Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Maven]

Quote:

I know how they feel....I are one.

When I came to BYC I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole, for sure. Saw and read things I'd never heard and in short order went out to the coop to see if I was still on planet Earth and in the appropriate dimension.

Yep, chickens still wore just feathers and not clothes, coop still looked like chickens lived there not Barbie dolls, feed still looked like chicken feed instead of an organic, gourmet meal that I could never afford. It sure was a comfort to know that my own little bubble in the world had not tipped off plumb...just the rest of the universe.

A mirror in the coop could sure make the flock look bigger...but beware of it reflecting and concentrating the sunlight and catchin' yer beddin' on far!

Gonna have to get Al some of those nifty signs like you have in your coop as a Christmas gift for his laying flock. I just know he will love them! Very cute!

The Mr., using all the appropriate eye-rolls and exasperated sighs, made those signs for me. Well he cut and lettered them, then I painted them. There is another one on the front door that says 'Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens' with little music notes dancing around it.

The sun never directly hits the mirror in a way that could start a 'far' made sure of that when we repurposed the shack, but I appreciate you thinking of it!

And I'm just a back-woods, South Alabama/Florida raised gal, so I can hang pretty well, but I HAVE learned that there IS a distinct difference between Ozark hillbillies and southern folk in general. But I LOVE them, and so far, while I make them shake their heads now and then, they seem to like me pretty well too.

 

[Maven]

Maven,

Before you give up on DE, let me share some things I've found in researching it. I've been using it with great success and did a little digging after reading about the death of "beneficials". DE kills hard-bodied insects, that's it. The "beneficials" that everyone wants in their DL aren't hard-bodied, they're microscopic critters and a few worms. I've used DE in my garden for years, and I've noticed no decrease in the size or quantity of earthworms. I just don't buy that there is any negative effect on beneficials from using DE in the coop. If anyone can point me to some research, rather than conjecture, I'd be happy to read it.

I use it primarily to dry up the litter. Mite control is a side benefit...I guess, my girls have never had any bugs, but they dust bathe like crazy and seem to take care of themselves on that front pretty much on their own. A tuna can of DE in my rice hulls and I can scoop the poop out with a screen once every 2 or 3 weeks and never, ever have any smell in the coop. But, that's just me. If you want to do DL, I really don't think DE is going to keep the pile from doing whatever it is supposed to do.

Why thanks, Jeff!! I appreciate knowing this, because I really REALLY like how well it has been working so far. I DID forget to mention that one other place I use it is directly under the roosts and boy-howdy does it do a wonderful job of keeping the straw dry and the smell to a minimum!! And one 40# has lasted me forever - got it in July and still have over half of it left!!

My gals mostly dust bathe when they are out free-ranging, but in the run I have a wood box that I put dirt, ashes and DE in and I'll see them use it now and then - figured it would be good for them in the deepest part of winter. We don't get a LOT of snow, but we get it, and ice. The box is under the covered section of their 20x22' run so it should stay dry and easy to use all winter.

This thread, the FF thread, and the HLF thread are the 3 threads on BYC that I check faithfully every day and keep notes on. How much I have learned is just overwhelming from just these 3 threads. The HLF thread has become a double edged sword for me though - while I'm gaining an enormous amount of knowledge from it, I am also learning the hard way just how sadly lacking my poor old hatchery gals are. I sit in the run each morning and pick them apart regarding type, size and color. heh. I love them dearly, and I figure that they are making good learning birds - both for care and for selecting birds!! You fellas with the good birds sure do have some purty ones!! I hope in a year or so to 'kick it up a notch' after I learn the ropes on these gals.

Thank goodness for guys like Fred who is forever reminding me (and everyone else) in his oh-so-matter-of-fact, plain-spoken way that you don't have to have fancy, expensive, show birds to have a good utility flock. I'd be pretty depressed if he didn't keep hammering that fact home.

 

[Beekissed]

Maven,

Before you give up on DE, let me share some things I've found in researching it. I've been using it with great success and did a little digging after reading about the death of "beneficials". DE kills hard-bodied insects, that's it. The "beneficials" that everyone wants in their DL aren't hard-bodied, they're microscopic critters and a few worms. I've used DE in my garden for years, and I've noticed no decrease in the size or quantity of earthworms. I just don't buy that there is any negative effect on beneficials from using DE in the coop. If anyone can point me to some research, rather than conjecture, I'd be happy to read it.

I use it primarily to dry up the litter. Mite control is a side benefit...I guess, my girls have never had any bugs, but they dust bathe like crazy and seem to take care of themselves on that front pretty much on their own. A tuna can of DE in my rice hulls and I can scoop the poop out with a screen once every 2 or 3 weeks and never, ever have any smell in the coop. But, that's just me. If you want to do DL, I really don't think DE is going to keep the pile from doing whatever it is supposed to do.

I guess I'm a little confused then...if DE can slice up a hard bodied insect so badly that it then dessicates it or allows bacteria to kill the insect, how do the soft bodied insects fair? And when it is fed to livestock to "slice up" intestinal worms and kill them...how does it then not slice and harm any other worm?

Also...part of the action of DE is when it is being groomed off of the legs and bodies of bugs, their ingesting it causes it to cut up their intestines..again resulting in killing them. So beneficial bugs and worms just are automatically immune to all these killing qualities of the DE? If DE can kill bad nematodes in the soil, how can it not kill the beneficial and predatory nematodes as well?

If I could see some documentation on how it is that selective, I might believe that it won't have any effect on beneficial nematodes in the culture of the DL in the coop. Using DE to dessicate and dry up litter will also, I'm thinking, dessicate and dry up any beneficial yeasts, bacteria or nematodes in that same litter from what I understand about their growth and development.

 

[Maven]

Oh, and Jeff, your avatar reminds me of one more picture/sign I've really REALLY wanted for the coop but so far the Mr. flat out refuses to help me and draw this one: I want a large Foghorn Leghorn holding a microphone in his hand, Across the bottom I want to 'autograph' it to say "To all the fowls I've loved before - Julio Egglaysious."

 

[al6517]

Quote:

Gonna have to get Al some of those nifty signs like you have in your coop as a Christmas gift for his laying flock. I just know he will love them! Very cute!

Great Idea, I can burn said frilley's and use the ashes for the dust bath's...............................

No offense to the originator of said signs. I do however have some art hanging in my chickens digs as well, feed signs, old license plates, an old Case tractor grill hangin on a nail on a wall, and various flee market things painted on old driftwood and saws.

 

[NanaKat]

I have plans to attend a few major shows this coming December where I have entered some birds but Obviously won't be exhibiting, but plan to see if I can snag some decent stock from which to start rebuilding. If I am unable to aquire anything decent then it is what it is.

Hope to see you in Shawnee next weekend.

Seems weird to have no newbies asking questions on this thread. Did I scare them off or did we just work our way through the whole newbie population and our job is done?

Questions:
1) MG - I know it runs its course in 2 - 3 weeks and that surviving birds will be carriers. Do you automatically cull birds with the first symptoms or what treatments do you utilize?
I'm losing birds now to what I think is MG (watery eyes, mucus that crusts the nostrils, sneezing and some wheezing) Birds affected are in quarantine and using Vet RX in the water and Tylan 50 injections. They have ACV water and pumpkin in their pens. I've culled those with matted eyes. Totl loss so far is 15 out of 100 bird flock in past three days. Also set up a sparrow trap in the run as the sparrows are feasting on the hanging feeders. Birds normally freerange 8 - 10 hours a day.

2) When not using a broody, do you prefer dry hatch incubation or do you stick with the recommended humidity in the incubator?
I've tried both methods with varying levels of success/failure. Would like to know your thoughts.

 

[al6517]

Quote:

When I came to BYC I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole, for sure. Saw and read things I'd never heard and in short order went out to the coop to see if I was still on planet Earth and in the appropriate dimension.

Yep, chickens still wore just feathers and not clothes, coop still looked like chickens lived there not Barbie dolls, feed still looked like chicken feed instead of an organic, gourmet meal that I could never afford. It sure was a comfort to know that my own little bubble in the world had not tipped off plumb...just the rest of the universe.

Same here Bee and we have spoken on many occasions about that before you started this thread............... Remember those PM's, back when as a team we would gang up on the Foo-Foo crowd and try to convert them to reality and wake them up from their insufferable dream.only to suffer the wrath of the Mods who at the time were worst than the Nazi SS when it came to defending their liberal base of cutesy tootsey screwballs crowd, I guess you could have called us Foo-Foo fighters LOL LOL. between us we have been banned more times than a broody Silkie in a doll house coop.
Now we have made our own domain and have found peace with folks who actually seek this sort of advice............ imagine that, however the mods still watch us very closely and we remain on the 10 most wanted list maintained secretly by the Mod's own skull & Bones club LOL LOL.

 

[al6517]

I will be there Nana, gonna stay over either Friday night or Saturday night not sure which yet. I will be there by noon on Friday, is the old crew getting together for lunch or dinner at that Mezcan joint or anything I should know about???.

 

[normanack]

I have one of them feather dusters too, I usually spray a little endust on her and clean the coop with her. 

Awwwww, sweet mom and chick!

 

[JeffOeuf]

RE: DE

Just a few links to things I've found. I tried to list the most authoritative and leave out places that are selling the stuff.

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Diatomaceous-Earth_vq21.htm

http://independent.academia.edu/pes...Earth_-_The_Natural_Answer_To_Insect_Problems

If you dig a little, I think the bigger issue with DE is that the whole thing about it being effective against internal parasites may turn out to be a bust. Everything I can find from any authoritative source talks about DE only being effective when it is DRY. This would be borne out by the guys feeding it to earthworms. The only people I find talking about how effective it is against intestinal parasites are the carpetbaggers that are selling it.