The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Sally8]

I just moved my chicks around also. Went from 4 pens to 3. Some are only 3 - 4 weeks old, pretty feathered out but they are in a coop with a light. Should be ok. The bigger ones showed some interest but no fighting. My bigger ones are only a few weeks older than the one's I just put out. Not adults yet.
My super blue egg layers (EE's) seem to have odd poorly feathers. Maybe it's just because they are mostly white. I moved half of them to the bigger pen and left half in the porch pen. I've been noticing this for a while. Going to keep a serious eye on them. It's odd enough that I was going to share some as I didn't need 6 but not so sure now.
A funny story about the creek. When we run the pump and the screen becomes dislodged, a few smaller fish will get sucked through the pipe. When one does, the chickens go nuts. One will grab it and run with everyone following. Then, they all wait around the end of the pipe for another one to come through tilting their heads one way then another watching the water.
NO DUCKS!

My heart breaks when I see such tragedy of the marathon played over and over. It's a very sad day.

 

[hotrodflash]

i usually pen up the little ones when they first are out to keep them safe from the big girls - a little chicken wire enclosure - they don't need all that huge of an area when they are little, and that way you can make sure they are near water and have shade if it is hot out - although it is hard for me to imagine it is hot outside anywhere! you are right to worry, the older hens will attack. I've seen hens run a fair distance to jump on little "stranger" pullets, but have also had them uninterested in the littles as long as the littles aren't nearby.

84 degrees right now in East Texas and was closed to 90 earlier today. Warm for April for us. Low of 37 degrees for Friday night, so weather can't make up its mind what it wants to do.

 

[delisha]

I loved our weather today..it was 50 all day..the sun even peeked out for a short time.. I cleaned out one side of the coop and I will be putting my Orp chicks on that side in the next week.
The snow is all melted and my yard is a mess..its really weird about all the stuff i had buried in the snow. I must have found a dozen food dishes.

 

[armorfirelady]

I just moved my chicks around also. Went from 4 pens to 3. Some are only 3 - 4 weeks old, pretty feathered out but they are in a coop with a light. Should be ok. The bigger ones showed some interest but no fighting. My bigger ones are only a few weeks older than the one's I just put out. Not adults yet.
My super blue egg layers (EE's) seem to have odd poorly feathers. Maybe it's just because they are mostly white. I moved half of them to the bigger pen and left half in the porch pen. I've been noticing this for a while. Going to keep a serious eye on them. It's odd enough that I was going to share some as I didn't need 6 but not so sure now.
A funny story about the creek. When we run the pump and the screen becomes dislodged, a few smaller fish will get sucked through the pipe. When one does, the chickens go nuts. One will grab it and run with everyone following. Then, they all wait around the end of the pipe for another one to come through tilting their heads one way then another watching the water.
NO DUCKS!

My heart breaks when I see such tragedy of the marathon played over and over. It's a very sad day.

Do you use FF for your pullets? And if so could that be the reason for the odd feathering? I've read that those who feed chicks FF that they feather out slowly. Or maybe you are getting more sizzles?

What a great pic/movie that would be to see the chickens waiting for another fish to pop out.

If I had a creek like that I would def have ducks. Heck I would have them now if I could. lol

 

[Bulldogma]

OK - so while I was at Walmart today I found some of those round chip & dip trays on clearance. Heavy duty plastic and the dip part is divided in 2 sections... so I bought 3. Got them home, took them out of the bag and my 18-year-old son walks over and says, "Cool chicken feeders, mom!" Not 5 minutes later my 9-year-old daughter walks into the kitchen and says, "Oh! New chicken feeders!"

I'm raising my kids right! LOL!

My youngest is still in the hospital and her lungs are still sounding nasty. She seems to be feeling a bit better, though. She was awake for about 6 hours today which is an improvement from the last few days!

She was in 2ce last year with viral pneumonia, at which time we became good friends with the head pediatrician of the PICU. Here was our FaceBook conversation from this evening:

Bulldogma - I hope things are looking better today for your daughter. Praying that she is either home or will be very soon.

Thanks to everyone who has sent well-wishes! It means so much to me! Kiddo is still at the hospital.

HUGE score at TSC - went to get 6 cornish rock x; they wanted to get rid of them,, so they sold them to me for a dollar... all 15 of them... yes, thats right 15...!! what in the world was I thinking......

Time to put the big girl boots on and figure ot how to do this.....

Thanks everyone for your input

Ooooooo! What a GREAT deal!


Welcome - and let us know how that rain barrel works out!!

On the henbit plants, I just learned that was their name this last week or two, when I first posted the pics to another thread, I thought they were clover and labeled them as such. Then a fellow byc'er let me know what they really were. I looked them up and found out they were edible, so I was going to try them, but then read further that they tasted like grass and figured I wasn't that hungry. lol

Thanks for the great giggle!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Maybe you could put a couple of goldfish in there to keep it clean and free of larvae. Wonder if there would be enough oxygen for them to live?

My rain barrel breeds mosquitos so fast. We finally bypassed the rain barrel and put a submersible pump in the small creek out back. When it starts to dry up we have to dig a little deeper and dam it up. I leave the rain barrel up but have to make sure I empty it every couple of days. It sits on the edge of the garden behind the garage. Usually, it's turned over to collect water lol

 

[Eggcessive]

Bulldogma, sorry that your kiddo is still in the hospital. I was a PICU nurse for many years, and it is tough what you are all going through. Premies seem to have tough time especially if they have any chronic problems. I have twin grandsons who were 1 and 2 lb. premies, and were on vents for a long time. They are 8 now, and lungs are doing well, but 1 has C.P. which has affected his motor skills.

 

[BlueMouse]

I figure what with the depressing news today we could all use a smile right? So here's some fuzzy but cute chicken pictures....



DH with the 6 week old EE chick, and her friend, the bantam (maybe cochin?) fluffy foot. They like him. I like him too.

He refers to both of them as "sweetie"



Fluffy feet. I am SO hoping that I'm right and it's a she. I really want to keep her.



the new EE pullet. I think she's going to be really pretty. I'm hoping that since she has grey legs we'll have a good chance of getting blue eggs from her.

 

[Bulldogma]

Bulldogma, sorry that your kiddo is still in the hospital. I was a PICU nurse for many years, and it is tough what you are all going through. Premies seem to have tough time especially if they have any chronic problems. I have twin grandsons who were 1 and 2 lb. premies, and were on vents for a long time. They are 8 now, and lungs are doing well, but 1 has C.P. which has affected his motor skills.

Eggcessive,
NICU and PICU nurses are the best! We still keep up with one of Danika's NICU nurses back in TX. My kiddo has a knack of making friends everywhere she goes - LOL!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Our daytime highs this week range from mid 60's to low 80's. Nighttime temps range from 49° to 63°.

Our chicks are 5 weeks old now. At what point can I put them out for good? There will not be a heat lamp outside.

If they have their feathers and as long as the temperature at night is not drastically different from their current brooder temps, they should be fine now.

Quote: I had read that the really dark shells were hard to candle. I'm just practicing incubating with production red eggs till I get the hang of it. right now my incubator is really dependent on the room temperature. With it being spring our house temp is changing during the night. It is one of the reasons I'm looking at the genesis. I'm hoping the genesis would not require as many temperature adjustments. My children like to do as mom. So besides trying to stay on top of checking the temp in the incubator I have to make sure the children are not touching the tiny dial.

Was this the article you were looking for on the incubators?

yes thanks so much

Quote: does the peep thing apply to all chicks or just the BCM ones?