The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

LW - are you able to make a living with the farm or are you doing other things too?

 

[armorfirelady]

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No offense taken

I wish I could have caught her sooner, maybe the outcome would have been different. She was laying everyday until this happened.....

@jockeyeba You know, sometimes it's just their time and things go downhill quickly. I know you are one of those folks that takes care of your birds well. These things just happen sometimes.

It's like my Mrs. Black. The whole rest of the flock is healthy and well but Mrs. Black was not thriving and going downhill. When the others are healthy and one isn't thriving under the same husbandry, then the assumption is that there was an issue with the single bird that may have been a genetic weakness, weak immune system, etc.

So now, for me, since I had the issue w/Mrs. Black I'm looking at the rest of the flock and realizing this was a long winter without a lot of the health-giving items they get while ranging in warmer times and thinking of the things that may help re-build and help prevent anyone else having issues. I have a few nutritional things I think I'm going to be doing toward prevention - like adding a few more fresh items like kale, cilantro and other greens and some dried herbs that they'd usually get to have fresh access to in the summer - until summer comes. I also have slacked on the items that AFL mentioned like having some raw garlic available to them, etc.

I also know that egg peritonitis/internal laying, etc. can sometime be a calcium issue so part of what I'm going to do is get hold of some of the herbs that are high in calcium (like nettles) and see if they'll take them "free choice" in addition to what is in the feed and the free-feed calcium carbonate/oyster shell that they already have available. Looking for lots of items that have a highly bio-available calcium source. (Wish I had some of @RedRidge 's BSFL but, alas I don't.)

Anyhow...spring is coming! But until then...trying to make some adjustments for the toll from the long, hard winter.

Def a long winter and I think that it was hard on the chickens but we all def found out if our hens were cold err arctic tolerant this year I do know I did not give as many of the frozen veggies as I have in the past. They would freeze as soon as I put them out. They def got a lot more sunflower seeds & corn mix as a treat than they have in the past. But I have been picking up the hens randomly lately & they do not seem overfed or overweight to me. And they have eaten a lot of suet this year as well. But the flock block that's out free choice lasted 4 months at least. I guess this proves the chickens actually do know what they need.

I need to order seeds today !!

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Great thanks. I never knew if there were heating coils or wiring that high on the bowl. Guess I need to see if I can take it apart and see how far it goes up.

Hello Darlin, nice to see you. It's been a long time, you're just as lovely, as you used to be- Conway

WELCOME BACK Loinwizard

You have been missed. Looking forward to hearing what you have been up to

 

[armorfirelady]

I know we have a lot of newcomers. Maybe those who plant gardens could share the herbs & veggies they plant that benefit their chickens? Spring will get here sooner or later & people are probably starting to buy seeds.

The seeds I will be ordering this year for the chickens are:
Basil, oregano, lavender, mint chamomile, catnip, rosemary, & sage

Veggies are:
kale, beet greens, mustard greens, sunflowers, nasturtium, lemon balm,

I am sure I will add others kinds as well when I buy plants..............I always do

 

[RedRidge]

Yep. Course I tend to drill holes in all kinds of things... even the stainless steel food bowls for the Maremma. Keeps them from wandering off with them if I don't pick them back up immediately. Lol

Great thanks. I never knew if there were heating coils or wiring that high on the bowl. Guess I need to see if I can take it apart and see how far it goes up.

Mine are all disassembled and cleaned and put away for the year but I use "disc" type stock tank heaters in mine. Some folks call them bird bath heaters. I will post a link.
I use these two ways... I have 2 buckets that sit on the ground with wires woven across the top and a de-icer just tossed in. I hate em, but they work. Biggest problem is keeping them full enough.
Most of the time I just use buckets with chicken nipples on them and drop the stock tank de-icer in them.
Some folks on here have mentioned having trouble with those leaking. I love them.
Most of the year I have the tubing setup... a large 2 or 5 gal bucket that fills next to the water spigot with tubing and nipples that run to multiple areas at the same time. These freeze so I can't use them for a month or two each winter. I switch to the hanging buckets that the de-icers drop into.
I have one hen is LOVES to perch on the side of the bucket and always gets soaked. I have started putting a lid on the bucket where she is.
The 1/2" tubing with the nipples and the larger buckets has been a lifesaver! I used hanging bottles with chicken nipples in the lids in the breeding pens, brooder, and any cages that are set up. Takes forever every day to fill all those.
Setting up one large bucket which gravity feeds multiple pens and coops from close to the water source has been awesome.
Unlike a lot of folks I water and feed IN my pens and coops. At one time I was very concerned about moisture and humidity, but since I have never had a problem, I figured I wouldn't borrow trouble.
Feeding and watering in the pens, tractors, and coops, also brings the hens back to those areas to lay... I have discovered this prevents me from finding "surprise nests" of eggs elsewhere. ;-)

 

[Leahs Mom]

I feed and water inside too.

@RedRidge
Could you show photos of your setup with all the tubes and fangdangled rigging?

 

[loanwizard]

Farm business was growing a little. Never had so many requests for piglets as I did this spring.... piglets that I couldn't GIVE away in the fall. But.... disaster struck. When I had the fall litter I did not train the piglets to electric. So... they truly free ranged.... 30,000 acres of state land. Lost my boar over the winter to natural causes but he had bred the sows and even though they free ranged, came home to feed and sleep.... until it was time to birth. Disappeared. On the 7th day I found them 2 ridges over. Only had 8 piglets left alive. I stole the babies and bottle fed. 3 days later the sows came home. Took the babies out to them and all heck broke loose! They broke out of the stall, took two babies and disappeared again. So I had 6 left to nurse. Lost one. Last night they came home. Closed in both ends of the barn. Gave them babies back. They stepped on one paralyzing it. Shotgun put that one out of its misery. So, this morning, everyone seems happy. 6 piglets left, 3 of which will become new breeding stock for next summer if I stay in that business.
Other news- Before it put me in bankruptcy, I closed the car lot. Over the past 14 months I have been getting my Auctioneers license. I am now a licensed auctioneer. Building a business..... tough to go from the top and start anew.
Went to visit the man who sold me the car lot 17 years ago yesterday. He has cancer, treatment hasn't worked, 6 months or less, and hospice has been called in. After visiting with him for a couple hours, I wen to see one of my best friends, my banker, who introduced the two of us, and has been so supportive of me over the last 5 years. We chatted about retirement and Florida. We chatted about God and about his grandaughter, who was killed in an auto accident 4 years ago at the age of 6. Months before, she told maw maw and paw paw that she was going to meet Jesus really soon. In November of that year, she hugged cousins good bye and told them she would never see them again. 2 weeks later she was dead.
I take these as signs. I live in a small town, an economically hard hit town, but i am not from here. I am 47 years old. I have about 3/4 decided, as of yesterday, to, instead of build a business here, to re locate to Florida and do it down there while I am still young enough to enjoy it. Our 6 children are all for it, as is my future bride Carla.
That's a synopsis of what I have been doing since we last chatted.
Shawn
Loan, Loin, Lion..... What's in a name? A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.

 

[RedRidge]

I feed and water inside too.

@RedRidge
Could you show photos of your setup with all the tubes and fangdangled rigging?

Sure... let me get through spring shearing and all the chick deliveries I have this week and get some pics this weekend.

 

[loanwizard]

I tried to plan a Herb once.... Got his boots covered up, watered him, and the sumb#$@ walked away!

 

[armorfirelady]

I tried to plan a Herb once.... Got his boots covered up, watered him, and the sumb#$@ walked away!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I actually DID put my heated bowls away that the waterers sit in. I wanted to clean out the grit/water in there because I wanted to be sure they weren't growing anything in the bottom bowl with the grit water. Then it froze again

My "nipple waterers" (Ok, LW...control yourself) didn't leak where they screw into the bucket. They just dropped extra water on the ground while they were pushing them for their drink. At least they didn't leak all the time. Just when in use but it was a huge amount over the course of a day.