The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Scott H]

Quote:
Oh good! My first comment!

On edit, I had two...thanks Pozees

 

[delisha]

as far as how i sex my birds..
I seem to breed males..

I have 5 chicks that are 10 days old..I could post pictures of them and most could sex them..I feed FF..they are huge..because they are Imported..they are the size of most 4 week old chicks already. I might take pictures tomorrow. I have Orpingtons in the back and Wyandotte in the front..in a little brooder...it is funny the size difference.

The 4 Orpington chicks and one Orp/dotte cross ..I have one female..the rest are males..

Wyandottes..I have to mark males early..the females catch up and you can't tell after a while...So in a week I might be able to tell on those...
Last year I bred very few hens.

 

[lalaland]

I find it amazing how something so simple as feeding chickens good, chemical free food had made the big producers of eggs and chicken meat have made it so complicated.

People wonder why I want to live away from everyone & enjoy shows like little house & the Walton's. It was a much simpler times then & you didn't have to read the ingredients of everything to see how many chemicals were added.

All I need to do is win the lottery lol

Sigh... I think a lot of us Long for a simpler time.

x a zillion.

I just read that most honey at the stores is really a corn sryup concotion. Apparently there is some kind of fed reg that they don't have to list the other ingredients in "honey" and the only way to tell if it is really truly honey is if there is pollen in it, and the testing showed that sue bee, clover, and most of the store brands had absolutely no pollen. so it is fake honey.
thankfully, I get mine from the guy down the road, or from the co-op (lucky to live in minnesota where there are many many natural food co-ops), and I know the beekeeper that supplies the co-op.

But it makes me both sad and angry that we don't get to know what we are buying for food, whether it is honey, or gmo junk, or pink slime.

and so yeah, why would we expect to be able to identify the ingredients in animal feed/chicken feed if we can't tell what our food is (the better to allow some multiconglomerate to make millions) ?

it is crazy making.

came home tonight to find my almost 5 year old hatchery buff orp dead in the dustbathing area. She has been a little slow and quiet the last couple of days, and hasn't laid for more than a year. I knew this was coming, but I'm still a bit sad.

 

[lalaland]

fantastic pic. they all look like they are thriving!

 

[aoxa]

P.S. I say she in a hopeful way, only almost 3 months old, so still could be a he, I am no aoxa when it comes to sexing Silkies.

You are flattering

I think that is a girl.. I am very confident it is.

I banded maybe 8 of my silkies at 2 weeks (boys). I won't do whites.. they are the toughest for me. But I was right on all the partridge so far.. I may have missed banding a couple boys (or they fell off), but some are very obvious now at 5 weeks! Let's see if I have pictures...

 

[ki4got]

ok well ya'll missed another awesome pot roast... pork this time.

my slow cooker died, so I put it in the electric pressure cooker... MMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.........

I think i'm sold on the gadget. LOL reheating, I put the pot back in, high pressure for 5 minutes, quick release of steam and it was piping hot and ready to eat again. straight from the fridge.

 

[aoxa]

Here is one of the boys I banded. My most obvious one..

 

[Leahs Mom]

as far as how i sex my birds..
I seem to breed males..

came home tonight to find my almost 5 year old hatchery buff orp dead in the dustbathing area. She has been a little slow and quiet the last couple of days, and hasn't laid for more than a year. I knew this was coming, but I'm still a bit sad.

Sorry to hear that. It's always hard.

On the honey...yes, another one of those

things. I only buy honey from the local folks that confirm it's raw. You can pretty much tell because the raw honey will sugar and the other "stuff" won't.

But that still doesn't guarantee that they don't feed them sugar-water or corn syrup. Some bee keepers take too much of the honey and don't leave enough for the hive to feed itself over the winter then feed them back "junk food". And that's just one of the indiscretions.

Guess you need to know your bee keeper just like you need to know your farmer.

ok well ya'll missed another awesome pot roast... pork this time.

my slow cooker died, so I put it in the electric pressure cooker... MMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.........

I think i'm sold on the gadget. LOL reheating, I put the pot back in, high pressure for 5 minutes, quick release of steam and it was piping hot and ready to eat again. straight from the fridge.

I have always loved my pressure cooker when I get around to cooking! I'd be curious to hear how you'd cook a "tough old bird"...ho long?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Scott - I left a reply too! Such a cute coop and good job. Just right for the 3 you have

 

[mlowen]

Spent the time today to create an actual coop page! Check it out....

Raised Dog Kennel Coop

Really nice job and I enjoyed reading your descriptions, too.