The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[shortgrass]

Wormwood is an artemisia, same genus as mugwort and tarragon. Wormwood has a pretty foliage and looks good in a garden. All 3 share similar properties: nervine, anti parasitic and from what I've read, good for poultry. Would be fun to have all 3 in the garden

Artemisia! I took it when I went to Tanzania to prevent malaria. Was sort of controversial back then but has become accepted now. It both prevents and treats malaria. Looked it up- very nice foliage! Another plant for my list! Will have to do more research. I don't see any worms in my chicken's poo so would probably not worm premptively. But am beginning my adventure with chickens, so not sure... Thnx

Yep, that would be the one its a very nice bushy plant, eye catching for backs of borders in a flowerbed... It gets really big where I'm at, so I try to contain it, but it seems to do really well here with no effort on my part

I had never read about it being used for malaria; that is amazing! It's not really a spectacular looking plant but it has so many uses.... It's also used to make Absinthe

I didn't know that it's similar to tarragon, thanks @islafarm

 

[COChix]

I like the discussion on wormwood, I know I haven't posted here in a bit. We have a ton of it growing at our house and it has spread a lot since we put it in. I came across this website before and thought you all might appreciate the site.

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2553&Itemid=2837

Also here is a feel good story about a rescued chicken, a little cooky keeping a chicken in an apartment in NY. The chicken has Marek's.

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[potagergirl]

I have a question about adding fermented feed to mash I make for my chickens. I cook mash for my 50+ chickens daily. I want to add fermented feed to the mash. The reason I can not provide just the fermented feed is because i do not have a place to ferment that much seed. I can handle 3 jars on my counter (2 quart jars). Other then that I have no other space where I could keep the fermenting feed where it won't freeze.
My question is will it be worth the effort doing when I am adding it to the mash I feed them every day? Or will the benefit of the lacto.... be killed once it is added to the mash? Also, if it isn't good to add to cooked mash, would it be okay to add it to dry feed?

thank you for your help and suggestions.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Do you feed the cooked portion hot? It would be the heat that would destroy the benefits.

That being said, I think adding a little fermented or soaked feed would definitely be beneficial. I offer both types - fermented and dry and let them choose which they want.

 

[JulesChicks]

I've been playing around with how I feed as well. If you have let the mash cool down to 110 degrees F or lower I think the good bacteria will be fine. When I make yogurt, you heat the milk to 160, then lower to 110 before adding the culture so it doesn't die, so I think staying at or below 110 would be fine. I'm sure you probably wouldn't feed too hot anyhow, though with freezing temps it cools pretty fast too.

I have been fermenting feed that has fish meal and oyster shell in it and it gets really stinky, especially the longer I backslop and keep the ferment going. Lately, since I have been making yogurt at home, I have an abundance of whey and have been basically just soaking their feed overnight with whey and water. This way it makes it more digestible (breaking down the phytates/phytic acid) and begins to ferment from the kickstart of the whey but I don't get the awful stink in my house. Once we move there full time I may mix my own feed and then I can add the meal separate and not into the fermenting bucket. That way I can strain out the grains to feed - right now that takes too much time and I lose the added nutrition that was in the fine meal - and then add a scoop of fish meal or whatever mix I end up using.

Hope everyone is doing well during this busy time. We are battling water infiltration into our coop - so frustrating and I'm worried about the flock with all the moisture but we're band-aiding it until we can find a better solution.

 

[hellbender]

I've been playing around with how I feed as well. If you have let the mash cool down to 110 degrees F or lower I think the good bacteria will be fine. When I make yogurt, you heat the milk to 160, then lower to 110 before adding the culture so it doesn't die, so I think staying at or below 110 would be fine. I'm sure you probably wouldn't feed too hot anyhow, though with freezing temps it cools pretty fast too.

I have been fermenting feed that has fish meal and oyster shell in it and it gets really stinky, especially the longer I backslop and keep the ferment going. Lately, since I have been making yogurt at home, I have an abundance of whey and have been basically just soaking their feed overnight with whey and water. This way it makes it more digestible (breaking down the phytates/phytic acid) and begins to ferment from the kickstart of the whey but I don't get the awful stink in my house. Once we move there full time I may mix my own feed and then I can add the meal separate and not into the fermenting bucket. That way I can strain out the grains to feed - right now that takes too much time and I lose the added nutrition that was in the fine meal - and then add a scoop of fish meal or whatever mix I end up using.

Hope everyone is doing well during this busy time. We are battling water infiltration into our coop - so frustrating and I'm worried about the flock with all the moisture but we're band-aiding it until we can find a better solution.

Do you get problems with great gobs of WET poop?

 

[JulesChicks]

Do you get problems with great gobs of WET poop?

Do you mean with feeding fermented feed? If so, no, I don't think so. I think it's supposed to firm them up but I haven't paid that close attention. I don't have nearly as much experience in general as you, only having started in the spring, and most of that time I've fed fermented feed. Only in the last week or 2 did I start soaking overnight with whey+water instead of my usual ferment method and I think the benefits would be fairly similar so I don't think the poop should change much from what I've been doing. Sometimes we feed their food dry when we're in a rush, but I don't like to since they can't get their additives really. They get Scratch N Peck brand which is a whole grain mix with powdered supplements added and it's meant to be fermented or served as a mash or wet. I hope I answered your question - if I stop feeding this way I'll let you know how it changes.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have a question about adding fermented feed to mash I make for my chickens. I cook mash for my 50+ chickens daily. I want to add fermented feed to the mash. The reason I can not provide just the fermented feed is because i do not have a place to ferment that much seed. I can handle 3 jars on my counter (2 quart jars). Other then that I have no other space where I could keep the fermenting feed where it won't freeze.
My question is will it be worth the effort doing when I am adding it to the mash I feed them every day? Or will the benefit of the lacto.... be killed once it is added to the mash? Also, if it isn't good to add to cooked mash, would it be okay to add it to dry feed?

thank you for your help and suggestions.

Is the mash that you cook for them a prepared mash bought at the feed store? I recently bought mash instead of pellets, and it was $1 less/bag. That's a win/win situation for me. If you have a square foot of floor space, you have room for a 5 gallon bucket. That should easily make enough FF for your flock. I keep 2 buckets in my laundry room (3 gal each for my 27 birds). That allows me to feed out one bucket each day, while the other one gets an extra day of ferment. It seems that you could easily bypass the cooking, and go straight to fermenting. A bucket doesn't take up THAT much room!

@hellbender I find that my birds have nice firm poop when on FF. Not as stinky, either!

 

[slordaz]

Heres a pic of how the chicks are growing, Happy decided to go visit the newer 2 and the runt barred rock wasn't to happy about that lol but they are now best of friends. Finally have them all in a bigger box together, they go out for visits to the coop while I do chores, hens are interested in the younger ones but wanna peck the older one.
I just ferment the 3 in 1 without molassass with addition of garlic and cayenne pepper, we do a 5 gallon lidded bucket we got from the bakery for free, and back fill when we feed. As long as it's stirred twice a day have not had a problem with smell. It's been going since April, but we are free ranging and the drake taught the hens to fish from the ditch. We do give them yogurt if it's warmer and warm oatmeal with cayenne pepper and garlic on really cold days in addition. They are patiently watching to see if the garden is gonna give them anymore of their favorite treats lol.

Interestingling enough most chickens around here have stopped laying as of about 6 weeks ago, ours without supplemental lighting or heat are still laying, just all want to lay in one nest now. the amerecuana and the leghorns are just now starting to slow down some every 2-3 days but the barred rocks are laying daily other than the goof ball that decided to go broody mid winter

 

[lazy gardener]

My flock have picked up in the past week. Was averaging 7+/day and am now getting 12+/day. 19 possible layers with 4 pullets that may or may not yet be coming into lay. They get supplemental light 7WCFL x 14hours/day.