Recent content by Keeter

  1. Keeter

    Questioning "the system"

    I'm for free range self-feeding as much as possible, but leave food in the coop and run for their free choice, as well. One caution: If you are involved in the heat wave, feeding scratch would not be good in the heat, as it is a food that generates additional body heat. Melons or other greens...
  2. Keeter

    Introducing Chicks to Chickens

    They shouldn't have any problems if you just let both groups loose. Free ranging chickens aren't going to significantly bother chicks. There may be some pecking order charges, but the smaller one will quickly move out of the way. If both groups have separate coops, they will each return to...
  3. Keeter

    Beagle Dog

    I'm the guy that advertises a training library for teaching dogs not to kill chickens. But I'm not here to sell you anything...in fact, if you search around BYC for related threads, you'll find you can get my video library for free, as a member here. But what I want to share is that we took...
  4. Keeter

    Chick can't stand, nothing seems broken. Help?

    My first suspicion is a reaction to the heat and dehydration. Start dripping cool water onto his beak. Often this results in a quick recovery. While diseases and neurological problems can occur, and will no doubt be brought up, most often the simplest and most common problems will be the...
  5. Keeter

    Predator proofing a large run. Any tips/suggestions on covering it?

    Cupman, the easiest way I can show you what I did to cover our large run is to offer you a link to a newsletter it was shown in this week. Frankly, I don't know where else to easily set up the photo, so forgive me for not taking time to get it onto a server and set into this message. Look at...
  6. Keeter

    Letting them free-range for the first time - what to expect?

    When letting young chickens out for the first time, there are two things I like to do. First, I like to let them go in and out of a door into a contained run a few times. This keeps them from going far until they get the image of their coop door firmly entrenched. Any keeper will tell you...
  7. Keeter

    She did it!

    I'll admit one of my biggest concerns about these guineas...as naive as it will reveal me to be. I knew they could have 20 to 40 babies at a time. I've worried about introducing a feral population around my farmer's community here. Kind of like introducing noxious, invasive plants, while only...
  8. Keeter

    So how would you manage a problem skunk?

    Oh, and on the subject of drowning them... This is a technique I've considered, but didn't want to contaminate the stock tank. I felt the technique would be slow, while a shotgun is immediate and thus more humane. I did as much Google research as I could, and found this input interesting...
  9. Keeter

    So how would you manage a problem skunk?

    Skunks are a problem that must be controlled, not because of their habit, but because of their disease potential. Their very existence living near you exposes you and your family to a risk of rabies too high to permit, in my opinion. They will live under your barns with your cats. Horses...
  10. Keeter

    She did it!

    Peeps, your comments remind me of the day my wife brought home four-week old keets. To accommodate them, I built a partition in the chicken coop, and put up a chicken wire fabric about six feet high. It was nearing dark, so I said that should be good for tonight, and we'll finish to the...
  11. Keeter

    She did it!

    I'm a newbie, but I'll share my observations, and maybe more experienced keepers will correct as necessary. 1) Your brooder has solid sides, which is why she jumped in, and MIGHT fly in and out, as you suggest. But as you want more room for them, if you ever attempt a bigger containment that...
  12. Keeter

    Chicken-safe rat poison sought

    Quote: I took the statement "low risk of secondary poisoning" to mean that if the rats ate the poison, and then the chicken ate the rates, that the chickens would be at low risk. I don't believe the vet indicated the poison would not hurt the chickens if eaten directly.
  13. Keeter

    She did it!

    Fledgling, it's interesting to see you split the group and leave some with Mom. I wondered if any would make it in the wild. Do you have any idea what has taken the others from mom? When we found ours in the yard, I assumed the cats would have them cleaned out in no time if we had not gotten...
  14. Keeter

    She did it!

    We're in good shape, then. We've relocated them all into a partition of the big chicken run. Grassless, except for dry hay we've placed under a big shelter. They have lots of room, overhead and wind shelter, and sandy soil. There's no place like home!
  15. Keeter

    Picture Stealers

    I have occasionally found a picture on a website I'd like to use, and I always write and ask permission. If it doesn't come, I don't use it. But if it comes, then I always wonder,...did they have the rights in the first place to give me permission? At least I do my best to be nice. ~?;^>...
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