The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[pigeonguy]

about metal waterers - I've used galvinzed metal waterers in the warm months for more than a decade and a half and never had any problems . RIght now, given it is still winter (more snow tonight and below freezing, but warming up tomorrow) , I'm using the plastic inserts in heated water bowls. And the last couple of years have had glass so I can use acv, but still have used the metal waterers in parts of the run so that there is always multiple water sources.

having trouble seeing the metal waterers as a health problem.

I was thinking ACV

 

[Leahs Mom]

Leahs Mom, about the mason jar waterers tipping over:

I usually try to stablize them with bungee cords - putting the waterer in a corner, with the cord securing the jar.

When I've had too many chicks to use a corner, I've rigged up a loop of wire that goes over the mason jar about midway, and with duct tape or packing tape or string or soemthing, is fastened to the sides of the brooder. It keeps it from tipping over. But, at a certain point, they try roosting on the tape/string.....its a challenge, isn't it?

Great idea on the bungee cords! I had left the canning jar waterer in there for longer than I needed to (they have the cup waterers on the bucket and they learned how to use them a long time ago). I think the jar waterer got knocked over when they were ripping around in there trying to get out of the way of the adults.

That's one of the main reasons I like those cup waterers so much. They don't spill and get the litter stinky - and they are so small they're easy to clean if they get anything in them. I felt the little ones needed to have the jar waterers while they were little and especially since it was winter when they hatched, I left the jars out longer than needed as I wanted to be sure they knew how to work them which they learned how to do quite young. But I also knew there was more possibility that the cups may freeze while I was away at work and didn't want the little ones to go without water for any length of time.

 

[countrygirl74]

This is so helpful! Like this option over buying another feeder

So, I'm kinda feeling like a looser chicken mom right now. I woke up at 4am & got to thinking about something that was posted yesterday about pasty butt due to temps in the brooder being to high. I've had a hard time regulating the heat because of my brooder's height & where the lid is positioned...

Anyway, heat issue aside, after my post about them looking raggedy from the fermented feed getting on them - I remembered seeing some runny poop still on one chick's bottom last night.

So, I went out to check & sure enough - 4 of my 5 Doms & 1 of my 10 BOs had it. I quickly found a thread here on BYC with some suggestions - brought the 5 to the house & ran a stream of warm water over each of their lil hinneys to help get the poo off & then applied a mixture of coconut jojoba oils before returning them to the brooding box.

Will be adding a "sand box" today & also giving them some hard boiled eggs & yogurt as a further preventative (already have ACV in their water & a sod plug in with them).

Our 8 year old son is so excited about the chicks getting a "sand box". He is also the one that suggested we sing them a lullaby every night & insists on having them all named. So far we have Buttercup (which could be any 1 of the female BOs) but told him we'll have to wait on the Doms because they're straight-run, ha!

This goes without saying but one of the reasons I've been excited about getting chickens is for the kids. I'm a firm believer that pets are essential to teaching responsibility & life lessons. We have 4 sons (15, 13, 8 & 6) - our older boys & their Dad like to joke around about chicken dinners but I can't help but think they will still derive some enjoyment from us having chickens in other ways as well! Also, our youngest son is a Downy & I'm especially looking forward to him learning some essential life skills through our newly acquired farm animals!

Sorry about the lengthy post but thanks for letting me ramble! Blessed day to you all!

I am pretty sure all of us have felt like a "loser chicken owner" at one point or another. My instance was this week's hen who had a gaping wound on her side that had to have been there for days before I found it!

We just live and learn...

Breaking news dot dot dot....may babies did figure it out. For the past two nights I have been playing Mama hen doing my usual (don't laugh now...or not so loud I can hear it all the way over the internet) cheap cheap cheap and they come running to me. I tap tap tap on with food all the way up the ramp and they follow my fingers. Then they flap back to the ground arghhhh....but tonight....ahhhhh. I went out with a new tub of meal worms with the intent to do all of this finger tapping and cheap cheaping up the ramp to find my babies put themselves to bed like big girls. There my sweetie husband and I stood watching from the porch to make sure they did not come bak out as the automatic door closed for the night. He turned to me and said woman what have you done to me. I played basketball all over the world, seen and done it all and now look at me. Watching to make sure chickens stay in bed while the door closes. lol Now how is that for a sweetie of a hubby

My new babies are sleeping outside tonight for their first time. They range in age from about 4-7 weeks. It's only going down to about 40 at night now so we decided to let them tough it out. We did have to place them all in their little house when it got dark but they all went to sleep with each other in a nice big pile of pine shavings. I'm sure they'll be happy to wake up when the sun comes up and run around instead of waiting for me to put them out.

We got our first squatter today! Our lavender Orpington Sylvie squatted for the first time - hopefully she inspires the rest of the free loading flock to get with it, they are all 30 weeks old this weekend! Ahhhh - so excited!

Is it cold where you are, or is just that you have "later-laying" breeds? I would have gone crazy having to wait until 30 weeks! All mine started between 20 and 22 weeks. My silkie and my EE were the 2 first to lay. Then the RIR and BR's followed...

 

[lalaland]

Has anyone done the molasses flush before? It is generally when there is some kind of poisoning suspected (moldy grain, toxic weeds, chemicals). I have never needed it, but am trying it this am. No feed for 8 hours.

All surviving hens were ready to come outside, looked good, talked, responded, - can you tell I'm nervous and scrutinizing them? So not sure if I need to do the flush or not, but worst case they will have the squirts and will be hungry at 2 pm when the 8 hours is up. So

And no poison where the hay bales are stored, but good thinking.

On a side note, one of the kittens I adopted has allergies to something - poor coat, constant diarehheaa (ok I will learn to spell that one day). I've tried everything, vet has given up- pricey grain free food, probiotics, now they have a chicken free, grain free food but she hates it. I can tell you I don't have the will or time to go the make your own ground up meat food raw route .




The orange kitten, Mia, is just about a year old and the one with the poor coat etc.

And from two weeks ago when it seemed like spring might actually come:






and it is snowing this morning again.

lordy lordy mz clordy I'm sure a whiner this morning.

 

[Leahs Mom]

It froze here last night too but at least not snow like you're getting. I had removed all the heaters from the water and they all had a bit of ice on them. Was 20 degrees when I went out - suppose to get up to 55 today.

I don't have any experience w/molasses but maybe Del? And I'd be scrutinizing them all too!

 

[lalaland]

I was thinking ACV

oh, that makes sense!

 

[Elliemae 77]

My big English Orp hen didn't start laying until around 32 weeks. They are just slow to mature.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I use Fertrell (organic) Poultry Nutri-Balancer in my feed. I was on their website and saw they had a bunch of videos. They have natural fertilizer products too. I'm really grateful that I have several dealers in my area (Amish farm area helps)!

Anyhow...saw this video on their site from Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm. Thought someone else might be interested.

http://www.fertrell.com/video_polyface_dsl.html

 

[dcba flock]

Lala- sorry about your birds! Can be so stressful! Went through some sickness over the winter and am now rebuilding from zero only to spot last summers chicken stealing fox (or offspring of) playing only 100 feet from the barn! I don't think I'll be getting a lot of sleep this summer! Good luck!

 

[Bulldogma]

Hope everybody is having a great Sunday!

I made some updates to the Index page on the thing. If y'all have a chance, go check it out HERE. Now all the articles are organized and listed by title so (hopefully) folks can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Also - if anyone is interested in doing an article on a favorite breed or any other subject, please let me know! Articles can have a certain amount of opinion, but must be able to be backed up by research and facts.