The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[kian]

Leah's Mom,

I am not married, but Carla IS a saint, unfortunately I will not share that information with her as I want her to be able to fit her head through the door....

Those little piggies are worth $100.00 as feeders or FFA projects, $300.00 as breeders, or $800.00 if sold 1/2- whole, or $1500.00 if sold in a freezer fill program that I am setting up.

Right now, they're just dang adorable!

I wish I lived closer, I'd take advantage of that freezer deal.

 

[Sally8]

Ahhhh.... busted! And so quickly I might add.

This is our very first litter. We always bought feeders before. For the delicate ones here, I omitted that she actually had 10, that I know of.

A couple of technical points. I don't raise the way most do. I should have had all the pigs separated by now, and a creep installed for the newborns. It gets uglier. When I saw that she was having them and I was unprepared, I called Carla, who also gave me double type instructions.... and the upshot is, mama got nervous, got up, and stepped on one, that we had to put down.

Another point is that a good sow should have a minimum of 10. I hand picked this one because she has 14 nipples and is long. Technically, if her next litter does not produce 12 or more piglets, she should be destined for sausage. We will see about that.

I am rolling my eyes, laughing and maybe somewhat jealous of the boob biting pig....

I am not sure that I understand starting with smaller pigs. Realize that this mama is only 9 months 3 weeks and 3... ok 5 days old.... They go from zero to 225 in about 6 months, like a Ferrari!

I will say, if you work with, talk to and pet every day like some of you do your chickens... pigs are extremely friendly. I won't tell you how I know that. I lost that when I got the automatic feeder this winter and didn't see them for a week at a time except to walk by and collect eggs.

Believe me, I can hand feed these pigs. I can't pet them anymore, but will work on that this summer, or.... put them to sausage and work with these youngsters. Be sweet or be meat!

This is one of the funnier posts I've read. My Dad raised Yorkshire and Landrace. I remember watching as one sow had 13 pigglets. Not long after she got up and ate the chicken, live, that was roosting on the pen she had just had her babes. At 12 I was really grossed out. Every time I saw one of your chickens run past the sow and pigglets I tensed up thinking, She's going to get eaten. The suspense was killing me! Thanks for the wonderful memories.

 

[moomoodiddy]

has anyone had sucess with a makeshift smaller incubator i have a hen that only lays an egg everyother week and no other broody hen and no money for an incubator

 

[Mumsy]

has anyone had sucess with a makeshift smaller incubator i have a hen that only lays an egg everyother week and no other broody hen and no money for an incubator

I suggest you buddy up with a friend, neighbor, fellow poultry enthusiast. You may find someone close to you that can share incubator space, broody hen space, or something. Good luck.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Oh boy am I in trouble. Between feeding/watching and chores of "chickenhood" I will never be inside this summer. Today was raining and I still spent time outside. Then when I should be cleaning house I read BDM 'thing' post and all the info it linked to and here it is three hours later!!!! Only been up to stretch and go potty. Knew I was hurting and had to keep getting up (what I thought was every couple seconds) but was surprised to see it was over 3 hours of interesting information!!!!

Now I can blame not cleaning house on her???? LOL

 

[delisha]

has anyone had sucess with a makeshift smaller incubator i have a hen that only lays an egg everyother week and no other broody hen and no money for an incubator

1. why would you want to reproduce a chicken that lays one egg every other week? That one egg cost a fortune.
2. If money is an issue(and it should be for everyone)do you think it is fiscally better to get a hen who can feed you breakfast every day or every other day? It cost the same to feed them.

Oh boy am I in trouble. Between feeding/watching and chores of "chickenhood" I will never be inside this summer. Today was raining and I still spent time outside. Then when I should be cleaning house I read BDM 'thing' post and all the info it linked to and here it is three hours later!!!! Only been up to stretch and go potty. Knew I was hurting and had to keep getting up (what I thought was every couple seconds) but was surprised to see it was over 3 hours of interesting information!!!!

Now I can blame not cleaning house on her???? LOL

Of course you can..I blame her often,

 

[aoxa]

Ahhhh.... busted! And so quickly I might add.

This is our very first litter. We always bought feeders before. For the delicate ones here, I omitted that she actually had 10, that I know of.

A couple of technical points. I don't raise the way most do. I should have had all the pigs separated by now, and a creep installed for the newborns. It gets uglier. When I saw that she was having them and I was unprepared, I called Carla, who also gave me double type instructions.... and the upshot is, mama got nervous, got up, and stepped on one, that we had to put down.

Another point is that a good sow should have a minimum of 10. I hand picked this one because she has 14 nipples and is long. Technically, if her next litter does not produce 12 or more piglets, she should be destined for sausage. We will see about that.

I am rolling my eyes, laughing and maybe somewhat jealous of the boob biting pig....

I am not sure that I understand starting with smaller pigs. Realize that this mama is only 9 months 3 weeks and 3... ok 5 days old.... They go from zero to 225 in about 6 months, like a Ferrari!

I will say, if you work with, talk to and pet every day like some of you do your chickens... pigs are extremely friendly. I won't tell you how I know that. I lost that when I got the automatic feeder this winter and didn't see them for a week at a time except to walk by and collect eggs.

Believe me, I can hand feed these pigs. I can't pet them anymore, but will work on that this summer, or.... put them to sausage and work with these youngsters. Be sweet or be meat!

Thanks for explaining!

I have two pot bellied pigs to root up our wooded area and get me used to the idea of pigs. They are free - so if they don't suit us we can rehome them. I think of them as training pigs

Another friend has the tamworth and berkshires. I will possibly get a piglet from them after I overcome this nervousness. I did pet their young boer who is about 14 weeks old. He is the tamworth and very friendly and sizable so I am not so afraid lol.

So can you raise just a single pig for meat? We don't have the room for more than one pig - or the freezer. We only want to raise one for meat for ourselves. Is one doable? Or should I do two? Is there an age that is too young for eating?

 

[armorfirelady]

loan thanks for the great video . I also thought those chickens were braving being so close to her lol

BDM- glad you could use the pics. Funny thing is last hen check up no one had prolapse anymore, I doubt it was the Nustock but I did start giving them grower crumbles & flax seed so maybe that helped? Who knows but I am happy it's gone for now, now the leaky butts well still some now & then and I really think its the yogurt.

On a good note I had 4 happy hens happily foraging in their new fenced area today before I got up. of course when they saw me they started tapping on the glass door, apparently they wanted out in the old run lol

And tonight was musical roosts again but they settled down better. I ended up putting a piece of clear plastic on the side of their preferred roost since the roost got damp with rain and high winds predicted for tonight.

 

[aoxa]

Oh boy am I in trouble. Between feeding/watching and chores of "chickenhood" I will never be inside this summer. Today was raining and I still spent time outside. Then when I should be cleaning house I read BDM 'thing' post and all the info it linked to and here it is three hours later!!!! Only been up to stretch and go potty. Knew I was hurting and had to keep getting up (what I thought was every couple seconds) but was surprised to see it was over 3 hours of interesting information!!!!

Now I can blame not cleaning house on her???? LOL

Welcome to the wonderful world of chicken addiction! I could spend an entire day out there given the proper weather. I spent a good 4 hours outside yesterday just hanging with the birds. It was the first full day I left their door open. We moved the kennel.

I am super paranoid. I would be less so if I had a mature rooster. Eagles are teaching their young to hunt and it makes me nervous. I've never had to worry about this stuff before. :/

Come full bloom the trees are like a canopy of protection (for the most part - at least from Eagles). I never lost a bird to a predator but I did have a close call back in November. A lot of friends are having weasel issues.

 

[Bulldogma]

Oh boy am I in trouble. Between feeding/watching and chores of "chickenhood" I will never be inside this summer. Today was raining and I still spent time outside. Then when I should be cleaning house I read BDM 'thing' post and all the info it linked to and here it is three hours later!!!! Only been up to stretch and go potty. Knew I was hurting and had to keep getting up (what I thought was every couple seconds) but was surprised to see it was over 3 hours of interesting information!!!!

Now I can blame not cleaning house on her???? LOL

Of course you can..I blame her often,

LOLOLOL! Bluebirdnanny - glad you enjoyed your 3-hour tour!
Del - you crack me up! And of course you realize you are partly to blame for your fantastic contributions to it.

Oh - and by the way... what's this cleaning house you speak of?

BDM- glad you could use the pics. Funny thing is last hen check up no one had prolapse anymore, I doubt it was the Nustock but I did start giving them grower crumbles & flax seed so maybe that helped? Who knows but I am happy it's gone for now, now the leaky butts well still some now & then and I really think its the yogurt.

On a good note I had 4 happy hens happily foraging in their new fenced area today before I got up.

of course when they saw me they started tapping on the glass door, apparently they wanted out in the old run lol

And tonight was musical roosts again but they settled down better. I ended up putting a piece of clear plastic on the side of their preferred roost since the roost got damp with rain and high winds predicted for tonight.

Thank you for allowing me to use your photos!
So glad to hear your flock is settling in to their new digs! They are looking good!