Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[Alaskan]

Morning (just barely).  Been up since 3am so a little more needy in the coffee department.

@chickisoup
 Aweome article! I agree being organic takes more. Quite a bit more than many people think.

@Alaskan
 Congrats on the does. Can you bring me up to speed on what kind? Thanks!

Last winter, late winter...I bought two does in milk, Holly and Mocha. Holly is pure Nubian, and Mocha is 3/4 Nubian and 1/4 Boar. Holly is pretty darn old, and had a risk of being perhaps diseased... Turns out she is diseased... Sigh.... I had to get all of the girls tested so that I could get them bred. (I do NOT want to own my own buck).

Bummer... But the kids decided, even before we tested Holly, that they didn't like her and wanted to sell her. So... Not a big loss, and we did get a season of milk from her.

Late spring we added a free 1 year old pure Saanen, Feta Face. She has horns, and tested clean... Kids love Feta. She has a great personality, and we are hoping that being a Saanen she will give buckets of milk... She is right now still with the buck. She is actually a precocious milker. Beginning of the summer, young maiden doe though she is, her udder inflated a bit. Odd, but a "whatever, who cares" kind of thing. And yes, the vet looked her over. Supposedly precocious milkers tend to be heavy producers... So fingers crossed.

End of summer we picked up two kids. One super high quality, fantastic milking lines 1/2 Saanen 1/2 Nigerian Dwarf, and a free weather to keep the girl warm. The girl is Mozzerela, or Mozze Balls, the boy is Saute and will be eaten when he is big enough to eat...and Mozze is big enough to not need the snuggle buddy.

Left to right, Feta Face, Saute, Mozze Balls, and Mocha

when I am raising my flock I do the same... Do not profess to be organic.

No vaccines
good food
clean safe quarters.
biosecure style practices within reason.

so far I have never lost a chicken to disease or Cocci   Only to predation or accident.  

I have had a go round with leg mites...  at the time I was loth to use any chemicals because I siimply did not know what to use...  (early days before internet)   I used vasaline on the legs and  seven in the coop.

Now I would use ivermectin and either neem oil or orange oil.   

deb

Yeah... I am with you....

I got leg mites in one coop.. What a nightmare.

I am such a crunchy granola type... It killed me. But after research, I decided to paint all of their legs and perches with toxic stuff.

However.....

The leg mites have come back, took a year..... in a week I will try the ivermectin....

 

[Alaskan]

Saute and Mozze and my human child #3.

Saute is the brown one.

Mozze looking at Feta... And Feta reminding Mozze that Feta is NOT her mama.. Even though she looks like her mama. Poor Mozze! She was so confused!

The three big goats wondering why they don't get to come inside the house.
White= Feta Face
Brown= Mocha
Bkack and white=Holly

 

[ronott1]

Last winter, late winter...I bought two does in milk, Holly and Mocha. Holly is pure Nubian, and Mocha is 3/4 Nubian and 1/4 Boar. Holly is pretty darn old, and had a risk of being perhaps diseased... Turns out she is diseased... Sigh.... I had to get all of the girls tested so that I could get them bred. (I do NOT want to own my own buck).

Bummer... But the kids decided, even before we tested Holly, that they didn't like her and wanted to sell her. So... Not a big loss, and we did get a season of milk from her.

Late spring we added a free 1 year old pure Saanen, Feta Face. She has horns, and tested clean... Kids love Feta. She has a great personality, and we are hoping that being a Saanen she will give buckets of milk... She is right now still with the buck. She is actually a precocious milker. Beginning of the summer, young maiden doe though she is, her udder inflated a bit. Odd, but a "whatever, who cares" kind of thing. And yes, the vet looked her over. Supposedly precocious milkers tend to be heavy producers... So fingers crossed.

End of summer we picked up two kids. One super high quality, fantastic milking lines 1/2 Saanen 1/2 Nigerian Dwarf, and a free weather to keep the girl warm.

The girl is Mozzerela, or Mozze Balls, the boy is Saute and will be eaten when he is big enough to eat...and Mozze is big enough to not need the snuggle buddy.


Left to right, Feta Face, Saute, Mozze Balls, and Mocha
Yeah... I am with you....

I got leg mites in one coop.. What a nightmare.

I am such a crunchy granola type... It killed me. But after research, I decided to paint all of their legs and perches with toxic stuff.

However.....

The leg mites have come back, took a year.....

in a week I will try the ivermectin....

ivermectin woks on blood sucking pests. Scale mites do not live on blood so it does not work one them.

 

[chickwhispers]

Thanks @Alaskan ! Awesome looking does!

Wish I could get a couple. But I'll just have to be content not having more animals to take care of.

I'm not organic either. I wish though but I couldn't afford to go organic with the price of eggs in my area. No one would pay for them. And I couldn't get organic straw for their bedding either.

But here too we have no pesticides and very limited use of herbicides and not where the chickens are.( In June we have beautiful yellow flowers everywhere in the lawn.

) Only medication is occaisional wormer and antibiotic for injury use only. Knock on wood other than predation or egg bound we've faired well in the illness and affliction area.

 

[chickwhispers]

Good Sunday morning friends!
Well,it has begun. This morning I had to carry my hammer with me as I walked about opening the coop and inspecting the run, the ice cap now too thick in some of the water dishes to just be displaced with the heel of my rubber boots. As this was the first truly " crispy" morning, I waited to open the girls toasty coop until after some of the "crunch" was gone from the grass. The young ones came charging out with their usual youthful fervor, the older, wiser, hens were a bit less eager to get their toes cold but soon all were out doing their best to soak up the morning sun, even my poor molty hen that still looks so rough she has been re-named Roadkill.

Can't help but look forward to the reaction of the youngsters when they come charging out and encounter their first snow.

ice! I don't even want to think about yet!

Love it! This is me some many mornings.

 

[Alaskan]

ivermectin woks on blood sucking pests. Scale mites do not live on blood so it does not work one them.

I thought they did? Tiny microscopic things.. But they burrow under the scales until the scales lift up, and they fill the space with black poop. What are they eating if not the blood?

Phewy.

Last year I used... Was it used diesel? Fuel oil? Can't remember ... But we dunked them twice into the stuff, and super cleaned including painting the perches with whatever it was we were using. We did it twice, about a week apart, and after dunking them into the whatever.. We coated the legs with baby-bottom-cream to moisturize and help suffocate the mites.



Pain in the rear that they are back.

 

[Alaskan]

I looked...

I used the Chicken Chick's site, and I followed her last treatment choice, since it had the least number of times of chicken catching.

It says to do it three days in a row... Must have been what we did... I dunno any more... A year ago now, can't remember...


Anyway...

Reading it it says for the ivermectin you are supposed to get them to swallow it!!! And then never eat the eggs or meat when done!

Good gravy man!!!!!!


So now... No idea what I am going to do.

 

[ronott1]

I looked...

I used the Chicken Chick's site, and I followed her last treatment choice, since it had the least number of times of chicken catching.

It says to do it three days in a row... Must have been what we did... I dunno any more... A year ago now, can't remember...


Anyway...

Reading it it says for the ivermectin you are supposed to get them to swallow it!!! And then never eat the eggs or meat when done!

Good gravy man!!!!!!


So now... No idea what I am going to do.

I have instructions for scale mites from UC Davis. It must be the best because I work here...IT for the English Dept.

from this pdf:

 

[Alaskan]

What a nightmare.


My birds do not have lesions etc.

Their scales are slightly lifted, with black "dirt" under the lifted up scale edges. That is all.

Picking up every single bird, every single night, for two weeks straight sounds to me like a living nightmare.

That is why last year I did the diesel, or fuel oil, or whatever it was I used.... I researched which toxic petroleum product would hand over the least amount of heavy metals to my birds... And used the winner... But no longer remember which it was.

Point though.... Way less bird handling required.


BUT it didn't last... Did take a full year for the numbers to build up enough that I can tell they are back....... Or I guess just back to a heavier load.

I am crunchy granola enough that I do NOT want to toxify the world every fall.... And I have enough birds that treating every night for two weeks is not going to happen....

So... I am not sure now what I will do. Humph.

My Dom rooster has it the worst I think:

 

[Alaskan]

You can't see it really well in that photo.. But you can tell that there is black around the scale edges... And the toes are no longer as smooth as they should be.