The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

My "Americaunas" honk. They always have. I call them "little goosies".

 

[loanwizard]

I have plenty of land for cornish hens to free range - I'd prefer for them to do that rather than feed them in a smelly pen all day - after seeing that video, I'm seriously considering it. Anyone else free range their broilers? I assume I'd still need to feed them at night though - yes?

I free range mine.... Pasture to be more exact, as I keep mine in the electrified fencing. I will either free range or pasture my meat birds this year as well. The other option is to tractor. Mine have 24 hour access to feed or field. BUT.... I raise Freedom Rangers although going to try the Cornish Cross this year.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Woo finally caught back up. (I am sure that will all change by the time I am done posting this). Between going back to work. 10 hr shifts. Building an addition on the coop and evicting the garage dwellers....I am caught up. I am more of a lurker than poster. So hi to all the new people. This is the best thread on this forum and it moves fast. Keep a note book handy. Which I had but since misplaced.

I checked all of the little ones tonight and the older ones on Monday. None of them have any noticeable health concerns. Well except they keep stepping in poop right before I examine them and I get the poop on me!

Such is life. I know they do it on purpose. The conversation (if you were a bird) would sound like this, " She's after us, she's coming for us...quick run around and look for the biggest pile of poo, step in it and wait for her to pick you up!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA That is so funny! Mine would add "when she bends, fly over her head and run down her back where she can't wipe it off"

No one blames you one bit on that, aoxa!

LW, you have a lovely singing voice! Also this was very thoughtful of you!

Yes, I would! I have 3 Poms. My BIL's dog was a great big lab and he was afraid of my 5 pound little girl, Molly.

LynnEBC!! I heard that very same comment from my kids--21 & 18. I love that I don't HAVE to have dinner on the table every night or run someone to a practice or a game! I can go out to the coop and relax! My DH calls them Therapy Chickens. He's trying to figure out how to "re-coop" the money we've spent on my new venture since right now I only have 2 laying AND those are my Sizzles!

BAHAHAHAAAA....You are one funny guy, LW!! P.S. Drive a Ford Expedition and can park that sucker anywhere...even DH is impressed which is no small task! tee-hee

Oh wish I could do videos... dial up won't let me. Ahhh tis life.


Oh and the women & broom & parking photo........ Where is the PUSH BROOM??????? I don't have any of the others... but I have a push broom!!! LOL

 

[loanwizard]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/640996/125-freedom-rangers-start-to-finish-march-2012

Here is a thread I did last year with Freedom Rangers.

Freedom Rangers, Red Rangers, Broilers, Label Rouge..... All basically the same genetics.

2nd fastest growing bird to the Cornish Cross..... That I know of.

From what I understand, Cornish X grow to butcher weight in 6-8 weeks.

Rangers in 9-12 although I never could get my rangers to full weight. Read my thread. Perhaps I don't know what full feed is. I would feed 1 time maybe twice per day so that there was very little left when I fed again. Didn't want wet food, which I hear is all the rage today. They had the hillside and netting that I moved every couple of weeks.

The difference between the Freedom Ranger and the Cornish Cross, from my processor, who is Amish, is that the Ranger is much more flavorful, and the ranger has smaller boobs... or breasts. My average bird regardless of 9 week or 12 week was around 4.5 lbs. But, I didn't feed near the requisite 1 ton per 100 birds. I was closer to about 1/2 that.

 

[armorfirelady]

Why I am happy it's not snowing this torrential rain for 3+ days is getti old. My yard has never flooded as bad as it has this week. I keep thinking when I get home my hens will have turned into ducks !!!

The vents on the hoop coop failed in this rain. I have been trying for the last few days to cover them to keep the rain out but finally gave up and put another tarp over the top to block them. Of course one still leaks :/ but I think I stuffed enough plastic in it to stop the drips.

Unfortunately my position of the hoop coop is in a low spot with all this rain and even the extra soil I put down not stopping water from being inside, it's better than before the soil but not much. I put 3 bales of shaving down and half a bale of hay and I finally didn't leave wet foot prints when I walked around in coop, girls don't seem to mind the rain since they have been out in it all day long. Talk about wet hens !! But I feel better knowing the inside is dry when they finally decide to come in. And they laid 4 eggs yesterday since I finally got the nest boxes dry. Hoping today is a repeat

I also ended up putting 2 window well covers on the uncovered end. Being a half circle shape was a perfect fit for the rounded ends. I also put some plastic on bottom half. All this rain is foiling my set up lol

And it seems we have turkeys now also, the girls were not impressed with them and hid under their lean to till they left

 

[aaggjg]

A Black Soldier Fly question for Kassaundra or anyone else that had tried it...

I'm thinking of trying to use a 5 gal bucket to do a mini version of the "fancy pants" one.  I'd try to set it up with all the angles and a tray...just 5 gal instead of a 55 gal drum.  Think it would work?




[COLOR=006400]EDITED TO ADD:  I've been doing some reading and it looks like they aren't native to my area.  Best conditions are zone 7 - 10 and I'm in zone 5A.  So...for us "northerners" it looks like it isn't an option.  I don't want to start a colony with shipped larva as I don't want to introduce anything into the environment that isn't native here. [/COLOR]

I have a few friends that grow BSFL. Here in southern California they supposedly naturally populate compost piles & worm bins. I have had a red worm bin for years and never had them. My friend who lives 30 mins from me inland has them everywhere and she's done nothing special to attract them. They were just crawling in her compost and they process waste at an anazing rate! Not to mention, talk about chicken crack!!! They gave me a cup full and my girls would stand and eat as fast as I could drop them!!! I'm going to see if I can get them going in my worm bin this year .....It finally looks like my meal worm bin is doing something!!! I'll report back on my progress with BSFL.

 

[delisha]

Hey Del, I am thinking of beginning to restrict the "meat group" on their feed. They have had 24hr access for 3 weeks now and are now only eating about 3 cups in that period(now that they have adjusted to the FF). I think I will still give 3 cups but spread it out over three 15 min feedings and see how they do. I cannot put them in the run with the layers because they will attack the chicks not under a broody. The "meat group" will be going into the tractor by end of the weekend once the Silkie pen is done. Should I also taper down feed to less once they are in the tractor?

It sounds like a great plan. I would play it by ear. It all depends on what you have for them to eat under there feet. Did you plant anything special like spinach, oregano and grasses? I would not feed in the morning and see how they do for the first day if you have planted. I have no experience for tractors and a little hesitant to give much other advise.

Quote: lol...I bet they do exactly that!!!

ok, there won't be a necropsy! I put her in an empty galvinized trash can in the run (it is freezing temp outside) til I could get to it - but when I went to do chicken chores at 4 this morning, something had gotten into the run and made off with her body. The snow shorted out the fence, and since the hens were locked up tight in the coop, I am not real careful about securing the gate at night. oh well, hope I fed whatever it was - coons are barely out of hibernation here, and with the new snow (couple more inches overnight) I couldn't see any tracks.

I knew there was a reason I shoveled snow off the electric fence wire on wed and got it up and going for the season ! too bad it snowed so much on Thursday.

all I can say is TGIF and where the heck is spring? it is still snowing!

I think the same..my back yard is a huge pond with snow in patches by the tree lines. I do have some green.

Quote: I would love this but they are not native to my area either.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote: Haha, I have a "Black Thumb". If it is not already planted and thriving, I will kill it. The tractor will just be over grasses and weeds. I pulled the Silkie chicks out this morning and put them back in with the big Silkies(Buck the special needs boy went under the lamp I had in the tractor and would not let the chick in for heat, so put them back in the brooder overnight) Gave the "meat group" about 2 cups and will see how it is going when I get up in about 4 hours.

 

[cywiar merch]

Keep a note book handy. Which I had but since misplaced.
HI,there, I cut and paste on to Word anything I think will come in handy. Makes it a lot easier

 

[Kassaundra]

A Black Soldier Fly question for Kassaundra or anyone else that had tried it...

I'm thinking of trying to use a 5 gal bucket to do a mini version of the "fancy pants" one. I'd try to set it up with all the angles and a tray...just 5 gal instead of a 55 gal drum. Think it would work?




EDITED TO ADD: I've been doing some reading and it looks like they aren't native to my area. Best conditions are zone 7 - 10 and I'm in zone 5A. So...for us "northerners" it looks like it isn't an option. I don't want to start a colony with shipped larva as I don't want to introduce anything into the environment that isn't native here.

The size of the bucket should work (except for them not being in your area) I grew lots of them last year, just not where I had set up my growing area.

When you google it people grow them successfuly with very basic set ups just fine.