The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[jockeyeba]

Question: I brought home a week old RIR from the feed store hoping my AG hen ,with 1 W- 2 1/2 week old chick, would accept it NO So I tried to give it to my BLRW pullet that has 2 - 1 week old chicks but she won't take it either, my question is if I take the 3 chicks from their mothers & put them in with the RIR will they all get along? I'm unhappy with both mothers now so I'm not going to feel bad taking their children from them,lol

 

[Pozees]

Aoxa, it may be possible to run pvc down the center of the rafters/ceiling of the barn with a horizontal and then vertical drop each place you want water, but you are right that winter freezes may be problematic. If it will be gravity fed, perhaps you could get a birdbath or bucket warmer like one might use for larger livestock to keep the source water from freezing, although if you run the drops down perimeter walls it may still freeze getting to the nipples. In that case, maybe in winter the drops can be wrapped in heat tape that is rated safe for said use? For that matter you could probably wrap the source container with heat tape as well. Have you checked with your goat breeder to ask how they supply winter water that doesn't freeze? Or maybe they don't, I know lots of horse owners here just go out and break the ice on the surface of their troughs every morning and afternoon. Might be time for a plumbing consult.

 

[cywiar merch]

Oh - and you can still get fresh greens, and raw meats on occasion.

-I don't know about your area, but many grocery stores here throw expiring veggies out in their dumpsters. Some of them are glad to save them for you if you tell them it's to feed your chickens. Some won't, but there are other creative ways to get hold of greens for little or nothing during winter months.

-You can visit a butcher and see if he'll keep some bits and scraps of fat and meats from the butcher process. You may have to visit a few before you score, but there is a lot of waste in the butcher process that no one else wants...skin, fat, small bits of fat, bones with a little meat still on, etc.

You may be able to strike up a relationship with a couple of places and make a weekly stop for these items that are very inexpensive or free!

Thanks so much for this. I really appreciate it. I was really beginning to lose confidence in being able to do it right and have healthy chickens.

I don't live in a city -its more semi rural so there are farms nearby.

My local butcher gives me bits and pieces for my cats that I raw feed, so I am covered on that score. Although strictly speaking, legislation here does not allow us to feed meat to chickens!!

 

[FarmerJH]

Most likely it is dust..however to be safe..put one of your birds in with them for a few weeks first.(choose a non aggressive one) If your bird starts sneezing in a few weeks...umm..you will need to think about what to do at that time. I am sure every thing will be fine..but always do safe measures first.

Thanks for the input, hopefully it is dust from the shredded paper causing the sneezing. I would hate to lose a hen to testing if its a contagious respiratory disease. Thanks! J

 

[cywiar merch]

As long as you keep your chicken level down you will be fine. You might want to start with two or three chickens and see how that works for you. My daughter has a neighbor with a small back yard and she has 3 chickens that do quite well in that small of an area. The chickens have more than enough room to scratch around.They are very healthy and vibrant chickens. I live in Wisconsin and it is wet and cold here all the time. For us 70 is short weather. I had shorts on all day yesterday and it never got over 60. It is the best weather for chickens. My new chicks are outside in this weather. The only chicks with heat now are the three days olds.
I might change my back run to DL. I have pop door exit to that run that is closed off from the chickens so just the ducks can use it. I bet I can get some good stuff working in there for winter. It does not get morning sun since it is on the west side of the building. The ducks use it for summer hatches. Not sure.

Thanks Delisha, as I said I was losing a bit of confidence in being able to do it on such a small scale. I was reading about the problem of worms and parasite build up in the soil so I was a bit worried. I was only thinking of getting around 3, 4 max. Do you think bantams would be better.

In one of the posts in the Gnarly bunch, Bee mentioned re conditioning the soil. What exactly did she mean and how would I do it in my situation?

Is it just possible that I have read too much and am overthinking this?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Since I have done alot of talking about my girls I thought I would share a picture that I took yesterday...The white one on the 2nd step is Olive...she is my absolute fav. right now...so friendly and sweet.

Question: I brought home a week old RIR from the feed store

hoping my AG hen ,with 1 W- 2 1/2 week old chick, would accept it NO So I tried to give it to my BLRW pullet that has 2 - 1 week old chicks but she won't take it either, my question is if I take the 3 chicks from their mothers & put them in with the RIR will they all get along? I'm unhappy with both mothers now so I'm not going to feel bad taking their children from them,lol

Question: Did you put the chick under either of them at night in the dark?

(If not, I'd try again at night. But I'd also stay out there for awhile to be sure she doesn't do anything for the first hour or so. Then I'd be up before daybreak sitting in there watching to see what happens. If the new kid gets their smell on it overnight that may do the job. But maybe you already did that!)

My local butcher gives me bits and pieces for my cats that I raw feed, so I am covered on that score. Although strictly speaking, legislation here does not allow us to feed meat to chickens!!

I won't tell if you won't

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa - what are you going to use for the troughs?

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote: Yes, I'd say that egg was very close to internally pipping, at the time that pic was taken (it may have already been internally pipped but the beak wasn't just in a position to be visible in the pic). Are they in lock-down yet? What is she hatching? Glad to read she's using a Hovabator 1588. I just bought a Dickey cabinet incubator a couple weeks ago but I still love and trust the reliability of both of my 1588s, and have eggs in both of them right now too, lol.

I have a few Turkey eggs internally pipped right now that I'm going to move to my hatcher as soon as somebody finally pips externally (I am waiting 'til the very last second, lol)... I tried to take a pic to show the beak point up against the shell, but couldn't get a decent shot (tho I could see it very clearly, the camera just could not pick it up good enough to post a pic of it). So I gave up, I did not want to risk shrink wrapping a poult by having the egg out of the bator in my low house humidity too long. The motion of the poults breathing in all the internally pipped eggs is definitely visible tho.

Hope your friend has a great hatch.

 

[hotrodflash]

My local butcher gives me bits and pieces for my cats that I raw feed, so I am covered on that score. Although strictly speaking, legislation here does not allow us to feed meat to chickens!!

If the chickens just "happen" to get into the cat's raw meat it can't be helped. Right?

 

[cywiar merch]

If the chickens just "happen" to get into the cat's raw meat it can't be helped. Right?

LOL , right!