The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Oh and I've decided I am NOT sad I missed our state fair. Last year I saw sick hens. This year I didn't have time to fit it in but others that went said the chickens were sick again and some dead. Apparently some people brought sick chickens to the fair and it spread to the others.

Apparently they don't health check them before they let them in the area. I'm curious as to why they don't since who wants to see sick & dead chickens. That's one fair you won't see my hens at ever. Apparently they have to sanitize the whole building now.

 

[delisha]

Beautiful basket of eggs and I would feed them back to my girls.

Poor Red looks worse with her molting. I've been giving them all extra meat protein in the hopes she would feather in faster. You pet her feathers and you can feel and see her feathers are coming in just seems like forever. At least with the heat she will be cooler

Finally getting some much needed rain. Any one have any other suggestions?

So since I cut the girls back to nighttime only feeding I see them out more. WEll that's unless they hear a door open then they all run for the coop door to see if we are headed their way. Today I spent a half hour watching Stella & Edie chase bugs all over the yard. One thing is for sure they are getting more exercise trying to catch bugs

I've been covering the bottom of their 2 food troughs. It's literally gone in 5 minutes. So I add a little more. That usually is half eaten but def gone by the morning. Do you guys think I am feeding them enough? I always thought that if at least a little is left you have fed them enough.

More than enough..maybe too much. Remember chickens are lean mean eating machines. Unless you are feeding them out for food or showing...they simply can get most of their nutrition this time of year in your yard. They are bred and made that way. The purpose of the chicken is to eat your bugs and waste and give you breakfast. We are not supposed to feed them, they are supposed to feed us. Our responsibility is to make sure we give them enough room and pasture to find the needed foods. You have more than enough green for them. They will live longer and be healthier.
Bagged foods is for backyard chickens in the city with cement and no grasses. We have been trained by others that chicken keeping is expensive and consuming. It never used to be. My grandmothers coop was the old outhouse added on to when I was growing up. Before that the chickens slept with the cows in the barn. She did not feed her chickens other than table scraps and milk that got too dirty from milking starts. The cats and chickens waited for her to finish milking so they could get the flecks on top of her bucket.

Oh and I've decided I am NOT sad I missed our state fair. Last year I saw sick hens. This year I didn't have time to fit it in but others that went said the chickens were sick again and some dead. Apparently some people brought sick chickens to the fair and it spread to the others.

Apparently they don't health check them before they let them in the area. I'm curious as to why they don't since who wants to see sick & dead chickens. That's one fair you won't see my hens at ever. Apparently they have to sanitize the whole building now.

I would never show at a fair..most of the chickens are not checked at some of the smaller ones.

 

[armorfirelady]

Thanks Delisha. I'll cut back more on the food. If I measured it I would say 3 cups total. The way they chow down at feeding time you would think they were starving lol. I really should video it. Edie ends up on the edge of the FF bucket with the others running over my feet. Guess they are good at convincing me they are starving But I do check crops if I am out during the day with them and they do have food in them.

Guess I have been had by chickens lol.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Couldn't figure out how to imbed this video, but here's a link to it. It's hysterical, watch the crazy dancing baby ostriches...
http://screen.yahoo.com/dancing-baby-ostriches-103404187.html

 

[Leahs Mom]

Cute video

 

[RedRidge]

WOW, I love this thread but... since I don't get on on the weekends I'm going to have to start setting aside allotted time on Monday mornings just to catch up.

My chickens all want to know why I feed later on Monday mornings.

 

[Sally8]

What kind of cowardly low life dumps off defensive little kittens out in the country in the middle of the night? I found her huddling outside the chicken coop. It has been raining all night.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

What kind of cowardly low life dumps off defensive little kittens out in the country in the middle of the night? I found her huddling outside the chicken coop. It has been raining all night.

Awwww! She's a cutie!

We've had this happen on our property. We didn't know how to handle it back then, but now I've found a great resource.

A couple winters ago I was looking for a few barn cats to help with rodent control around the house, and all the local cat adoption agencies are super precious about how their cats will be cared for at their new homes. All the ones I contacted had a policy that their cats will NEVER go outdoors, thus defeating the purpose of a barn cat.

So we looked on Craigslist. The best listing up at that time was from a caretaker at a rural "leisure property" where something like 30 cats had been dumped all at once ... one was itty bitty at the time, and she is one of the two that has come to live with us. The caretaker contacted a local feral cat rescue place, and all the cats were batch spayed/neutered, got a few shots, and had one ear clipped so they could remain feral/outdoors and the animal patrol people would know the cats were fixed and cared for and not take them in. All they ask in return is a small donation if you can make it, and that you continue to feed the cat.

Since then I've found some more cat rescue places that will adopt out "barn cats." I was told the rescued cats who have been so traumatized (usually because of a bad hoarding situation) that they can't be socialized are the ones they recommend as barn cats. It makes me very sad to think about.

Like I said, we didn't know about this kind of rescue service back when cats were dumped on our property, and back then it didn't take long before we had a real problem that was difficult to fix. The feral cat rescue group in our area is new-ish. It's a great resource.

BTW ... we were told to keep the two cats we adopted inside the house for a few weeks so they would know this was their territory when we put them to work. We fell in love with them and they never made it outside.

 

[armorfirelady]

What kind of cowardly low life dumps off defensive little kittens out in the country in the middle of the night? I found her huddling outside the chicken coop. It has been raining all night.

Ugh I hate people like that!! The baby is a cutie. Maybe you have a barn cat/ chicken protector mnow. If she grows up with the chickens I would think she would just ignore hem as she grows. How is your hen doing? Healing ok?

 

[Leahs Mom]

WOW, I love this thread but... since I don't get on on the weekends I'm going to have to start setting aside allotted time on Monday mornings just to catch up.

My chickens all want to know why I feed later on Monday mornings.