The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TheCrazyClucker]

Bbnanny-relax. Chiickens seriously are easy. The most important things are heat, food and water. If you haven't already I recommend reading Small flock poultry by Ussery. Excellent advice for staters.

Small Flock Poultry? What's that? When we were first starting to raise chickens, about 5 years ago, my mom found Raising Chickens for Dummies very helpful.

 

[armorfirelady]

DSCF0015_zps6e59f200.jpg.html

There is the little coop from Tractor Supply online. Sitting on the raised "lean to" frame I built against the shed with scrap pieces of 2x4 and old metal shelving corner posts as supports. The wire laying down will be the 10' skirting buried and up to framing as a predator digging guard.

For now I put womanized plywood over the frame and set the coop on that. Filled the covered end with straw and the nesting boxes. I have cedar chips/shavings... should I put that in the fresh air part for now?

Plan will be to keep them (only 3 RIR 3 year olds) in that cramped little thing (toted as 8 chicken coop) until I get a sufficient protected run finished. Then they will know where to go back to. And I will turn the platform into a lean to coop and use the TSC as a quarantine pen or a lockdown unit if I can expand later.

Will take more pictures today but it took this dial up an hour to get that one shot uploaded!!! But there is the beginning efforts of this poor womans housing attempts for quick temp housing for the chickens.

Already have the heated water bottle, and organic laying feed, epsom salts, bag balm, chicken probiotic/electrolites, yogurt..AND My .22 is ready for any attempting possums or raccoons breakin.

Pray for me I do this right. I can not afford vet bills. I must learn the natural methods and do everything myself. Well, too late to turn back now!! Chickens are being brought over on Monday!!! I hope she approves of my set up plans for her 'pets'.

Sorry for long thread..... am excited but very, very nervous in this new endeavor. Questions will be forth coming after I get them to be sure I acess their incoming health correctly and also to keep or make them healthy.

Nice job!! I wouldn't put more than the 3 chickens in there tho. I to bought a pre-made coop that was suppose to hold 3-5 hens......well maybe if they were silkies lol
I cant see what the surface of the run is now but if there is grass in there I would let them dig thru that until its just dirt then slowly add some shavings, straw, grass, clippings, leaves....whatever you find the cheapest or in your yard.....and you will have some great deep litter by fall. I'm sure they will be excited by the larger run when you get it up.

You could temporarily use some plastic fencing and posts to enclose a larger run area when your home. I even let mine out to roam the yard when I am home. They are good about staying in my yard & some people have trained them to come when you need to lock them up again. Also its cheaper feed wise if they roam the yard for awhile. My girls will actually bypass the food to go roam in the yard .........its a treat for them that Ican only do when I am home. Except for the one who flies over the fence on her own lol.

Just feed them well (ever think of fermenting feed? Super easy, less feed and better for them) and let them be chickens and they will be great.
Also if you have access to wood ash put some in a container for them and watch them bath away.

The best part of chickens is a comfy chair, a cold drink & watching some chicken tv

I am just a newbie (got my hens in August) but there are a lot of OT's on here with a wealth of knowledge & lots of knowledge so questions are always welcomed

 

[bluebirdnanny]

I have a question for anyone with garden knowledge.........

While we have had a few days of sunshine & temps in the 4s during the day the temps still have been down in the 20s/30s at night. We might even get some snow next week

UGH
but I would like to know if anyone has an idea when I can throw some clover seeds down? The area around the new coop is muddy and I would like to throw some seed down so it can get situated before I put up the electric fencing.

Can I put the seed down even if it gets below freezing at night? We can & have gotten snow as late as mid april :/ .........tho I am more than ready for spring !!!

I keep reading I can put in cool weather crops so I might plant peas, maybe garlic & potatoes to on sunday if I have seeds.........the ground is workable in the garden thanks to the hens........

Oh yes. But do it thicker than it says as the chickens will thin it out plenty. I plant it by over-seeding in both spring and fall.Just throw it out there. I have done the "field" grassy area straight back and all over my yard years ago before "Deer Baiting" in my area became illegal. Am doing the same now for my coop run area planned. A friend of mine can't figure out why MY garden out in the open doesn't get eaten and her fenced in area gets jumped or dug under and consumed!!! HEHE should I tell her I "bait crop" with preferred food so they graze right along the edge? Haha

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Thanks for the support! And yes I already had some grain fermenting and am adding the organic feed. I plan on free ranging to the extent possible here. But I want a large covered, predator protected limited free range/run for when I am not home. I hate the idea of cramped penning. Even the restricted range yard plan is a minimum of 30' by 30' or equivalent. Will start smaller and open up as finances allow.

 

[delisha]

DSCF0015_zps6e59f200.jpg.html

There is the little coop from Tractor Supply online. Sitting on the raised "lean to" frame I built against the shed with scrap pieces of 2x4 and old metal shelving corner posts as supports. The wire laying down will be the 10' skirting buried and up to framing as a predator digging guard.

For now I put womanized plywood over the frame and set the coop on that. Filled the covered end with straw and the nesting boxes. I have cedar chips/shavings... should I put that in the fresh air part for now?

Plan will be to keep them (only 3 RIR 3 year olds) in that cramped little thing (toted as 8 chicken coop) until I get a sufficient protected run finished. Then they will know where to go back to. And I will turn the platform into a lean to coop and use the TSC as a quarantine pen or a lockdown unit if I can expand later.

Will take more pictures today but it took this dial up an hour to get that one shot uploaded!!! But there is the beginning efforts of this poor womans housing attempts for quick temp housing for the chickens.

Already have the heated water bottle, and organic laying feed, epsom salts, bag balm, chicken probiotic/electrolites, yogurt..AND My .22 is ready for any attempting possums or raccoons breakin.

Pray for me I do this right. I can not afford vet bills. I must learn the natural methods and do everything myself. Well, too late to turn back now!! Chickens are being brought over on Monday!!! I hope she approves of my set up plans for her 'pets'.

Quote: What do you plant for deer baiting?

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Delisha said:

Quote: Quote: I looked and gave information..
It does not look like cocci to me and I would never advise to give drugs with so little information. A picture of poop is not something to give a diagnosis. unquote.
_________________________________________________________________________________

My mistake, I posted here instead of on the link given. Sorry.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
Thanks, I think that is it, The pics look the exact same, minus the liver issue.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Just an FYI for those on the thread today you can get Aoxas Chicken Ebook for free on Amazon...........Just wish I had internet for my Ipad at work so I could start reading it now

http://www.amazon.com/Must-Love-Chi...+Stories+[Kindle+Edition]+Erin+Kelly+(Author)

Enjoy !!!

Its only for today its free

Thanks! Just downloaded Kindle for PC, don't have a kindle. Didn't know that you could do that.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

After losing the 2 poults yesterday, I changed things around. I'm taking the pen and tote to the car wash today and going to disinfect all dishes. I've had such a terrible cold. It just makes me wonder.
These are some of my living babies.







The chicks that are the Super Blue Layers (White Leghorns/EE are stating to show differences. The comb's on 2 of them are looking larger that the rest. Maybe I'll end up with only 2 roo's out of 6. I'm happy to say that the chick, Hoppy, with the splayed legs can walk normally now. I'm so glad! I'm hoping that it is a she as this was the egg with the shell varnished/stuck, poo stuck, and splayed legs (took 36 hours and then I took every bit of the shell off. I did everything I said I would never do.) Now I can't tell him from the rest.





And then another pic of Thor. His feather's are starting to fuzz out.

Such lovely babies!

 

[Arkansas81]

Bought some new babies yesterday, got 3 crepe polish, 3 blue polish, 2 black silkies. Everyone is settled in very nicely, we are all totally in love! I'm starting them all on their ff today -excited!!

Lots of pictures to come!!!!!!!!!