The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

I think it could be mites, but likely just sticky bottoms. My BR and BO's all have poo on the rear feathers all the time, they are super fluffy. Same with the Silkies. Some just always have poo on them. Now if it is running out of them like a slow faucet, then you have an issue(vent gleet)

I have never seen mites or lice on them. Its not running out just messy bottoms.

I am going to stop on the way home for some calf manna & if the sun is still out clean up their bottoms again. It will take me a little longer to get the corn out of their feed since I mixed it all together in a big tub

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
I have just had to resort to trimming feathers around the "escape" hatch. It helps a little.

 

[lalaland]

chicken mystery:
4 year old BO hanging in nest box and not coming out of coop. Last week, had the mystery death of an apparently healthy mutt hen, who wasn't looking good on day one and died overnight on the roost.

So, no wating on the BO. Pulled her out, she had egg yolk on her face, messy bottom. Gave her an epsom salt bath. Not sure if she could have had lice as it seemed like there were little bumps of goop at the base of her tail feathers . Crop pretty much empty, but it was early morning. Skin on belly bright red. Dusted her rear. Put her back in the coop while I got a dog kennel ready for her.

Went to coop to get her, she was back in the nest box, with an egg. Not sure if it was hers or not. Picked her up, her entire belly had sopping wet feathers. Now, I know she was perfectly dry before I put her out there just 15 mn earlier.

She's in the kennel, not eating but drinking large quantities of water. (1/2 pint in 20 mn)

One very watery clear poop with a little white urate in it. One very watery dark brown poop. Her back end feathers are also very wet.

Very red comb.

I'll try an internal epsom salt dose. I have no idea what is up with her. Any ideas?

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Delisha I know your busy so I dont expect an answer right away.

I was looking on line for the Calf manna to make sure TSC carries it and I noticed the 2nd ingredient was corn. Should I try the calf manna first & if there is no improvement then remove all corn products? I see the 1st ingredient in the poultry conditioner is corn :/ But it did increase the weight in the 2 hens that were smaller so that their keel bone is now not so pronounced. And everyone has nice red combs & wattles.

They have been getting corn since I got them. It comes in the scratch I add to their FF. And like I mentioned before I didnt notice the messy butts till around they started laying.

Again thank you for your advice

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote:
I have just had to resort to trimming feathers around the "escape" hatch. It helps a little.
I might just end up doing that.....more annoying then anything. Thankfully its not causing irritation to their vent areas.

 

[countrygirl74]

Nothing like a 5am wake up call from the post office. The ducks are here and I could hear the peeping over the phone. Got the lamp on and the fresh water ready, I hope they all made it, it's been cold.

Reminds me of this sign:

I think I just may make one myself.

X2

 

[jockeyeba]

So are you saying you like the meat better on the hair sheep? 

I'm looking at boer goats and hair sheep for meat.  I just heard of hair sheep this year so I know very little.  Someone told me that they would "browse" like a goat rather than just needing grass pasture so I have been trying to get as much info on them as possible!  Anything you can tell me would be great.  (You could pm...)  I don't know about Painted Desert - just heard of the Katahdan.

Sheep graze, goats browse. 

Yes...but I was told that HAIR SHEEP also browse...which is what got my curiosity up!

Hair sheep do alot of "browsing",lol we have to keep our trees blocked off or they strip the leaves & will also get the bark. Maybe wool sheep are more grazers then browsers. We've found ours like to eat weeds better then actual grass......it is true goats are more people friendly but also more destructive.

 

[Mumsy]

Okay...so it's ONLY BARLEY AND OATS that are supposed to be the issue so..none of either of those in the scratch and your oats certainly don't go over that percentage.

So...just wondering and racking my brain to see if I can think of anything...

I know that GMO grains can cause reactions like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) in people.... If the feed and grains are regular feed (which would be GMO grain items), I wonder if they are having some kind of reaction to the GMO items? (Sometimes GMO grains can cause "allergic" reactions in people and it seems that animals avoid them altogether if given the choice.)

Now...I have no idea if that's what your experiencing...just thinking out loud here.

Delisha or Mumsy - Do you have any thoughts on what might be causing this??

I had some chicks get a problem when I went over board with powdered cayenne in the chick starter FF. I lessened the amount and the problem cleared up. I figured some chickens had less tolerance for the high dose than others.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Hmm I only add the cayenne flakes about once a month or so and they have the problem when not eating them as well. Hmmm make me wonder if it might be the garlic tho which is usually in every batch. I also add basil to. Enough of both so you can see it in the batch but its not like its loaded in every feeding they get. Hmmmmm

 

[countrygirl74]

I posted this on the silkie thread, but wanted to see what you guys thought too since a lot of you have experience with silkies. "Cloud" is my only silkie hen in my current flock so I am just hoping there's nothing wrong with her...

I have a question about my little white silkie's behavior - I think she's trying to go broody. She is about 24 weeks old and started laying for me at around 20 weeks. She's a pretty good little layer and only has given me one softshell so far.
Anyway, when I went to put them up for the night last night, she was in her favorite nesting box instead of the roost like usual. She normally roosts with all the big girls. I thought that was really strange, but I just left her there and when I went out in the morning, she was still there. I found a couple eggs under her as she's laying in the favorite nesting area of all the girls, and took them away. She didn't make any noise at me, but she did fluff her feathers.
This went on all day - somehow, the other girls would get in there and lay but I would have to collect them from underneath her. Every time I grabbed another egg or two, she would fluff up at me, but I would take her out of the box/coop and put her on the ground in the run. She would then get a drink, scratch around for a minute or two, eat minimally, but eventually go right back into the coop. I think I removed her from the box and collected eggs (one was hers) 4-5 different times today. Then again tonight, when I went to make sure they were all in bed, she was back in the nesting box instead of the roost... any thoughts? Any advice?

The above was posted yesterday - when I went out again this morning she was in the nest again - no eggs under her, but she might be getting to ready to lay for the day... I took her out anyway and put her on the ground. She joined the flock scratching through some of the table scraps I threw out this morning, got a drink, and then was back in the coop within a few minutes. She's such a tiny little thing - I just worry that she's not really eating much. The only other thing I noticed is that she seems to be a little more "crabby" with the other girls. She's half their size but is pecking at them to stay away from her.