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

[christyg]

I ain't. Scared. Ok, a teeny bit.

Ha ha.

I don't ask any Q because everyone will say, hey dumbo we covered that 6 different times, just read those 1100+ pages.

Lord do I read and fast too. Still working on it.

   Thanks for reading along, Christy!  I'm so glad you have found things of use in these threads and don't be a bit scared to ask questions.  We only recommend folks to go back and read if they start complaining because we haven't answered their questions promptly enough...then I get a mite testy and tell them to occupy their time of waiting for a response by reading the thread.    That's not meant for everyone...just the folks who complain. 

Thanks for the welcome! Really enjoying dropping by and finding great info for a newbie...but even I start rolling my eyes when someone asks a question that was so clearly answered over and over in the first 10 posts. My partner said chicken keeping was very easy when he was a kid growing up in the mountains of the Dominican republic. He laughs about me reading this because in his mind chicken math means a hen laying eggs + so many years = hen stew. Very different than some chicken math I see on here.

Thanks all of you for one of the two threads I can read without throwing up in the back of my throat!! Some of the stuff I see posted on BYC is ridiculous and downright crazy. Made me wonder where the real chicken people were that cobbled coops together and let their chickens scratch and forage and run flapping across clearings to the next cover and turn the fire pit into an ash cloud jacuzzi tub. Once I came home and thought for sure a hawk finally got a hen she was dead in the yard...nope, napping in the sun like she should be! Well great to find some normal chicken folk. Because until I found this thread BYC was sort of a dead end. Call a vet for every issue...puhleeze. A vet!!! Amazing! For a chicken!
Ok sorry I got carried away. Of course i try to be the best steward possible to these critters for their short time on earth, respecting their nature and allowing them to be real animals. I am learning so much...

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:

Oh, yeah...you and Al are gonna get along like a house afire! He throws up a little too....ask him about chicken diapers.

So glad you found us! I have a feeling you are going to fit right in.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Awhile back someone asked about the mad vent so I thought I'd oblige by showing what's already been done over on "The Road Less Traveled". A couple of photos by Aoxa and Bulldogma... Ya'all better go over there and find the originals!

This one looks like my xhusband (I'm serious - not kidding at all).

 

[Beekissed]

Ya just had to go there! That poor chicken's vent is going to go down into the archives and be pulled out to be laughed at forever.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Ya just had to go there! That poor chicken's vent is going to go down into the archives and be pulled out to be laughed at forever.

I think it will be "photo of the year" on BYC based on the number of times it's been re-posted.

 

[Beekissed]

Maybe we should submit it for the POW?

 

[stonykill]

Stony, do you see mating behavior when he rounds them up? I think that's what caused me to notice it more than anything else. A hen that was laying eggs was doing something that got her fertilized.

yup. Usually the 1st thing he does. The hen more often than not submits, they mate, they join the rest of the harem. This isn't everytime, but often

 

[Mskayladog]

To I read this post this morning what is wrong with this chciken?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-a-leg-injury-pictures-included#post_10013603

 

[thedragonlady]

All's well.

I dusted the hen and her bedding heavily with ashes. The next day she was still loaded with mites -- I think the Silkie feather structure protects the mites. I put a dab of pyrethrin spray on her topknot, and the next morning the mites were gone from her head. But I didn't want her all wet with spray as it was dropping below freeazing at night. So I dusted her with permethrin powder, very lightly. That worked, too.
I am not ruling out wood ashes. I'm using them on my flat-feathered birds right now. But in this situation, with hatching so close, I upped the toxicity on this hen, as little as I could, until the mites were gone.

She really deserved that chick ! What a good mom ! I'm so glad they're doing well.

 

[thedragonlady]

Totally not an OT, but it was me with the broody Silkie so I can tell you what I saw:
On a white silkie-feathered bird: tiny but visible red dots scattered about halfway down the feathers.
On a white regular-feathered bird: tiny but visible red dots scattered on top the feathers.
On colored birds: I can't see whether there are mites or not.
Quite honestly my chickens have so many feathers on their butts that I have trouble finding the vent at all. When I do, the bird has had it with me and I only get a glimpse, not enough to see anything. (Helpful, huh?)
One way to check for mites: dig your fingers down into the feathers, till you're touching the skin. Stay like that for half a minute or as long as the bird will tolerate it. Pull your hand back and look at it in good light. Red dots? Mites.
Don't worry, though. If you can't see them on your hand, you'll feel them soon enough, on your arms, shoulders, chest, face, itchy itchy itchy! As Fred said, take a shower. They wash off.
My best tip: Dots that don't seem to move are not dead. Keep a beady eye on a motionless dot and after 30 seconds or so, it might move. I think they fall off when they're dead.

Those are Northern Fowl Mites. Little red dots of pepper around the vent, and on Silkies sometimes in the crest. They are blood suckers who live in the cracks in your coop, and come out at night to feed on your birds.

Lice make white egg masses at the base of the feathers around the vent, and under the beards of Silkies. They are 1/3 the size of a rice grain, and move quickly.

If you see these ; treat your birds. Bee uses ashes . I use Permethrin powder. Spray your roosts too.