The question: Will following the OTs methods of management work to get my flock into the best health possible?
I love my girls & boys. They're a great bunch of chickens and I want to take better care of them without resorting to chemicals. I plan to keep just one of the roosters once I know for certain who is and isn't a rooster. I will keep all of the layers for now and eventually replace them with good dual purpose birds of one or two breeds.
The pictures of my current flock show their issues. Dirty butts = possible gleet. Missing and damaged feathers = possible poor protein intake, rooster damage, or maybe just molt.
This picture was taken a while back, but it shows the constant battle I've had with Snow's butt. I would wash her in Epsom salt bath and put it in her water and still her butt stayed dirty. After starting FF her butt is looking better, but I put that NuStock on it so I don't know if it's dirty because of the NS or because of gleet! I'll give her a bath this week as the weather is exceptionally warm. Hoping her new feather growth coupled with the changes will set her back on the path to a clean rear end.
My flock consists of 14 birds of various ages and breeds: a White Leghorn, Araucana (or EE since she's not SOP), Ancona, (3) Lavender Orpingtons, (3) Silkies, EE/WL mix, (2) Blue Splash Marans, and (2) Silkie mixes (one is Lav Orp/Partridge Silkie mix & one is WL/EE/Partridge Silkie mix).
The things I'm doing to help them:
FF: I started them on fermented Purina Layena feed on Thursday, October 18, 2012. I'm using the layer feed since that's what I have on hand. Later I may try a mix of grains. Feeding all ages from 10 week to 69 week olds same food.
NuStock: put some on the WL butt as a test to see if her butt would look better - unfortunately it's sticky so when she rolled around in the wood ashes she ended up with a weird dirty butt!
Wood Ashes: added to their dustbathing area with the mulch and dirt they use to cover themselves
ACV w/Mother: put this in their water and of course am using it to do the FF
Deworming: Using pumpkins - uncooked & whole - they are pecking it away slowly, scrambled eggs with garlic powder, Shaklee's soap in water (haven't done this yet).
I will run the experiment for one year to see if I can make a difference in this flock's health and appearance by following the advice from the OTs thread. I'll update with more pictures and any changes I note.
I love my girls & boys. They're a great bunch of chickens and I want to take better care of them without resorting to chemicals. I plan to keep just one of the roosters once I know for certain who is and isn't a rooster. I will keep all of the layers for now and eventually replace them with good dual purpose birds of one or two breeds.
The pictures of my current flock show their issues. Dirty butts = possible gleet. Missing and damaged feathers = possible poor protein intake, rooster damage, or maybe just molt.
This picture was taken a while back, but it shows the constant battle I've had with Snow's butt. I would wash her in Epsom salt bath and put it in her water and still her butt stayed dirty. After starting FF her butt is looking better, but I put that NuStock on it so I don't know if it's dirty because of the NS or because of gleet! I'll give her a bath this week as the weather is exceptionally warm. Hoping her new feather growth coupled with the changes will set her back on the path to a clean rear end.
My flock consists of 14 birds of various ages and breeds: a White Leghorn, Araucana (or EE since she's not SOP), Ancona, (3) Lavender Orpingtons, (3) Silkies, EE/WL mix, (2) Blue Splash Marans, and (2) Silkie mixes (one is Lav Orp/Partridge Silkie mix & one is WL/EE/Partridge Silkie mix).
The things I'm doing to help them:
FF: I started them on fermented Purina Layena feed on Thursday, October 18, 2012. I'm using the layer feed since that's what I have on hand. Later I may try a mix of grains. Feeding all ages from 10 week to 69 week olds same food.
NuStock: put some on the WL butt as a test to see if her butt would look better - unfortunately it's sticky so when she rolled around in the wood ashes she ended up with a weird dirty butt!
Wood Ashes: added to their dustbathing area with the mulch and dirt they use to cover themselves
ACV w/Mother: put this in their water and of course am using it to do the FF
Deworming: Using pumpkins - uncooked & whole - they are pecking it away slowly, scrambled eggs with garlic powder, Shaklee's soap in water (haven't done this yet).
I will run the experiment for one year to see if I can make a difference in this flock's health and appearance by following the advice from the OTs thread. I'll update with more pictures and any changes I note.
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