The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[chikenscratch]

I got my new chicks from delisha today!!!!

I got 8 total: 3 black orpington, 2 americauna (1 splash and 1 black), 3 blr wyandottes (2 splash and 1 blue). Hopefully they are all girls, but we did our best!

The 3 orpingtons are 4 weeks old and are outside in the coop with Mr. Gibs. The others are just babies (3 days I think). I initially had them in the garage, but I felt that it was too drafty and cold in there, so I moved them into the basement.

They are sleeping, so I'll have to get pics of them later.

 

[Bulldogma]

I got my new chicks from delisha today!!!!

I got 8 total: 3 black orpington, 2 americauna (1 splash and 1 black), 3 blr wyandottes (2 splash and 1 blue). Hopefully they are all girls, but we did our best!

The 3 orpingtons are 4 weeks old and are outside in the coop with Mr. Gibs. The others are just babies (3 days I think). I initially had them in the garage, but I felt that it was too drafty and cold in there, so I moved them into the basement.

They are sleeping, so I'll have to get pics of them later.

Congrats! Yes - pictures, please!!

 

[delisha]

I got my new chicks from delisha today!!!!

I got 8 total: 3 black orpington, 2 americauna (1 splash and 1 black), 3 blr wyandottes (2 splash and 1 blue). Hopefully they are all girls, but we did our best!

The 3 orpingtons are 4 weeks old and are outside in the coop with Mr. Gibs. The others are just babies (3 days I think). I initially had them in the garage, but I felt that it was too drafty and cold in there, so I moved them into the basement.

They are sleeping, so I'll have to get pics of them later.

You are so cute..I enjoyed spending time with you and your DH today.!!

 

[chikenscratch]

Here's a quick shot of the babies

 

[delisha]

Here's a quick shot of the babies

They just love FF

 

[chikenscratch]

I have the started FF in the opposite corner , they just happened to be tasting this menu option at the time I took the pic.

 

[delisha]

They eat anything..They love meat..

 

[chikenscratch]

I've been popping in on these because I want to make sure that I see them eat AND drink on their own. Obviously, they found the food, but I've only seen the "runt" Americauna drink on her own. They all have been shown the water a few times each!
The black orps, I showed the water 3-4 times each and I saw them eating. Man they LOVED the FF!!!! They fell asleep shortly after arriving here and I figured that they are old enough to sleep through the night, so I'll check on them tomorrow morning to verify that they are drinking as well.

 

[Kassaundra]

K - you feed ff. I know that using the ff is supposed to make a diff in smell in the litter. So far I haven't had smelly litter using the deep litter. In fact. one of my very picky friends (who dislikes animals) went in the hen house last summer to see the chickens and actually commented on how it didn't stink.

Did you begin spraying the LABs on your litter it BEFORE or AFTER you started using ff?

(Where I'm going here is if it made a difference EVEN WHEN YOU'RE USING THE FF?

I don't do FF, I do fermented grains, they still have there normal feed free choice, I also sprout grains. I tried the FF and it was okay they liked it and all, but it was harder on us. We have a feed bin that holds a bag of feed that they have access to all the time, it takes 2 minutes once every couple of months to fill up and forget. The grains we fill a 30gall trash bucket w/ grains and water and scoop out of it every day for them, we have had the same ferment, just adding water and grain when it gets low for almost 2 years now w/o problems. I sprout one burlap sac of mixed grains and they get one of those a day. (mostly some version of oat, wheat, boss, corn) for both the ferment and the sprouting well I seldom ferment the boss, just sprout it. The sprouting sacs contain the equivalent of about 6 single serving yogurt cups dry. I never noticed a diff. in the poop smell w/ or w/o fermented grains.

 

[Arkansas81]

Hi ladies, back to busy nights now that school has started back.

Delisha i was thinking of what you said that my roos might be passing some defect down to my chicks -I had a thought. The one chick that has the balance issues is from a polish hen and bcm roo. The hen is lf but on the small side, the roo is a really big boy. So could that have something to do with it? The baby is out of porpotion because the size difference of the mom and dad? Her legs and feet are very long and skinny -huge feet. Her body is short -compact.

She is able to get up and move around freely around the brooder, but not for long periods of time. Its like she trips over her gigantic feet which makes her stumble then she just sits down. The other chicks are from hens /roosters that aren't that different in size, so they aren't having any issues. They are very active-loud boogers. Now thinking about it the other 3 that died were very small banty /lf roos. What do u think of my theory?

If that's the case I feel really bad...I never even thought of the huge size difference of the hens and roos. I only have 2 banties, 2 polish. I am planning on getting roos for the banties and polish so they are pure and not mixed. I guess they never had a chance to survive...but ive seen lf and banty breeds -breed and they seemed fine. Tagalong is doing really good -she is gaining strength every minute.

I just feel so badly...I guess I won't let anymore banty /polish hatch till I get the correct breed roo for them. Well Im still thankful for Tagalong, shes such a cutie...ill take a pic and post tomorrow. If anyone has anymore suggestions I would appreciate it!

Thanks