Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

It's that time of year. The flies sense the cooler weather and are seeking out the warmth. I have been swatting non stop the last few days. I HATE them.
My little turkey died. I don't know what it was. I am thinking I will try some wormer in their water for a few days. I hate using chemicals. I checked her out and there were no signs of anything other than she didn't seem to have many feathers under her wings. I don't know if that is normal or not since this is my first time with turkeys. It really breaks my heart.
I'm hoping to talk DH into going after some new fence panels tomorrow. I think I need a pen I can move more easily to make sure they have fresh ground.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Oh no, sorry about your turkey! I'm not sure if mine have feathers under their wings, either. I guess I can check tonight when I put her up! She's not very fat, either, and I thought turkeys would be nice and fat by now. But I've read that Royal Palms are a smaller breed. What breed was your turkey-- or was this one of your wilds? What do you use for wormer? BTW, I've been told to use the ACV in my chick water.. and so I have been. But what does it DO!??

Well, I got our grill fired up and waiting on my DH to bring home the chicken. Going to slather them up in BBQ sauce and smoke them. So hungry!

 

[SeramasLovers]

Hawkeye95 - Yay another wichita member. My daughter is 3 years old. she loves chickens, but she has one rooster that she is very close to since she was one years old..that she been waiting for everyday, he just passed recently by a possum. now she is sick.

and yes I am very excited to meet Danz soon! Thank you so much!

 

[SeramasLovers]

chicken danz- I'm so caught up in my own, that i just now reread the last post you posted. I'm so sorry for you loss.. I know how it feels.. I'm looking forward to meeting you soon.. Again.. Thank you so much!

 

[justinwrites]

You have to be sure to use organic ACV with the mother still in it, like Braggs. It does a lot for making the digestive system just work better and be less hospitable to parasites. I use it, but I've stopped because I have a metal water font and it leaches the zinc into the water at toxic levels. So it has to wait till I get a different waterer set up.

I'm sorry for the turkey loss. Bum deal. I'd just be sure to rule out parasites in and out, and then just watch the others.

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye, I use Wazine. I don't really like it but that is all I could find around here. I keep reading to put diatomaceous earth in their feed but I've never tried it and not sure what it does. I just don't like using chemicals if I can help it. I think if I hadn't been stuffed so full of antibiotics as a young person I might still have remnants of an immune system left.
I am very sad about my turkey. Yep it was a wild. I guess I've been so careful with them that it really bothers me if I fail.
I guess if I can provide a new Serama for Seramaslovers daughter it will make up for it.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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I may have to hunt down this DE stuff. I'm assuming Atwoods has it. I don't know much about the wild ones, but I'm betting they have more issues than the domestics. But since you hatched them-- it's not like they brought anything with them. Maybe she just got into something? I'm with you and antibiotics (and vaccines too, for that matter.) Which is why I'm the crazy crunchy woman who cloth diapered her babies, breast fed each baby for a year (no formula!), and delayed shots, buys hormone free milk... etc, etc. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, so I don't discuss it with people since they get pretty riled up about those things.

Justin- 'with the mother in it'-- that just makes me giggle! What does that mean? I'm envisioning a mama apple submerged in the cider. I just bought regular ACV, is there a reason it won't work? What does it NOT have that the organic will have? It won't kill them off, right? They've been drinking it down.

SeramaLover, did you just have the one chicken? Do you have a coop in the backyard? Those little seramas are sure cute! Sounds like you'll be hooked up in no time with a few new ones! 3 is a nice round number, right? Or maybe even 5! LOL Oh, I'm already in trouble with my own DH for picking up a couple extra chicks right now, but I could not resist. And I have someone hatching me more!!

But in self defense-- the new chicks that are due to hatch next week are supposed to be for 4-H for my boys! So I *HAD* to get them!

My chicken math calculator is broken. Are you in Wichita itself or out in the country? We've got a little 10 acre plot out in the country.

 

[tntblake]

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I know of 6 or seven of us from around the Wichita area but several of them are not very active anymore.

 

[rittert3]

There are lots of little simple tricks: Unpasturized Unfiltered ACV will improve overall imunity (do not use with galv. waterers as justin said) , Pumpkin seeds can be used as a wormer, Ground or crushed Cayenne pepper (depending on where it's used) will keep rodents out of feed and bedding, urge the chickens to mix up deep litter, and it's said to shorten the winter pause in laying, and some black oil sunflower seeds added to the ration in cold weather will help your birds produce more body heat to keep warm. I've also heard that watermelon will help lower bodytemps on hot days. Then I've heard either sevin dust or food grade DE in the bedding and nesting material will help with mites. I've never tested any of these but have read all of this on BYC and if they work it would really help cut back on chemicals.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
I know of 6 or seven of us from around the Wichita area but several of them are not very active anymore.

I JUST noticed that your area says "Wichita".... have I been blind all this time?! HA! I thought it was just me and Frizzle! Wow, sorry about overlooking you! I kept thinking you're up there with the others! I don't think I've run into anyone else in our area on the board yet. Right now, I'm reading the coop section, babies, emergencies, turkeys, etc a lot. There are a lot of other places I don't really check- like predators, and stuff like that.

My babies are getting big fast! They are already starting to get bigger than my silkies- who are a week older than the others. The little polish continue to be squeeky and scared when I pick them up. I mess with them a lot, so I continue to be surprised by how they act.