The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[brandislee]

NECROPSY PICS _ COVER YOUR EYES!!!!










To start with, this was my first attempt - haven't butchered a chicken before, and haven't even cut one up for cooking.





after I cut away the fat layer:




below is a fat-encased gizzard




Because she was first just passing watery clear liquid with a little white urate, I was worried she had a blocked gizzard. After some oil, she passed small green poops - pencil thickness.

then wouldn't eat but would drink lots of water
then lethargic, then death.

Her gizzard was solid packed with very tough bristly fiber. Does that mean it was blocked? I picked at it before the pic below.






no more pics but nothing obvious to me was wrong with heart, liver, etc. cats found a way to escape and interfered with necropsy plus I was at my limit, ....will do better next time.

yuck.

You're my hero! I have butchered before, and I still chickened out of doing a necropsy. Hopefully you've inspired me to do it the next time I need to!

 

[lalaland]

lala - how old did you say this girl was?

I'm waiting to hear from Delisha and others on what they have to say after seeing the photos.

she was 4, starting on 5.

 

[lalaland]

Lala, I am not an expert at chicken insides but that is A LOT of fat, way more then I have ever seen in any of the ones I've butchered, even the older (relatively speaking ) girls. Are you sure it was fat and not geletanized egg yolk? What did the ovary look like?

huh. You know, It was way more yellow than some of the fat I've seen on chickens. I would say most of it was fat consistency. There was some, however, that was more pasty if that makes sense, and that could have been gelantized egg yolk, I guess.

And, I didn't get to the ovary. Picture this: me pretty grossed out. lots of feathers because I very stupidly did not follow the first instruction: wet down the feathers!!. one cat, one kitten escaping lockdown (they can move the pocket doors in the bedroom where they were supposedly locked up) and every few minutes a cat or kitten leaping into the middle of the carcass. So I cut it short before I identified the ovaries.

I forgot to say that the crop was flaccid, grey watery content - I would have thought it would have been emptier but I have nothing for comparison. Again, as I am worried about the possiblity of gizzard blockage.

She was a buff orp, and she seemed to be a typical bo in that she always ate, and ate first and longer than any other chicken.

 

[Kassaundra]

I thought it was to yellow too, but didn't post it b/c color on the computer screen from a photo can be so wrong. The egg yolk is all fat so if it were broken egg yolk in her abd it would have a fatty feel to it. Again no expert here, but w/ her age and the look of the abundant yellow stuff free in her abd cavity I would suspect more of an egg laying problem, one or more broke and were in her abd setting up infection which would lead to sepsis, and she would feel bad so not interested in eating.

 

[Kassaundra]

huh. You know, It was way more yellow than some of the fat I've seen on chickens. I would say most of it was fat consistency. There was some, however, that was more pasty if that makes sense, and that could have been gelantized egg yolk, I guess.

And, I didn't get to the ovary. Picture this: me pretty grossed out. lots of feathers because I very stupidly did not follow the first instruction: wet down the feathers!!. one cat, one kitten escaping lockdown (they can move the pocket doors in the bedroom where they were supposedly locked up) and every few minutes a cat or kitten leaping into the middle of the carcass. So I cut it short before I identified the ovaries.

I forgot to say that the crop was flaccid, grey watery content - I would have thought it would have been emptier but I have nothing for comparison. Again, as I am worried about the possiblity of gizzard blockage.

She was a buff orp, and she seemed to be a typical bo in that she always ate, and ate first and longer than any other chicken.

Including right before her death???

 

[lalaland]

I can't say I specifically saw her eating in the week or so before she became ill. Up to a few days ago, she would be out of the coop in the first small group, looking for food - and often feeding after others were done and had moved on.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Oh MY !!!!! So many things you could do with this. I def think you could paint the outside like BDM did to make it fit in with your surroundings. I like barn red as a color lol You could make shutters for outside to make it look more like a barn. You could have an isolation/broody area....one end as the coop with so much room. A hospital room where the sink & stove is.....or make the bathroom into an isoaltion area.......so many ideas !!!! So much ventilation with all those windows and I bet it has a fan or 2 in there. And I def think you could make an area for the sheep as well. The bedroom doorways are usually about the same size as a screen door or you can easily make one or a gate. Use some of those upper cabinets for nesting boxes.....storage for misc chicken items.

And you could store your feed, hay, etc in there. Everything in one place......I am so jeaslous. That is an AWESOME find !!!

 

[pigeonguy]

So... My new hen will NOT lay in the nextbox. Nestbox has two fake eggs in it, and is in a pretty quiet private spot, but she keeps making a nest in the corner. I keep kicking her nest around and putting stuff on top of it, and she just makes a new nest as close to the original location as possible.

I only have one nest box, but I thought that should be plenty for just two hens. should i prioritize adding more nestboxes?? I had thought about taking her OUT of her nest and putting her IN the nestbox if I see her, but don't want to unduly frighten her. She's pretty flighty as is....

Put a nest box on the floor and get her use to it and then move it up a little at a time till it is at the height you want and then out any where you want and see if she will follow it.
Gonna take some time.

 

[pigeonguy]

Thanks!!!! That's just what I wanted to see.

Thanks to BDM and you, I'm right now looking at an old horse trailer (probably get to see it tomorrow) AND an old travel trailer that has 2 exterior doors and is really long.

I never thought of the travel trailer but someone answered my craigs list ad with the trailer. Interesting thing about it is that it has the sink and stove that I COULD put a hose to and a propane tank if I ever needed to work on anything and wanted to do it out there.

But..I think a horse trailer would be much nicer for neighbors to have to look at as it's more expected in a "farm" setup. Sometimes old travel trailers can look kind-of nasty. The one we're looking at looks good on the exterior from what I can tell on the photos...wonder what a travel trailer would look like re-painted?

I think a travel trailer will be fine. How big is it.

 

[pigeonguy]

Okay...take a look at the photos of the travel trailer...I haven't seen it in person, only these photos. Give me some ideas on how to make it look good on the outside... And - it's very long-34'! May not be too easy to maneuver around!

I was thinking I could use one part of it for the meat goats or sheep...they'd only be around for 6-7 mos. and only need shelter from weather.





They guy was beginning to gut it as he was going to use it as a "toy hauler".

holy d// I love it. From the pics it already looks nice on the outside. But then maybe I just have to much redneck hillbilly in me.