The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Uh-oh, one of my Speckled Sussex chicks seems to have a problem. Last week his eye was crusted shut. I used some Neo Poly B for a couple days and it was fine. Now his chest/crop area is bare of feathers/fluff. He had been eating fine, but his crop doesn't look full now. He's puffed up under the light. He's probably 2 1/2 weeks old. He's now much smaller than the other SS chicks and turkeys. He started out the same size, so he's obviously not very thrifty. I put new shavings in last week and again today. Before they were on pellets. All the others are fine. They had a june bug tonight, which was pretty entertaining. 2 of the turkeys displayed a bit in all the excitement. The little SS joined in a bit of the chase, but not for long. Any thoughts?

A few thoughts:
When chicks are young it can be a problem to let this stuff go for more than a few hours. Some can have lasting effects of illness and might be life long. Un-thriftyness, swollen crusty eyes, are not normal. It could become an infection and pass to the rest of the chicks. It might be this chick needs something else. An empty crop is a sign of suffering, illness, and starving. No chick should ever have an empty crop except in the morning.New chicks do better with fresh shavings sprinkled in daily. They constantly poop and it should be covered daily with fresh. You need to decide to cull or get this chick well and not let it suffer anymore. It sounds like he is starting with cocci.

I'm having a rough week... I mentioned earlier that I found little bits of one of my chickens (I was unsure at the time, because I didn't think I was missing a chicken, but now I'm pretty sure it was a buckeye hen and I just can't count...) scattered around my yard and I have NO idea what happened (hawk or raccoon... something that got into the run, because they've been confined due to the snow). Then I went out to gather eggs this afternoon and my Lemon Orp (named Lemon... we're not real original here) was laying dead on the coop floor. NO indication there was anything wrong with her before, except for the fact that she actually let me pet her earlier today while she was in the nest box (she usually will peck me and growl at me).

And these things tend to happen in threes... apparently here they also tend to happen in the spring as soon as the ground thaws. Last spring it was my two cats (poor things, got up in my husband's pickup undercarriage) and my black frizzle, all over two weeks. So now who's the third one going to be? Spring is supposed to be about babies and new life, not death!

Looking at the positive side- at least it happens when the ground isn't frozen. I have no idea what I'd do if I had a chicken die when the ground was frozen. I'm sure I'll have to deal with that someday!

Did you do a necropsy and find out why she died?

 

[countrygirl74]

I have raspberry bushes that tend to be a little invasive or else I don't keep up to date with dividing and conquering. They multiply with runners underground. The original 3 bushes were planted 5-7 years ago and now I have hundreds. They are very sweet and delicious and when I do keep them divided the berries are quite large. I've never used any chemicals on them but picked Japanese beetles by hand. I live in NY but don't know if I can send them across state lines.

I'm glad someone posted about raspberries - I have a question! I have one for the first time and I didn't realize that they multiplied with runners until they started popping up everywhere the other day. How many should I let come up? Do I dig the others out? Also, would it be safe for me to transplant the main stalk and all the runners at this time? Now that I know they don't quite do the same thing as my blackberries and grapes, I would prefer to move it to a different area... thanks for any advice!

Why do you think we're here?

Whoa...not only do I get HOGS, but I also get a whole choir...and TWICE!

Happy Birthday!!

Welcome new folks!

Happy Birthday, LM!! I would sing but I can't find the iPhone anywhere to record a video.

There are so many things I wanted to reply on but I must have hit the "Multi" button too many times again and none of them came through - LOL.

I seem to have strep throat (just because life can never be interesting enough) and my little one had another x-ray of her lungs this morning... and the pneumonia is WORSE! Unbelievable, really.

So my other 2 kids and I spent a few hours out sitting in the grass covered in chickens. Best stress reliever EVER! (Just remind my lily-white behind next time to put on some sun screen!)
I'm sick and frustrated and worried about my youngest, but at least I have chickens.

So sorry to hear about all the sickness but glad to hear you are relaxing with the girls...

Sunscreen in April?! So jealous!

I had to put it on the other day here too!! It didn't really work as well as I had hoped - I didn't get sunburned but I did get a darn farmer's tan from my t-shirt. Now I have light shoulders from no sun all winter and really brown arms -

Oh, and I meant to tell you aoxa that I got my taxes done - YAY! And no, I don't owe. I had to pay a ton out one year and fixed that immediately. I just hate getting everything together to make sure it's good for my tax guy. He loves me though - I do most of the work; everything is completely organized and typed out for him - all he has to do is input the info and figure a few things.

He had his girl friend duck hiding in the brush near him. I was up at the house peering through the sunroom.

My yard is one big giant puddle, which is a dream land for the ducks!

Also took some pictures of a wild male pheasant hanging around. He sure is beautiful!



and than there is the baby bunnies my Daisy Mae had this weekend. This weekend was full of new life! 19/21 chicks hatched and 5 baby bunnies. Duck eggs - well one is pipped. Hope there is more than that.. I'm nervous since they weren't turned for more than 2 weeks. The RIR eggs didn't mind the 1.5 weeks of not being turned.

So cute!!!


Well, off to read about cornish x because my sister picked up a bunch today and asked if we could help process them. I skipped past all the info as I haven't been needing to deal with this and now here I am looking for it all!

 

[lalaland]

country girl - raspberries bear fruit on second year canes (canes just mean the branch/stick that the leaves and fruit come from), that means the third year the cane is dead - and can be pruned to the ground. You can dig and transplant the new canes that come up in the pathway, or outside the bed - usually the roots are more on the lateral part (think a capital L ) and if you are just yanking on it, you can actually yank up the plant from which it sprung. So you need the suckers or you won't have berries, since they don't reallly produce much or at all on old canes.

So usually you won't get fruit from the suckers the first year, but will the second.

Not sure what kind of raspberry you have - differences are in color of fruit and when the fruit ripens - but in general they are pretty darned hardy and you can dig and plant somewhere else any time. Might be better to do it before they bloom, or after you've picked the berries. Keep them watered well when you transplant since they don't have such a great root system.

Now I am basing this on raspberries in MN, no telling if you have some kind of new raspberry in AZ!

 

[aoxa]

Nice hatch Justine

Beautiful German Hampshires..they are nice and fat!

All my Orps hatched..I had two BCM hatch..shoot

My Muscovy hen has some ducklings..they hatched today..not sure ho many she has..she only had 4 eggs. So it will be a small clutch.

Well I hope the two you hatched are girls. You can make some olive eggers with your Ameraucanas!

Duck looks right at home, doesn't he?

Yes he is right at home. He's absolutely beautiful too, wish I could get close enough for a really good picture. His girlfriend is quite pretty herself as well. Always the same two in our yard.

Oh, and I meant to tell you aoxa that I got my taxes done - YAY! And no, I don't owe. I had to pay a ton out one year and fixed that immediately. I just hate getting everything together to make sure it's good for my tax guy. He loves me though - I do most of the work; everything is completely organized and typed out for him - all he has to do is input the info and figure a few things.
So cute!!!


Well, off to read about cornish x because my sister picked up a bunch today and asked if we could help process them. I skipped past all the info as I haven't been needing to deal with this and now here I am looking for it all!

I love clients like you too. There are only a few that make it easy for us, and I express my gratitude to those who do

I let the chickens free range today without supervision. They seem to know when to run and take cover - which is anytime a bird bigger than a dove passes overhead. The 3 roosters are always warning. The oldest is 19 weeks old now, and she is the size of a 4 week old standard chick. I can not imagine eggs coming out of her. She is so tiny! She's supposed to be tiny, but seeing her with all the big ones makes her look even smaller.

 

[gevshiba]

A few thoughts:
When chicks are young it can be a problem to let this stuff go for more than a few hours. Some can have lasting effects of illness and might be life long. Un-thriftyness, swollen crusty eyes, are not normal. It could become an infection and pass to the rest of the chicks. It might be this chick needs something else. An empty crop is a sign of suffering, illness, and starving. No chick should ever have an empty crop except in the morning.New chicks do better with fresh shavings sprinkled in daily. They constantly poop and it should be covered daily with fresh. You need to decide to cull or get this chick well and not let it suffer anymore. It sounds like he is starting with cocci.
Did you do a necropsy and find out why she died?

I was still keeping paper towels down because it was easier to clean. I added shavings last week to freshen things up. I ran out of paper towels yesterday, so put in more shavings. I took out a bunch when they spilled the water. I thought the chick injured the eye when I tried to use one of those chick feeders that have the holes they peck out of. I only used it the one time because I thought someone was going to get hurt. I spotted the eye the next day.

Right now he's up eating, or trying to. I gave him a drop of olive oil. His crop isn't totally empty, but soft and squishy. Looks like the other chicks have been pecking his comb, as it's bloody this morning. I think I'll bring up a small dog crate and seperate him for some extra TLC and get him away from the others. If he doesn't show some improvement soon, I'll cull him. Thanks for the advise.

 

[brandislee]

A few thoughts:
When chicks are young it can be a problem to let this stuff go for more than a few hours. Some can have lasting effects of illness and might be life long. Un-thriftyness, swollen crusty eyes, are not normal. It could become an infection and pass to the rest of the chicks. It might be this chick needs something else. An empty crop is a sign of suffering, illness, and starving. No chick should ever have an empty crop except in the morning.New chicks do better with fresh shavings sprinkled in daily. They constantly poop and it should be covered daily with fresh. You need to decide to cull or get this chick well and not let it suffer anymore. It sounds like he is starting with cocci.
Did you do a necropsy and find out why she died?

I didn't do a necropsy... I thought about it, but I don't know what I'm looking for, and it's still pretty difficult for me to even handle dead animals still (I'm working on it- I didn't even ask my husband to help me yesterday as much as I wanted to). For the future, how do you know what to look for in a necropsy- is there like a website or a book I can buy with pictures I can compare to? My seriously uneducated guess would be a laying issue, except that most of those have symptoms beforehand, right? Maybe I just missed them, but since the weather's been nice I've been spending a lot more time out there. Maybe I missed it because these past few days have been more miserable, so I've been rushing inside, or because I have chicks in the brooder so I've been spending more time with them and less with the adults... I don't know.

 

[aoxa]

I didn't do a necropsy... I thought about it, but I don't know what I'm looking for, and it's still pretty difficult for me to even handle dead animals still (I'm working on it- I didn't even ask my husband to help me yesterday as much as I wanted to). For the future, how do you know what to look for in a necropsy- is there like a website or a book I can buy with pictures I can compare to? My seriously uneducated guess would be a laying issue, except that most of those have symptoms beforehand, right? Maybe I just missed them, but since the weather's been nice I've been spending a lot more time out there. Maybe I missed it because these past few days have been more miserable, so I've been rushing inside, or because I have chicks in the brooder so I've been spending more time with them and less with the adults... I don't know.

When you last saw her, was it in the nest box? She could have been egg bound. But unless they are up and walking around it's hard to notice. Especially if they are nesting. It can often be mistaken for broodiness (long periods in nesting box). I always move a hen from a nest if she's been there a while and I suspect broodiness. If she is broody she will walk around all puffed up clucking and screaming at any boy (or girl) who comes near. She will also eat and drink and let out a giant broody poop. An egg bound hen will not poop like a broody hen. An egg bound hen may or may not be puffed up, and she will struggle to poop. If the egg is obstructed, she will not be able to do so, and often can prolapse. If the egg can be passed unbroken she should recover. Unfortunately if the egg breaks, she can and usually will develop an infection. I have had a hen die from this, even though I thought I got everything out. She was looking better and than she just died.

You can do an exam on your hen by just feeling for an egg in her abdomen - but best chances at knowing what is wrong is to open her up. Take pictures and send to Delisha, Mumsy or post here. We can all try to help you guess.

I know how you feel. I had a hard time imagining opening up a bird that was a pet. Unless I know for sure, I will do a necropsy on the next one.

 

[BlueMouse]

Too many pretty pictures to quote them all, loving all the new chicks, and Elvis is great, "Frostbit" had me laughing. Also, interesting to know the actual name of that plant that I uproot out of my vegetable garden yearly.... It sure has pretty purple flowers. I just don't want it in the garden beds, lol.

These little piggies couldn't wait for me to dish out the FF, so they escaped the dog crate, jumped up on the bucket and helped themselves!

 

[delisha]

Quote: I understand that necropsys are difficult. It still makes me queezy on a special bird. It is necessary and important and I can't stress this enough. To help prevent unnecessary deaths, and learn about your chickens this is the first tool. Learn your birds. Make yourself do it. It is for the survival of your flock. There are tons of posted pictures on this thread of necropsys and butchering. I would be delighted to walk you or anyone threw a necropsy on the phone at anytime I am home. Just pm me. If you know why your birds die..the next time you have more knowledge to prevent the same thing happening again over and over and the knowledge reduced the frustration about deaths. Chickens should be a joy not a fear of walking into your coop and wondering if you will have another dead bird.
There are things you can do once you know and understand how a chicken works inside. You can't do that unless you see it and understand it. Death is part of life. Chickens do die. I just prefer they end up on my plate and i know they are healthy and did not suffer. I am sure most feel the same. I am now raising silkies and I know I am going to struggle with the black flesh and bones. I will have to make myself butchering them and do necropsys. To me they do not look like a chicken, they look like a little fuzzy cat. It will be creepy, but I know I have to do it.

Too many pretty pictures to quote them all, loving all the new chicks, and Elvis is great, "Frostbit" had me laughing. Also, interesting to know the actual name of that plant that I uproot out of my vegetable garden yearly.... It sure has pretty purple flowers. I just don't want it in the garden beds, lol.

These little piggies couldn't wait for me to dish out the FF, so they escaped the dog crate, jumped up on the bucket and helped themselves!

This is just too cute!!

 

[delisha]

OMG it is 50 degrees outside!!!!!