The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[dcba flock]

So I received my hatchery pullets today! They have seemed a little off compared to so other day-week olds I have had! Super itchy (they are covered in FF, which they love ) kind of aggressive, extremely clumsy like they are drunk is this just normal stress response from being stuck in a 12x12 box for 2 days or should I be concerned. They are in a seperate tote next to my 5-6 day olds I would like to put them together in my big brooder box but not until I'm sure they don't have something! Thoughts or experiences and how long to put them together? Thank you

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I got my HRIR chicks today. They are great and have already taken to nibbling the grass and dandelions.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I got my HRIR chicks today. They are great and have already taken to nibbling the grass and dandelions.

Where did you get yours?

 

[jeepgirl13]

Very strange. I was quite shocked when I saw that. My first thought was, "did someone get ahold of a crayon?" Lol very good info on that link tho. Thank you!

Looks like the 3rd one on here:  http://pluckandfeather.com/chicken-poo-chart-graphic.html

 

[BlueMouse]

HELP??!! One of my guinea keets (1 week old today) turned up with an impacted crop. It seemed harder than everyone elses this morning when I changed the bedding (I use the shifting them around to check on everyone) So I sprayed his foot with blue kote, and checked on him frequently. They all have huge distended crops a lot of the time, but most of their crops feel squishy, this ones feels HARD. Tonight I showed it to my mom who has lots of experience with parrots, and she say "oh my, that's impacted isn't it." So, I got so EVO Down it, and gave it a good massage, seems like the crop is emptying some. I was afraid to massage too much and/or empty the crop all the way by force? I don't want to hurt him. He went right to sleep afterwards. Right now he's sleeping in a towel in my lap. So what now? I was going to repeat the EVO (I used about 0.5 mL in a baby syringe) and massage again in a couple hours and keep him separated with no food overnight. Is that the best? I'm worried he won't be warm enought by himself though... Assuming his crop empties overnight, should I feed yogurt? Egg? Go back to regular feed immediately? any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated!

 

[jime]

welcome Jime!

I have always wanted to make an outdoor bread/pizza oven too -like that idea of making sort of an oven out of mud, maybe could use bricks - and have it hold the heat. Thank you!

What is the white under your roosts in the picture? paper?

thanks for the welcoming. the white thing is the PDZ granulates you just scoop the poop out of it of course after 4 months does not look that white or you can see the pellets that well that was the pic of the first day now everything is mixed together still see some f the pellets but the white has mixed with the saw dust.

 

[aaggjg]

I haven't, so there's that... but I just thought of several things that she didn't list that many people use to treat mites, some of which I use for preventatives:

-wood ash; dust the chickens with it down to their skin, and dump some in their dust baths.
-use the DE! The main controversies with it, so far as I am aware, are 1) it's effectiveness when taken internally, and 2) it's affect on beneficial insects (is that what you meant by helpers? I wasn't sure). But if you dust your birds with it and use some in the deep litter and their dust bath then the effect on beneficials will be minimum (just don't apply on a windy day). Last time I checked there weren't a whole lot of beneficial bugs hanging around my coop. However, I agree DE shouldn't be used in the garden for this reason, so if you use your litter in the garden just stick with wood ash in the litter, but still add the DE to the dust bath and the chickens. Make sense?
-just skin mites? If you have leg mites, you can apply either Nustock or Bag Balm to the legs. But that won't help for skin mites. Just throwing it in.
-this one I haven't used, but there was a white wash recipe on the Natural Chicken Keeping blog that was supposed to rid a coop of mites. Do a full clean out, paint all the wooden surfaces, then add new bedding (and wood ash...). Even if you do a full clean out the actual wood in your coop will be harboring lots of mites, so it's important to treat the wood as well.

I would repeat the wood ash/DE treatments every few days for at least a week after doing a full clean out and white wash (dang, that sounds like a lot of work- sorry!). Then if you still have problems you may just need to try something more drastic!

Thanks Brandislee... I guess I wasn't clear I had given them wood ash dust baths but am out of ash (hard to come by in Southern California in May) I have also given them DE baths but so many people advise against that good bug killer and all ... but as that is all I have I used it! I remember reading the whitewash recipe and am hoping BDM put it on the thing .... I was hoping that drenching the walls with neem oil might do the trick... My spray bottle keeps getting clogged

but if you leave it for a few minutes it unclogs its self....

I saw a youtube video where people burned their bedding!! Do I need to do that??? I was hoping that by adding things they don't like to it, they would LEAVE. Yeah so not working

Sally8 I remember you saying that you were having a terrible time battling Mites ... I was wondering if you have had any success??

Thanks again for the suggestions!!

 

[aaggjg]

Mama and her lil ones a few minutes ago. I counted 7. No idea if any were hiding under her.

Oooh nothing better then a broody with chicks!! What are the yellow ones???

 

[stonykill]

Oooh nothing better then a broody with chicks!! What are the yellow ones???

the white one will grow up to be a Splash, the other one is a blue. All are Sumatra's.

 

[Leahs Mom]

hoping BDM put it on the thing .... I was hoping that drenching the walls with neem oil might do the trick... My spray bottle keeps getting clogged

but if you leave it for a few minutes it unclogs its self....

Whitewash recipe is here: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.htmlscroll down on the page.


I finally ordered these for spraying oil. Working well so far. Heck, I couldn't even get the regular sprayers to spray normal liquid for very long!

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=84567