The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

Hi Ialaland, I have a kitty that has allergies too.

Noodle, the Russian Blue kitty. Who was also a rescue.

Y'all with the cats and dogs with allergies might want to read up on the affects of the GMO items that are routinely in their foods. There is a lot of information out there. Here's just a single link but there is a lot of research and vets are beginning to speak out about it.

http://responsibletechnology.org/

I kind of get crazed with the american food system. It is sooo scary, and half the time people look at you like you are a lunatic if you say anything. - about chicken feed, about cat food, about people food -

Funny you mention that. I have been doing a little research as well since my 2 dogs have allergies and problems with ears. I found a local place that makes healthy food and no corn listed anywhere and I know most of the ingredients instead of like their current dog food which the first ingredient is corn & a bunch of chemicals I can't pronounce

. If it works for the dogs the cats will be switched over as well.


Ok here's a question for all of you who have gotten chicks/pullets. I know that they need to be in quarantine for 30 days & to put one of my hens in with them to make sure they don't get each other sick.

armorlady, I hope you tell us how your LAB making goes.

You know, I've never quarantined chicks. Hmmm.....I mean, have kept them separate from the big girls, but not biologically quarantined, more like chicken wire between the two.

 

[lalaland]

ok, the dead hen is off to the lab for necropsy. I asked them to also check the parasite load just out of curiousity.
so far today, all surviving hens still active, responsive, happy.

Except......10 more #^@*($ inches of snow coming. I don't think I can take this anymore!

 

[BlueMouse]

UGH I would cry if we had snow. I mean, it's possible. We've had snow in may before, but it's actually starting to look like SPRING in my corner of the world! we're only running the woodstove at night, and there's green out there! looks like some of my blackberry bushes that I planted, then abandoned last year (baby with colic = not any time for taking care of plants...) actually survived! at least three are budding out, which is great news. My fruit trees should come today or tomorrow, and i have tomatoes and veggies growing in flats in front of the sunny window in my studio. I'm getting excited! Now hopefully the cat will refrain from EATING any more seedlings... he ate an entire tray of leeks down to nubs.

I'm also cleaning out my canning shelves. I have a whole batch of tomato sauce with meat that went bitter after about a month (I have no idea why) I haven't wanted to throw it in the compost heap because I'm concerned about the critters it will attract. Also it means I will be unable to keep my dratted Dog out of the compost heap (hard enough already, he sure does love those tasty rotten veggies!

) Do you all think I could feed the chickens a cup or so of it once a week until it's gone? I hate to waste all that meat!! It's home canned from my own veggies, hasn't gone bad, just turned bitter on me.... So there's nothing "funky" in it.

as per dog food, we've gone to a grain free food for both the dog and cat. It is expensive, but they eat way less. The dog also gets leftovers, and a fresh egg every so often. They are both much healthier, beautiful glossy coats. Kitty is nine, and Griz is eight, and other than a touch of arthritis in Griz, no health problems. I simply will NOT feed anything that has "by products" listed on it. People sure do look at you like you're crazy! I think I'm going to freeze chicken feets and necks and feed those to the dog this winter (raw). they need raw meat, and those raw bones really contribute to good tooth health and overall wellbeing. I've started putting UP ACV in their water too. I think it has significantly decreased the odor in the cat box as well as the number of stinky farts from the darned dog.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I tried mealworms, really didn't like it at all ended up just feeding the colony out to the chickens. I had them for over a year never got enough to feed out had two colony crashes both were probably my fault I had one where a mouse got in the colony and ate the entire thing in one night (still had eggs and very young worms in the substrate) then the next time I didn't have enough ventilation (over correction from he whole rodent incident) and my colony become highly toxic ammonia environment. They don't take alot of time at all and don't require daily feeding usually more like weekly maybe twice a week. Other people seem to have success w/ the mealworms that is a very good place to start I guess, but if you can get over the ick factor there are others I would raise instead.

I raise dubias (south american tropical roaches) sooooo much easier and soooo much more bang for your buck. They are very easy too only requiring care a couple of times a week, the chickens LOVE them. I have streamlined my process and now my system is very easy care, way easier then the on line videos show.

I am starting a red wiggler bed (outside) and attempting to grow black soldier fly larva on chicken poop outside also, that one will be nearly hands off if it does like I'm hoping for. Just put more chicken poop in the buckets when I clean it out of the coop.

I tried mealworms too...but it would take a whole warehouse to make enough mealworms to make a dent in just what 6 chickens would eat if they could! It just felt like they were a "drop in the bucket" and I've decided not to do it anymore.

Tell us about your dubias. How do you keep them?

One thing I get concerned with is the possibility of releasing a bug into the environment that doesn't grow here natively. I know we're keeping them inside, but the possibility exists that they can get out so I am always a little conservative about what kinds of bugs I try to raise.

Thank you for the shout out about doing things naturally "like Mumsy" but I must add this caveat about where my natural chicken raising experience is coming from. I started reading the 'Gnarly' thread on BYC and learned about FF, wood ash for mites, and pumpkin and garlic for worm prevention and good over all health benefits. I have been following this thread for months now and learn something new every day I come on here. I only share when someone asks questions I feel I may have practical experience with or share my coop and flock progression.
I am sixty years old and had chickens or have been around chickens most of that time. I grew up on a working cattle farm adjacent to two commercial chicken operations owned by old Dutch farmers that had been using a huge old hundred year old domed dairy barn to raise white leghorn layers, replacement pullets for decades. As a small child I used to sneak into his barn and sit in the middle of 100,000 chicks and play with them. His attempt as bio-security didn't work at keeping me out of that barn. I learned at a very young age where store bought eggs and chicken meat came from and how it was raised and it wasn't pretty.
As a young adult I wanted to raise back yard flocks and did it the feed store hatchery way for a long time. I bought bags of commercial feed, hatchery chicks and all the poisons and concoctions feed stores push from their shelves. For a decade I was always having to replace hens with new hatchery chicks. Nothing but problems that decade. I gave up on chickens for a while. When two of my youngest children were interested in chickens, we started raising purebred bantam and large fowl rare and heritage breeds and bred and showed them for another decade. I was letting them free range by this time but still feeding out of a bag. I knew the feed store junk on the shelves was nearly worthless so started buying books and researching different methods of management and additives for health benefits this time around. It worked. My birds were healthier and were winning at small shows. I was still having problems with chickens getting sick and didn't practice good bio-security with my barn and flock. People were coming onto my property all the time to purchase eggs and birds. More birds started getting sick and dying and I knew it was getting out of control. I culled my entire flocks. Cleaned out the barn and stopped raising chickens for another decade.
A couple years ago I rescued an abandoned Production Red cockerel and brought him home as a pet. To make a long story short. He was infested with mites and near death when I went on line to find answers to help him. I knew from decades of experience the junk on the farm store shelves would not help him. I found the 'Gnarly' thread and the rest is history. In six months time I've gone from a life time of frustration with hatchery production birds, to one roo, and now sixty chickens. Everything I do now is from my gut instincts from experience and things I learn on this thread. I hope I have another decade of life with chickens doing things a more natural way. I found Catdance Farm, the breeder of fine Silkies in Washington State on this thread and Ron Fogle's heritage Rhode Island Reds on another. I never heard of BYC six months ago. It's changed everything I thought I knew about raising chickens. I'm very grateful.

Thank you for sharing that history overview! I know I've picked up bits and pieces of your story but never all in one place like that.

All of your previous experience is invaluable to us - in both what you learned NOT to do and what you learned TO do.

I'm so glad you're here with us and starting out with a new flock of kiddos!

Oh...in case anyone wants to read about the "gnarly" chickens that Mumsy is talking about, the whole story was taken from the beginning and put in a quick-to-read full version at this link called: Healing Story. Definitely worth reading!

Except......10 more #^@*($ inches of snow coming. I don't think I can take this anymore!

 

[Bulldogma]

Mumsy -
Thank you so much for sharing your own story with us!

Maybe this question belongs on the sfh thread but...here goes:

On your roos getting along well - are they all the same age or do you have different ages that do okay together? Just wondering if adding another roo that is younger would cause him to be attacked more.

My little roo is a "weanie" around the older girls. He's TERRIFIED of them. (But I should add that he is LARGER than they are already at 16 weeks.)

There will always be squabbles when introducing a new roo - it can take them a while to decide who is going to be "boss." When a cockerel grows up on a property with an existing roo, the transition tends to be a bit smoother with the only squabbles happening when the younger boy hits puberty. Usually the older roo will keep him in line and things rarely will get out of hand in this kind of scenario.

If a new roo comes from elsewhere, after quarantine they are best introduced with the new guy in a cage, and later while free ranging so that if things get nasty, it can turn into a running race and not end with someone getting cornered. Keeping the new roo in a separate bachelor's quarters at night for a few weeks might be helpful also. The problems mostly occur if they are in a confined space, IME. After a few weeks, things tend to settle down. And as with everything chicken, the more space they have, the less social issues will arise. Of course the hen/roo ration needs to be balanced no matter how much space there is, or the hens will become over-used and the roos might fight for breeding rights.

The SFH is a very smart breed. My guess is that they just figure out faster than some other breeds that fighting isn't as worthwhile as hunting for yummies in the grass. LOL!

bdm, I'm excited to hear that about swedish flower hen roos. SInce I'm getting straight run, you know I'll get roos, and maybe, just maybe will be able to keep one or two.

Are yours old enough to be acting like roos?

I have 3 mature roos on my property. They are currently separated into breeding groups, but never had issues when they were a single flock.

OMG thanks! This is awesome, I'm so going to start a reference notebook for all of this information so I can more easily remember it and pass it on to others!

During the summer my hens have full access to my herb garden, so I knew they were getting the good things they needed then when they needed them, but I never really thought about winter. I'm thinking about getting/making a hydroponic fish tank to grow fresh herbs all year... that would benefit all of us

Don't worry about the notebook - we try to get most of the good stuff on to The Thing. If you see something you think is great information and you want to be able to reference later, tell me or Leahs Mom, and we'll look into getting it into an article. In fact, that is the very reason The Thing was started. A lot of us were trying to start notebooks and such to keep this info handy... so I just started one for all of us - LOL!

See the Article Index tab for quick reference of most of the stuff we've covered.

Suggestions for articles are very, very welcome!

ok, the dead hen is off to the lab for necropsy. I asked them to also check the parasite load just out of curiousity.
so far today, all surviving hens still active, responsive, happy.

Except......10 more #^@*($ inches of snow coming. I don't think I can take this anymore!

On pins and needles to hear what the lab results are. Hoping it was just coincidence to have a cluster of losses as you did and nothing bad.
Sorry about your snow. I tried living in VT once for a few months... I couldn't do it. I'm not a snow person. My DH is, but he knows that southern VA is the furthest north I'll live - LOL!

 

[camilleathome]

So I had to add a second feeder for the chicks they are growing like weeds . Would anyone have any photos of homemade perches I could make for them? I think its time to offer one or two.

Also For those of you who also garden. What is your take on roundup?

My landlords father in law has a tiller and is a retired farmer/cattleman and said he would till our garden for us. He said if we wanted he could treat the ground with roundup which he prefered to do only for the first year and he didnt have any issues with weeds ever again. Now Im debating doing this because it is a chemical and we would like to try to be as organic as we can(Even though we are not using any organic seeds this year). I was reading that using a mix of mulching, letting the chickens into the garden on short trips and Carefully spraying vinegar on the weeds and just pulling some can be a more natural way of weeding. Suggestions and insight would be most welcome. This is our first fullblown garden .

 

[Leahs Mom]

Just got a coupon code for Treats for Chickens for Earth Day. 30% off site-wide until Wednesday. If anyone wants the code, PM me! (Looks like it's right on the home page on their site too, so you don't need to PM! If you buy something, let them know that I sent you and that you heard about them on Natural Chicken Keeping!


ETA: They have some great herbs for nest boxes!

(And they have a smaller size than the one that pops up in the purchase box...look down at the bottom and you can change the size!)

 

[Leahs Mom]

So I had to add a second feeder for the chicks they are growing like weeds . Would anyone have any photos of homemade perches I could make for them? I think its time to offer one or two.

Also For those of you who also garden. What is your take on roundup?

My landlords father in law has a tiller and is a retired farmer/cattleman and said he would till our garden for us. He said if we wanted he could treat the ground with roundup which he prefered to do only for the first year and he didnt have any issues with weeds ever again. Now Im debating doing this because it is a chemical and we would like to try to be as organic as we can(Even though we are not using any organic seeds this year). I was reading that using a mix of mulching, letting the chickens into the garden on short trips and Carefully spraying vinegar on the weeds and just pulling some can be a more natural way of weeding. Suggestions and insight would be most welcome. This is our first fullblown garden .

NO ROUNDUP!!!!!! It's VERY TOXIC (My opinion of course...based on lots of VERY TOXIC research!)

 

[cywiar merch]

X2 on that too...I try to find out what has been used for years - tried and true - rather than the fad stuff that comes and goes.

I think "feeding DE" is one of those "hear-say" things that got mixed up too. People used DE in feed to stop the weevils from hatching in stored grain - not to add anything to the chicken's diet nor to "kill intestinal worms", but that whole thing got mistaken and has blown up into a HUGE MARKET for DE to chicken owners who think they need to add it into their feed to deter worms...

Ah well.... a little common sense and pondering goes a long way when it comes to some of these things!

Its really good to read all of this and see other perspectives. I too was someone that read that DE was a sort of de wormer and anti mite and lice. I sometimes use it in my cats' food. Am I just wasting my money?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I honestly don't know about DE and lice/mites.

In the cat food, it will help keep the buggies from growing in your dry feed if you put a bit in the bag or storage bucket and shake it around in there!

I had a 50 lb bag of spelt that began to hatch some moths one time, I put about a half cup or so of the DE in there and shook it around. Never saw another bug the whole time I had the bag!