Search results for query: *

  1. ChaosMom

    Chickens won't eat grit

    If it helps, remember that the ancestors of domestic animals we live with survived on their own very well in the wild. And even fifty or a hundred years ago (and now in many places of the world), chickens got by fine foraging in the farmyard with occasional supplements from the kitchen. When...
  2. ChaosMom

    For those who ferment: how do you handle (human) vacations?

    The whole grain feed I use has whole grain (including peas, sunflower seeds, etc.) plus “bits”, which I assume are the vitamins, minerals, and pre- and probiotics that don’t come in handy natural grain etc. form. Fermenting integrates the bits with the much larger wheat, barley, peas, etc. so...
  3. ChaosMom

    Too much calcium

    Your flock might be big enough to make @Perris ‘s homemade feed economically viable, depending on the cost of the raw ingredients in your area. Sending up the bat signal!
  4. ChaosMom

    Weird Behavior (remember, I'm new)

    To be truly accurate, I should have said that it’s the exit hole for reproductive (eggs), digestive (poop), and excretory (urine) products, but chickens obligingly combine their poop and pee, so there’s that. 🤪🤷🏼‍♀️
  5. ChaosMom

    Weird Behavior (remember, I'm new)

    The vent is the exit hole from which everything comes out (poop, eggs.)
  6. ChaosMom

    Constant clucking

    My first started laying last Monday. At first, she did a purring, trilling little song followed by three clucks, before, during, and after. Her two flock sisters, not yet laying, sang the same song at the same time, but MUCH louder and with a lot more bawks. (No eggs from them yet; they’re just...
  7. ChaosMom

    Bedding /nesting box

    I use hemp in the next boxes, because I bought it when I was first scrambling to get everything I thought I needed, so I figured might as well, and I use fine pine flakes on the tiny floor of the kinda-tiny Nestera coop because I like the smell and it makes it easy to clean the poop trays. The...
  8. ChaosMom

    Cuddle Puddle!

    Ooof! 😂
  9. ChaosMom

    New Coop Nearly Finished! But What About a Chicken Door?

    ^^^ This is the double airlock concept. There’s an inside door on a spacecraft that opens to a small changing room, and then an outer door from the changing room that opens to the vacuum of space. 🚀 Changing room = predator-proof run Outer door = the door/gate from the predator-proof run to...
  10. ChaosMom

    Too much calcium

    And it doesn’t spoil! 🤪 Mine are on chick feed and layer feed, half and half (trying to use up bags.) They’ve never liked the chunks of oyster shell, so I followed a recommendation I read here for flaked oyster shell. We just started it yesterday, and they seem a lot happier than with the...
  11. ChaosMom

    Buff Orpingtons and heart attacks? Lone sister help too? Long post.

    I have to make a terminology correction here for the sake of those whose families and friends have heart disease. Perhaps acute heart failure is called a heart attack in avian medicine, but it is absolutely not (unless in error) in human medicine. They are both diseases, but they are different...
  12. ChaosMom

    Controlling/preventing buttercup sprouts in foraging areas?

    Ugh - spreading by rhizomes; UGH!!! I wish you luck. It’s a shame, because (to me) they’re lovely little wildflowers. But they’ve no natural enemies in North America, so that leaves us with our trowels.
  13. ChaosMom

    Controlling/preventing buttercup sprouts in foraging areas?

    Perhaps covering it with several layers of heavy black plastic? Deny it any sunlight or direct precipitation. Be aware, sometimes a plant is so bad that you do have to pull out the chemicals, as taught to me by the retired chief ecologist at Mountain True. You might want to call your local...
  14. ChaosMom

    Can chickens eat sweetsop?

    I’m not familiar with this plant group, but FWIW, avocado flesh is fine for chickens. Just not the skin or pit.
  15. ChaosMom

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Welp, I tried. I blame @fuzzi and @thistlewick and all the others who keep posting pics of their beautiful Speckles! A new young lady will be ready on 9 July. I’ll be getting one of a different breed from either the group before or after this one so that they’ll be same-aged buddies. (By the...
  16. ChaosMom

    How many chickens can I comfortably fit?

    My run is 8’ x 15’, with a city ordinance limit on flock size of 7, no roosters, and no real room to expand, so I concentrated on breed temperament when deciding what pullets to get. These temperaments are tendencies, and don’t apply to each individual, but it’s working so far. 🤞🏻 I still...
  17. ChaosMom

    Nestera coops and nesting boxes

    Yep. It would be nice if they offered mirror images. I think it must be more common in Nestera’s home territory of the UK to have coops sitting on the grass in the open, as you do, instead of located within a protected run. Inside of a run, you have to work with corners and doorways, which...
  18. ChaosMom

    Best foods? Bedding? Basking? Harvesting?

    That, I don’t know. @U_Stormcrow
  19. ChaosMom

    Nestera coops and nesting boxes

    Yes, although I haven’t done this. You just part the pieces on the “wrong” side, with the rough outside surfaces on the inside, and the smooth inside surfaces on the outside. - This is per something I finally found on their fantastically unhelpful website.
  20. ChaosMom

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    I think this is the reality for those with large flocks and fertile eggs. That 50% has to go somewhere.
Back
Top Bottom