a better way to make a ramp? Thanks for your help!!!

 

[thedragonlady]

Iodine is great stuff. My grandmother swore by it. I can't figure out the logic of mixing it with sugar though. That just seems weird.

Most of these birds will only need the clean-swab-and-bandage treatment. My largest birds have more advanced cases and will probably require surgery, if I decide to keep them. They aren't perfect - there are other reasons they are on the potential cull list. I have a friend coming over on Sunday to help me treat chicken feet. Thursday I have another friend coming over to go over the birds and help me decide which cockerels to cull. (He lives about 30 miles away, has the same breed, has similar husbandry methods, has much higher perches than mine, and has never had a bumblefoot case. Arrgh...) Today I sifted the existing compost pile and spread it on the garden, then mucked out four wheelbarrows full of litter from the cockerels' coop and re-built the compost pile with it. It didn't seem all that poopy, but it seemed prudent to change it out. After scrubbing all the roosts I took Pozee's suggestion and turned the ladder roosts on their sides. Checked the cockerels after it got dark. Half were on the now-sideways-and-much-lower ladder roosts, looking not very happy about it. The other half (the heavier birds - go figure) were on the 2x4's on edge that are fixed to the wall, still 3' up.

Tomorrow I tackle the pullets' coop, after I get more pine shavings. When I get some help I can start bandaging chicken feet. Oh joy!

Sarah

Sugar, and honey, which has antibiotic properties, have been used for centuries to draw infection. Honey is being used again in deep wounds to heal. The idea of the iodine and sugar was to burn out the encapsulated abscess, while the sugar helped the infection drain.

 

[aveca]

if you ever seen chickens running free in barns they love to eat cow and horse manure. Cockers throw four to six horse turds in a round pen to give the birds exercise . I can tell you one thing on R I Reds it puts a finish on them like no buddy's business. The scratch like crazy and just ad more to it then clean it out every once in a while.

These horses I get my feed from are stable pets that people pay to store at this twenty horse stable. They get just hay and feed and water and get rode once a week if lucky. They are little girls pets till they grow up and go off to school. A few are owned by older lady's who still love horses. I have been using he stuff on Rose Bushes when I use to show Roses and never had any problems with Roses or Chickens.

If you can get Alafia hay or leaves they make great feed to finish a bird off for a show. I had a friend who paid a guy to sweep up the loose leaves on the floor of Race Horce stables years ago and give to his birds. The finish was simple unbelievable. If you can grow this in your yards up north makes the best free range grass you can find.

Pastor romig told me years ago to go to a mill he uses and get feed there..it has alfalfa mixed right into layer and grower pellets..they do get a glassy shine..and keeps them that way year round..chickens keep the fly populations down in barns with all that scratching..they find hay weed seeds ect.. In ray Connors book the australorp, he said nothing puts on a nice shine like yard greens..

 

[ronott1]

Pastor romig told me years ago to go to a mill he uses and get feed there..it has alfalfa mixed right into layer and grower pellets..they do get a glassy shine..and keeps them that way year round..chickens keep the fly populations down in barns with all that scratching..they find hay weed seeds ect.. In ray Connors book the australorp, he said nothing puts on a nice shine like yard greens..

If the chickens are free ranging alfalfa is not needed now. You will need it in the winter unless you give them greens each day. Mine would not eat Alfalf since I give them Kale, spinach or something green each morning.

Mr. Blosl is giving them something like fermented feed--whatever the horses ate pre digested.

 

[Pathfinders]

The sugar would help reduce swelling.

Sugar is also useful to help reduce prolapse in chickens. Coat the prolapsed vent in white sugar and it will often slowly pop back into the vent.

Of course, once a hen prolapses, she is prone to do so again, so this is not ideal, but a measure that can be taken to reduce an active case.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote: I am not into this is this feed that has water on it and been sitting. I am old fashion and not into this practice. I just put it in the feeders and walk away. In the south grass is hard to grow like Alafia. We have winter white clover which I plant and have a sprouted which I sprout wheat grass and give them during breeding season.

 

[ronott1]

I am not into this is this feed that has water on it and been sitting. I am old fashion and not into this practice. I just put it in the feeders and walk away. In the south grass is hard to grow like Alafia. We have winter white clover which I plant and have a sprouted which I sprout wheat grass and give them during breeding season.

Me too. Fermenting would only work part of the year for me any way. It is too hot here to ferment in the summer.

The Kale or greens for the chickens is old. It was in one of those 100 year old free books about raising chickens in California.

Gizzards grind the grains and the digestive system already ferments the feed.