The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mumsy]

Okay, then...what's the best way to accomplish that? I keep hearing all the normal stuff, but lots of folks say it doesn't work for them. What's your secret?

For me the easiest way to break a broody hens desire is to remove her from the nest and put her in a little pen all by herself for a day or two. When she goes back with the flock her instinct is not on the nest at all. She will then have a chance to return to laying eggs again in a week or so. But...After laying 12 to 15 eggs she may get broody again. If this is not a desirable broody hen because she repeatedly leaves the eggs too early or her chicks continually perish because of her lack of good mothering, I cull this hen from my flock. I do not want these kinds of behaviors passed along into my future hens. Culling is part of good flock management. Even when it has to do with the kind of broody a hen is.

 

[Leahs Mom]

For me the easiest way to break a broody hens desire is to remove her from the nest and put her in a little pen all by herself for a day or two. When she goes back with the flock her instinct is not on the nest at all. She will then have a chance to return to laying eggs again in a week or so. But...After laying 12 to 15 eggs she may get broody again. If this is not a desirable broody hen because she repeatedly leaves the eggs too early or her chicks continually perish because of her lack of good mothering, I cull this hen from my flock. I do not want these kinds of behaviors passed along into my future hens. Culling is part of good flock management. Even when it has to do with the kind of broody a hen is.

I'm thinking most of my issues will be with one that wants to brood but I'm not ready for chicks at that specific time.

We shall see. Even if we do get a decent hatch with this little RIR, it's still to be determined if she'll take care of them well.

I kind of like the idea of separating them without a nest box a couple days. Where she's brooding right now is separated off from the rest of the hen house and can be used for that purpose as well if I ever have a need.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm thinking most of my issues will be with one that wants to brood but I'm not ready for chicks at that specific time.

We shall see. Even if we do get a decent hatch with this little RIR, it's still to be determined if she'll take care of them well.

I kind of like the idea of separating them without a nest box a couple days. Where she's brooding right now is separated off from the rest of the hen house and can be used for that purpose as well if I ever have a need.

I'm thinking your lil RIR is going to be a great mama.

 

[zinia8]

or

I want to take a look at it but we're getting ready to leave for the evening...I'll have to get back to it.  What did you think of the article?

It does give you some ideas for cutting cost. I didn't see anything "new".
I think that it is some of the methods that are discussed are being used by some of us here.
Balfour method. creating a compost pile in the run and using paddocks.
I am interested in this method. I was going to do paddocks when I was planning on my run and coop. I sectioned off my garden into two and then added the coop and run. I ended up with three sections. one for my garden one for the coop and run and one that I would the grass grow in. Everything is connected by pop doors. It worked for awhile. plant the garden close the pop door to this section. let the chickens eat anything they could reach through the fence.In the fall open the pop door and let them do the clean up. Grass growing section didn't go that well. worked for awhile but then between the drought and chickens scratching grass didn't make it.

 

[stonykill]

I'm thinking your lil RIR is going to be a great mama.

me too. My 3 RIR broody's this year were incredible

 

[Mumsy]

I'm thinking most of my issues will be with one that wants to brood but I'm not ready for chicks at that specific time.

We shall see. Even if we do get a decent hatch with this little RIR, it's still to be determined if she'll take care of them well.

I kind of like the idea of separating them without a nest box a couple days. Where she's brooding right now is separated off from the rest of the hen house and can be used for that purpose as well if I ever have a need.

Yes. Good point. I have a small unused pen in the barn that I can use to break up broody behavior. I don't like to cause a lot of undue stress so the hen can still see the rest of the flock but she has no nest access, no flock access, and she is fed and watered separate. In my experience that has been just enough stress to break the broody tendency without making them frantic. Some people let them set on fake eggs or golf balls but I don't like letting a good broody lose weight or condition.

 

[Leahs Mom]

or
It does give you some ideas for cutting cost. I didn't see anything "new".
I think that it is some of the methods that are discussed are being used by some of us here.
Balfour method. creating a compost pile in the run and using paddocks.
I am interested in this method. I was going to do paddocks when I was planning on my run and coop. I sectioned off my garden into two and then added the coop and run. I ended up with three sections. one for my garden one for the coop and run and one that I would the grass grow in. Everything is connected by pop doors. It worked for awhile. plant the garden close the pop door to this section. let the chickens eat anything they could reach through the fence.In the fall open the pop door and let them do the clean up. Grass growing section didn't go that well. worked for awhile but then between the drought and chickens scratching grass didn't make it.

I tried to do the grass part too but with the same results as you're having.

I finally started putting wood chips on the run part so they could have a deep bedded winter run (originally got the idea from Harvey Ussery in his book...you can read about it here about 1/2 way down the page: http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Chickens+in+Greenhouse.html

I was thinking that if I can get them deep enough the worms and bugs may still be available if they scratch down deep enough. I am hoping if I keep building on it it will be warm enough to accomplish that. I had a tree service take out some trees and they left the wood chips here for me. After they had set for almost a year, they were full of redworms and other tasty things and the kiddos love digging through to get at those bugs.

I started bringing wheelbarrows full of the chips over to the run and dumping them in there. I'm going to continue to do that until I get a good build up. Others are using leaves and twigs, etc. from raking their yards or from wooded areas on their land to accomplish the same thing. We just found that it makes a better place than just barren, hard-packed dirt, and keeps the ground softer more like a forest floor underneith.

Using the leaves in there was an idea we got from one of the folks that have raised chickens for years that used to hang out here on BYC. I'm grateful for that idea!

It creates a much more healthy environment and mimics a forest floor when you don't have one. I only use this smaller run for when they can't get out to a larger area. When I can't use my electronet - like when there's deep snow on the ground - this is an alternative that I'm happy for them to have. Before doing that I was dreading winter and them being stuck for longer periods on packed earth.
Thanks to my "OT" friend that gave us the idea to use the leaves to revitalize packed earth runs!

!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Speaking of deep litter today my flock was inside going through the DL passing the time since the weather was so rough, when I went out to lock them up I couldn't get the door open all the way they had so much Dl up against it. I only pushed it open just enough to count heads and make sure everyone was in. When we built the coop my dh put the door so it opened in, doesn't work so good when you have about 10-12" of DL in there. Everyone keep warm.

 

[texasmomma]

Maybe I'll take a look tonight. The Swedish eggs are relatively light as far as brown eggs go. Do you usually do it at night? I know Aoxa said to catch them when they're off the nest but I'm thinking the dark would make it easier to see?

The SFH eggs were very easy for us to candle. We saw the heart beating in one, as well as tons of veining. We also saw the chick moving around in the egg. Very, very cool for my kids. Oh, and me!.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Speaking of deep litter today my flock was inside going through the DL passing the time since the weather was so rough, when I went out to lock them up I couldn't get the door open all the way they had so much Dl up against it. I only pushed it open just enough to count heads and make sure everyone was in. When we built the coop my dh put the door so it opened in, doesn't work so good when you have about 10-12" of DL in there. Everyone keep warm.

For some reason I actually thought that through ahead of time

. (But there were other things I wish I'd had hindsight for now!)

We built any doors that were entering the chicken side short - with about an 8-12" "retaining wall" below. Have to step over the "retaining walls" but it works very well. From my outside door, however, there is a small area I can step into without being on the "chicken side" of the house. That helps a lot...and the doors there open outwards.