The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Quote: well Mumsy..I don't know..with out pictures of those adorable baby's for me to drool over i simply can't believe you with out the proof..so hand them over!

 

[pigeonguy]

I have several posts to read to catch up but I wanted to post a couple photos and a story.

I was running errands this morning and while I was out I talked to my husband on the phone (who was at home). He said he was outside by the chickens and, "Wait till you see what I did."

Then he said the had "done something" out there with the chickens but didn't tell me what "something" was. I thought about a couple of possible "somethings" that he may have done but quickly forgot about it in the busy-ness of doing stuff.

As I was driving up, I look up and see FLAGS.. 3 FLAGS FLYING UP HIGH by the coop. They are flags from "who knows what" nations flying way up high.

I literally

(except I wasn't rolling on the floor). HE REMEMBERED WHAT I TOLD HIM THAT PG TOLD US ABOUT FLYING FLAGS UP HIGH TO DETER HAWKS - AND HE DID IT!

Then, all of a sudden I thought, "whoa...I hope the neighbors don't think we joined some cult or something ... or what if those are flags from some terrorist nation... then...well at least they're not confederate...

)


So I went in and he told me that last week someone at work was going to throw away some flags and asked him if he had any use for them (he designs sets for a TV station/studio and does graphic design, backdrops, etc.) So he brought home these free flags and up they went!

Here's a photo...PG...are they high enough?










So I immediately went to the next door neighbor to tell them we hadn't joined some cult or the Nazi's or something

(He was very gracious and told me he thought it was probably a hawk thing.

I better go find out what nation those flags are from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is WOW that is great. I hope this works. I know it did at Dougs when he put them up. He does have some wind chimes below the flags but I don't know if that makes a difference or not. They look to be high enough so they will notice and say what the heck.

 

[pigeonguy]

Yesterday I picked up my SFH babies from a good friend who hatches for me (these were shipped eggs from another breeder so I can expand my bloodlines) - I was so excited - even though one of them wasn't doing so well. The last to hatch has an oozy umbilical and badly curled feet. There was a humidity issue in the hatcher because she had to take the rest of the chicks out and the humidity didn't come back up for some reason afterwards... Poor little thing wasn't doing well at all.

I took them all home and situated the "special needs" baby in my hatcher to keep it separate and put the others in my baby pen in my trailer coop. It's heated and there is there is a heat lamp in the brooder part. They all settled right in with my 2 home-grown SFH chicks (2 weeks old) and a Dark Cornish chick that hatched the same time as my 2 SFH.

Then tragedy struck...

Some time last night the part of our house wiring that powers our refrigerator, the kitchen and the power line that runs out to the coop went out. We had no idea because the rest of the power was on.

When I went out to the coop this morning, my 2 older SFH chicks were barely upright, but the rest of the brooder was littered with tiny, fluffy bodies. I can't even tell you how broken-hearted I was to find this!

I scooped up the live babies and all the bodies and took them in my house. I got the upright ones into the hatcher with the "special needs" baby and then checked each little body. 4 (including my 2-week-old Dark Cornish and 3 SFH chicks) were ice cold and stiff. Three more of the SFH chicks were still floppy but very cold and unresponsive. I put those three in the hatcher right away... just in case.

Every few minutes I would go and rub the 3 little unresponsive bodies. Amazingly one of them started to breathe!

I had to go check on the rest of my flock - had some 4-5 week-olds (H/RIR and PR) that lost power too. Luckily the older ones were OK. When I came back in after feeding and checking, all 3 of the unresponsive SFH chicks were moving!

It has been a few hours now, and all 3 are eating and drinking (and staying in the laundry room). The little special needs baby is still not doing well, but I'll keep trying with it. Normally I would have given it until today at noon-ish and then culled if it wasn't improving, but now it seems personal. I realize I may lose this one too, but the idea bothers me more now than it did yesterday.

Please keep your fingers crossed that my remaining SFH chicks survive and thrive. I so appreciate your thoughts and well-wishes for these tiny little babies!

Sorry to hear this.

 

[pigeonguy]

OK, I'll play. Scratch Grain is the 50 lb bag that I buy at Tractor Supply that says in big letters "Scratch Grain". But you already knew that. I guess I was understanding that chickens needed something to help grind up food and that was where the oyster shell came in as these are in an enclosed pen (along with the calcium when they started laying) Not taking any more time on this.


Bulldogma-I'm so sorry. That's something I've been worrying about here this winter as it's been very cold and windy. I hope the little special needs baby makes it.

Oyster shells are to soft to grind food. You need to give grit or sand for that.

 

[Arkansas81]

I lost another chick, it was one of the smaller ones. Lost 3 so far...just noticed one laying around acting like the others. All the others are running even trying to fly hop around the brooder. This one walks a step or two then lays down. I picked it up and looked at the legs no injuries, the legs are straight. I put it down in a chair and made it walk, it wobbles, kinda stumbles, almost acts like it can't hold up its own weight.

I hand fed it, made it drink, tagalong ate and drank no problem. Now that I think about it the others ddnt really walk or move around either. I guess when I noticed them acting funny it was to late...will giving it vitamins help? I put pedalight and sugar in their water...anything else. I cant stand to lose anymore!!!

 

[Mumsy]

well Mumsy..I don't know..with out pictures of those adorable baby's for me to drool over i simply can't believe you with out the proof..so hand them over!

HAH!

You crack me up del!
I have been so busy getting new pens built for the little flocks, big flocks, and everybody else in between, I haven't taken any new pictures since the babies hatched. I did the seven day candle for the eight Johnny eggs in the LG and there is 100% fertility. The Fogle eggs in the Genesis go into lockdown on Tuesday. Then Wednesday The ten Fogle chicks are supposed to arrive from Arkansas! It's going to get even busier around here next week. I think my feed bill is going to go up too.

On a more sober note. I'm feeling bad about the unforseen tradgedy in BDM's brooder. This has been a real up and down season for folks. It's nice to come on this thread to share the joys and the pains.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: They were out all day yesterday and today without incident. I wonder if I need to move them around to change things up...keep 'em guessing?

Right now those pvc pipes they're on are just stuck down inside the hollow fiberglass fence posts. We could drive in some larger pvc pipes here and there and just move them around every couple of days by putting the smaller pipes into the larger ones (hope that makes sense). This is a trick we use when setting up outdoor festivals/trade shows, etc. Using a larger pvc driven into the ground then put the smaller post inside to hold up whatever (banner posts, sign posts, etc.) Then after the show you can remove them without a problem. It's really easy to do. Here I could just leave the driven in posts here and there than just slip the pipes that the flags are on out and move them to a new driven-in pipe sleve.

 

[pigeonguy]

They were out all day yesterday and today without incident. I wonder if I need to move them around to change things up...keep 'em guessing?

Right now those pvc pipes they're on are just stuck down inside the hollow fiberglass fence posts. We could drive in some larger pvc pipes here and there and just move them around every couple of days by putting the smaller pipes into the larger ones (hope that makes sense). This is a trick we use when setting up outdoor festivals/trade shows, etc. Using a larger pvc driven into the ground then put the smaller post inside to hold up whatever (banner posts, sign posts, etc.) Then after the show you can remove them without a problem. It's really easy to do. Here I could just leave the driven in posts here and there than just slip the pipes that the flags are on out and move them to a new driven-in pipe sleve.

I think that sounds like a wonderful idea.

 

[Knittycat]

It's day seven on my new eggs. They don't seem to be developing. If they're duds I'm going to be so mad. These suckers were expensive.