The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[River3330]

I love this, your roo needs a very special treat for his work, he must be the perfect roo, I wish we had a video so we could use it as a teaching tool for all our not so perfect roos roo school haha, they can have a iPad each

Sorry but I am still learning how to reply to a post I was responding to the post by Pulley Surprise about flock behavior, it was so good and I rushed WOOPS plus I should be getting ready for work

 

[dbaydak]

Hi, I am interested in your burlap bag sprouted greens. Could you explain a little bit on how you do this... I am new to keeping chickens and looking for good natural ways to provide fresh greens to them. Unfortunately, I am unable to free range my chickens, but they love fresh greens, cleaning out all the grass in no time flat. We built a bigger run, seperating it into several sections for rotation, but I still would like to provide better greens for them. Thanks for your help.

 

[dbaydak]

Your Thor is absolutely adorable. I love the way he shoved his chest out for the picture....LOL. Congrats on such a beautiful bird.

 

[armorfirelady]

Good evening all. Had a beautiful sunny day here in the 50s and spent all day outside working on the new hoop coop. Its now covered, dirt fills the low spots that were standing water & straw put down which the girls spent the last few hours happily scattering.

I had the girls outside their run several times today much to the dogs dismay (they were watching from the inside lol) Nothing better than some great chicken tv on a sunny day. They happily scratched thru the gardens and the pine tree bases. And is there nothing funnier than watching a happy hen come running across a yard? Of course I thought it was because the 3 others had hightailed it back to the coop & she finally realized she was alone. Seems we all missed the young hawk in the tree above them. It took off after they finally all hid out in the covered run

A lot of crows around today so I dont know if they scared it off or not. The girls are usually more vigilant with hawks guess the pickings were so good they forgot.

Finally they had peat moss at Lowes today so I picked up the biggest bale. Who knew that peat moss could make 4 happy hens as they dust bathed for an hour and even sun bathed for awhile. Of course they thanked me by spreading it throughout the veggie garden. I also put some in their run & coop to help break down the DL.

I know everyone has chic pics but I only have hen pics but still wanted to share. They made a stressful week much better just watching their antics throughout the day. I swear one was crowing........her sisters had ventured around the house & she made such a racket trying to call to them to see where they were. Unfortunately they were on the other side of the house happily digging in the flower gardens.

Chicken pile up in the peat moss.....its not like there was not other piles for them to dust bathe in lol



The new hoop coop covered. I even got some vents for the top (all I kept hearing at Lowes in my brain was ventilation, you need ventilation as the OTs advice kept repeating itself)


Here are the girls happily spreading a bale of hay out in the new coop........I am sure they will be back there in the morning again


Slow but sure I am making progress on the hoop coop. I will probably leave the front open like it is since its warming up. It faces north and doesnt get the wind/snow/rain from the way normally. Plus the house is directly across from it. Or I will probably put some clear plastic on it I can roll up/down like shades for rainy days. The back flap is held down with rope & logs so it doesnt flap. But I am going to get some of those fancy tarp clips with string on them so they are easier clamped & unclamped again depending on the weather. That end faces south and will get some wind but the houses behind us block a lot. I rather leave it open for ventilation purposes. But the once piece across the middle will stay so they wont get any drafts. The bottom on the back & sides is open for ventilation as well. I have a few pieces of white tarp left over I can easily secure like shades again for easy opening/closing.

Ok back to the normally scheduled chicken talk......I was just very pleased with all I accomplished today especially the vents & wanted to share.

Bring on the chic pics

 

[dbaydak]

I found my video it shows exactly how I do it

Great Video, very informative....Thanks so much. I think I will try this for my girls.... We aren't able to free range due to being a backyard flock, so the extra greens will be awesome for them. They have already finished all the grass in their run. In between plantings in the garden, the girls get their pick, but would love providing them with sprouts. Thanks for the great idea!!!

 

[pigeonguy]

Flock Behavior
So last evening I took the chickens their dinner pail. It was bloody darn cold and windy so I put on a tan suede jacket I had from a few years ago...with faux fur trim on it and headed to the pen with their pail. As I got closer the roo started having a fit and the girls began to panic. I went into the pen, put the pail down for them and the roo sent up a few calls I hadn't noticed before, the girls skeedaddled to the back of the secure pen under Coop 1. They packed up in the far corner as tight as they could. The roo stayed between me and the secure pen gate, yelling and running around me and then as if to lead me off from the girls he went into the secure pen of coop 2. That's where I was headed anyway to pick up their waterer in there. He continued to dash around in there until he figured out a way to get past me and back to guarding the gate area to where the girls were.

There are a couple of things I learned from this: One - they don't like me in that jacket (I know it was a bad hair day, but honestly I didn't think I looked that bad)
2- the fear, hate or disgust of a jacket out weighs the "we're starving-feed us-now-or we'll-eat-you" syndrome that is played out every meal time. 3- their food bringer wearing a simulated dead animal is more frightening than the dreaded umbrella. and best of all - the roo knows how to defend his girls and would sacrifice himself for them. Good boy. He never once was aggressive towards me, he just wanted me away from the girls and did his best to lead me away. Observant little monsters! I never even thought they noticed what I wore. Guess it's back to the bright - red plaid - quilted - oversized shirt I usually wear. Some people's chickens just ain't got no taste!

That there is funny right there. I don't care who you are.

 

[dbaydak]

Good evening all. Had a beautiful sunny day here in the 50s and spent all day outside working on the new hoop coop. Its now covered, dirt fills the low spots that were standing water & straw put down which the girls spent the last few hours happily scattering.

I had the girls outside their run several times today much to the dogs dismay (they were watching from the inside lol) Nothing better than some great chicken tv on a sunny day. They happily scratched thru the gardens and the pine tree bases. And is there nothing funnier than watching a happy hen come running across a yard? Of course I thought it was because the 3 others had hightailed it back to the coop & she finally realized she was alone. Seems we all missed the young hawk in the tree above them. It took off after they finally all hid out in the covered run

A lot of crows around today so I dont know if they scared it off or not. The girls are usually more vigilant with hawks guess the pickings were so good they forgot.

Finally they had peat moss at Lowes today so I picked up the biggest bale. Who knew that peat moss could make 4 happy hens as they dust bathed for an hour and even sun bathed for awhile. Of course they thanked me by spreading it throughout the veggie garden. I also put some in their run & coop to help break down the DL.

I know everyone has chic pics but I only have hen pics but still wanted to share. They made a stressful week much better just watching their antics throughout the day. I swear one was crowing........her sisters had ventured around the house & she made such a racket trying to call to them to see where they were. Unfortunately they were on the other side of the house happily digging in the flower gardens.

Chicken pile up in the peat moss.....its not like there was not other piles for them to dust bathe in lol



The new hoop coop covered. I even got some vents for the top (all I kept hearing at Lowes in my brain was ventilation, you need ventilation as the OTs advice kept repeating itself)


Here are the girls happily spreading a bale of hay out in the new coop........I am sure they will be back there in the morning again


Slow but sure I am making progress on the hoop coop. I will probably leave the front open like it is since its warming up. It faces north and doesnt get the wind/snow/rain from the way normally. Plus the house is directly across from it. Or I will probably put some clear plastic on it I can roll up/down like shades for rainy days. The back flap is held down with rope & logs so it doesnt flap. But I am going to get some of those fancy tarp clips with string on them so they are easier clamped & unclamped again depending on the weather. That end faces south and will get some wind but the houses behind us block a lot. I rather leave it open for ventilation purposes. But the once piece across the middle will stay so they wont get any drafts. The bottom on the back & sides is open for ventilation as well. I have a few pieces of white tarp left over I can easily secure like shades again for easy opening/closing.

Ok back to the normally scheduled chicken talk......I was just very pleased with all I accomplished today especially the vents & wanted to share.

Bring on the chic pics

Beautiful hoop house. My husband and I have been researching doing a hoop house coop for our flock. Would you be interested in telling us your process and how hard it was to make. Since I joined Backyard Chickens, we have been finding all kinds of useful information. Thank you for sharing.

 

[dbaydak]

Hi everyone. We are still new to the forum, but wanted to show off our babies. We have a mixed flock consisting of Brahms, Black Jersey Giants, Easter Eggers, White Leghorns, Isa and Plymouth Barred Rocks. We have three hens from last year, two are White Leghorns, excellent Layers, and one Buff Orphington who just started laying. I am not very good with a camera so pictures may be a little bit blurry.


And this is my husband and two children, Kallo and Dilan

 

[armorfirelady]

Beautiful hoop house. My husband and I have been researching doing a hoop house coop for our flock. Would you be interested in telling us your process and how hard it was to make. Since I joined Backyard Chickens, we have been finding all kinds of useful information. Thank you for sharing.

Absolutely!!! Its actually pretty simple. I have done most of the work myself with my best friend making the door frame & screwing the bottom frame together for me. Im short so the high parts were a little harder for me but I am on a mission to get this completed. If you want I can PM you the pictures of the process I have taken so far with explanations or if your not in a great hurry I will have a link up here of the complete process with pictures. I still have a few things to finish up and need to get the roosts, nesting boxes and food & water areas set up. Should be done in a couple weeks, quicker if the snow stays away and the temps stay as nice as today

 

[aoxa]

Have to share this video of the Indian Runner embryos we have incubating right now - they are on day 8!