Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

I love that! "Don't come home until the porch light's on".....reminds me so much of Mom yelling for us to come inside and us being reluctant to come in. When it gets dark is when the best hide and seek and flashlight tag takes place...not to mention catching lightning bugs, looking for shooting stars, etc. Man, do I miss those days!

 

[Mountain Momma]

I think it conforms to their body more when they are turning and trying to form a nest. I also have shavings and leaves in my nest boxes...I like everything to be as normal as possible and as much like an outside nest they would make. There's even a few twigs in them here and there...

Couldn't have put that any better. I use the pumpkin seeds as well. Sometimes I'll throw some garlic in the mash or even red pepper flakes. I too am satisfied with the acceptable parasite load and don't sweat it. As you cull for hardiness and laying, you often cull the animals that carry most of the parasite loads in a flock by sheer default. One university study states that it's likely that 20% of a flock or herd will carry 75% of the flock or herd's parasite load. The bird I just culled the other day had this in her small intestine.... I wasn't surprised. They have been in the worst possible environment with the worst care and only now are getting back to a healthy regimen. Time and culling will weed out the birds that are prone to heavy worm loads and the rest thrive with a certain amount at all times.

Waht is the green ghostbuste slime?

My Grandma used to run over the walnut husks with her old blue Cadillac until the nuts were out. She would put the nuts on newspaper on the hood of that giant car to dry and then soak the husks in a bucket. After that she rinsed her hair with the juice husk. Till the day she died she had luxurious auburn hair.

 

[NanaKat]

Leaves make great deep litter. My chickens love it when I dump a big bag of collected leaves on the floor. They dive in scratching and pecking for seeds and little bugs in the leaves gaining hours of entertainment. Within a few days, the leaves have been shredded and scattered as well as turned and fluffed with the other layers of deep litter. By winter's end, I have wonderful earthy mulch/compost to add to the garden.

 

[marty8587]

My Dad said " stay in whissselin distance, or go play on the freeway". He was Great!

 

[cheeka]

Beekissed... yep, we played "ghost in the graveyard" ~ best game of "tag in the dark" ever... our porch light didn't come on til 9:30 in the summer. sometimes later if we could get Mom and Dad in on the game! my Dad was the best ghost story teller, he'd get us so entranced that we never noticed Mom sneaking off, but we sure did see her coming back covered in a sheet or something equally spooky! when we were a little older, it was so much fun to bring new kids in to have the snot scared outta them!
thanks to this thread, I use acv, that "glug" is the perfect amount, they drink it right up! and instead of just giving them their boss, I scatter it in their deep litter for entertainment and exercise when I can't let them out. I do help gut and butcher deer, and filet fish, so when the time comes, a few years from now... unless one of the roos turns nasty... I will participate in the butchering of the chickens. my better half loves to be the teacher, he has 40+ years experience with hunting and fishing... gotta admit, I admire his self sustaining ways... he always calls it "simple" which it may be... but I am always impressed... and my cats think he is the Supreme Hunter of All Time... I should record video of how they fawn all over him when he drags in the deer, they romp in the blood and guts and steal from the pile... and after reading from this thread, we'll have to let the chickens in on all the fun! ((

))

 

[Beekissed]

Waht is the green ghostbuste slime?

My Grandma used to run over the walnut husks with her old blue Cadillac until the nuts were out. She would put the nuts on newspaper on the hood of that giant car to dry and then soak the husks in a bucket. After that she rinsed her hair with the juice husk. Till the day she died she had luxurious auburn hair.

It just looks green because of the color of the Post-it note it was lying upon. It's actually yellow slime (mucus) from the small intestine.

 

[Nancygardens]

I went out today to knock the dirt off my shoes whack whack and by the third whack they had all come running like it was dinner call or some thing so funny to see!

I gave the chickens some squash seeds today. And some bacon drippings with scratch it's we're supposed to get our really first cold snap by the end of the week. I drained draining the hoses hubby put em away when he got home.

Trying to think what else I need to do other than the visqueen on the top of the run and part of the sides. But I keep thinking birds winter here all the time so I'm not too concerned.

 

[Gramma Chick]

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What ever works ...

At first I used my leaf rake for crowd control .when they were where I didnt want ..( they take notice when I pick up that rake now ) Now I do this airplane thing with my arms (like wings) & steer them left or right ..LOL
I gave up on most of my flowers ...My young ones loved hostas ..I did protect some of the ones around our deck ..somewhat

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
Mine love Hostas too ..I planted some around their run ...they are little nubs ..

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
Do you have Roosts for them in the coop ? they may be trying to tell you where are the roosts ?

...just a thought .