The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mumsy]

Truly sorry LW, about the stress, the chickens, and the timing. Sometimes life throws it at us in fistfuls and then gives us a good kick for extra. The good stuff will come around again.

 

[midnightroo]

So sorry LW. You tried the best you could for the dog. Sometimes, they just seem to stay wild. We had a wonderful dog, but after she caught her first baby rabbit, that she didn't even kill, she got a wild side. When a mama rabit had a litter in our garden she refused to come in one day and got hit by a car. It was a hard couple of months for me because my daughter loved that dog, broke her heart.

Mumsy your chicks are so cute! I am amazed you have so many!

countrygirl74 very pretty and your naked does look like she is doing the cat walk. Lily looks like is is saying"You lookin at me?" to someone off camera.

My roo got me on the leg today, I have just a small scratch. I put alcohol and neosporin (sp?) on it, should I do anything else?

Is there a way to upload a video without putting it on youtube first?

axoa, as everyone else I love Henry! I fell in love with them when I saw them a few years ago, but I don't think I will ever get one so I am living vicariously through you.

Christine

 

[loanwizard]

Quote:

Uh..... isn't this the family channel?

 

[midnightroo]

lol sorry I forgot the turken part!

 

[Kassaundra]

Countrygirl & Kassaundra -
The video and info on making the LABs has got me thinking! I have used a bacterial spray on items such as pet urine on carpets and other items to consume the "bad stuff" and neutralize the smells, etc. I purchase this in spray bottles from a local store and the stuff is GREAT.

I honestly don't know what specific bacteria strains are used in the product as that is their "trade secret" and isn't listed on the MSDS so I'm not sure if it is a LAB strain or something else.

So one of the things I'm wondering is if you could actually use something like whey from raw cheese made w/mesophillic LAB culture to spray on the chicken house litter and achieve the same results as using the LABs you make? This is of interest to me as I am a "cheesemaker" (and instructor) so I often have plenty of whey around...and this is from RAW milk so it has even more benefits.

What is your thought on that? Do you think I could spray whey into the chicken litter to jump-start LAB proliferation without any negative effects?

Just thinking it through, it seems like it would be another good use for the whey that never occurred to me to try until you 2 told us about using your home made LABs in the litter.


OH...and just in case anyone is interested, here is an example of a bacterial spray like I'm referring to above. I HAVE NOT USED THIS PARTICULAR BRAND but may try some someday!

http://www.antiickypoo.com/anti-icky-poo-1-gallon
http://www.treatsforchickens.com/products/Anti-Icky-Poo.html

When making LAB it is the whey that is left that is the LAB, only the "start" is the rice water instead of the cheese culture, but I think is essentially the same. It sure wouldn't hurt anything at all to try. If I had it handy I'd sure give it a try. You can also soak their food in the whey and feed it to them they LOVE it. I don't often have any since I seldom get raw milk, but the few times I have you would have thought I was bringing chocolate out to them to eat.

 

[Sally8]

Ok, photo of the progress so far. That is is I can figure out uploading... stand by....
Gives me "error uploading images".... they are saved as .JPG on my desktop. How do I upload?

I recently started having this problem too. I've found that if I go to my own photo's here on BYC and upload a new one there, then I can post a comment and add a pic there. It's worked so far.

 

[Sally8]

Loanwizard...you & your family (and your animals) will be in my thougts & prayers.

X 2. Just count the blessings you have every day until this works through. We all go there.

 

[jendodd79]

Just came back inside from letting my little 4 weekers run around in a grow out pen. They had so much fun, I felt bad bringing them back in!

 

[Bulldogma]

Great photos. This one of Lily is my favorite! LOL!

Wonder if there is a new chapter coming?

These are the times it would be SO nice to have a crystal ball! For me, the hardest part is always the "not knowing." I've been there a few times. Hang in there - you could always fall back on your Chippendales talents... (You know - I just corrected a spelling error... I had mistakenly typed "Chimpendales."

)

And sorry about the dog. I had one like that once. He killed the neighbor's rabbit and some wild critters... kept him until he killed my house cat who had slept with him in his doggie bed up until that day.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: You know, I think I will try it.

I'm really blessed to have friends where I can get milk every week so I always have it. I started making cheese several years ago and used to make at least a 4 gallon batch every week. I've gotten out of the habit the last few months but my little "cheese cave" is empty so I need to get busy again!

Since I've had chickens I do feed them some whenever I have it. But the whey from a 4 gallon batch is A LOT OF WHEY (and I only had 6 chickens at the time)! I had started dumping it on the garden and the compost, in addition to making it into smoothies and everything else I could think of since I had so much.

Now I have another thing to try it on.