The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mrs.SB]

Thanks for all the nice comments about my run I'm so happy about it and I CAN'T wait to get my new babies in July!!

 

[Mrs.SB]

Double post sorry

 

[sanmar4chickens]

Ok, so I will ask my question here. I have 4 chicks (red star) about 4-5 weeks old they are looking healthy, and feathering out nicely.

I've been introducing them to out door environment since last week during the day. Have been scratching, chirping, enjoying it very much.

I would like to know if I should give them some DE in their food. I currently have Purina Medicated Start and Grow. What do you think?

DE Food Chemical Codex Grade. If so How much can I give them?

 

[loanwizard]

Goats- Escape artists, pain in the rear! But.... that said, I have a neighbor has a couple on zip lines. A long line from point a to b, with a shorter lead for controlling area. I think I saw them at TSC, and considered them for the dogs.

Y'all crack me up! I am lucky all my animals ain't kilt dead! When I butcher, clean fish, kill something, recover a dead piglet..... some animal on the farm gets it. ALL of it.

I look at it this way. In the wild, nobody separates anything cause they aren't there and the tree made no sound. Maybe if an animal gets sick and dies, the animals have an epidemic or maybe they leave the bad parts to others.

My chickens eat parts of the fish, then the maggots come and the chickens enjoy that, then the dogs roll in it..... Then I am sorry I didn't give it to the fish in the pond.....

That said, I had a brilliant idea to save the guts from my meat birds..... Stuff goes bad QUICK..... trust me on that.

 

[RedRidge]

Now - how 'bout a photo of your tractor?

We've built a couple of these out of scraps usually. The other one we built we used a kitchen cabinet off the back - the 2 door kind that goes above refrigerator.
Perfect size for 2 nesting boxes - doors already on it and no back, so... ta da.
We've also built them in an A frame style
This one we did buy the "cover" for... it's a 4x8 sheet of flexible plastic. We started to use a tarp, but knew it wouldn't last very long.
I wanted something I could drag around myself - to light weight was a high priority while still having a decent size.
This tractor works great for breeding... they can still free range and you can collect eggs, feed and water without having to deal with a roo who maybe you don't want to deal with.

We used 2x4 that were 8' long and cut half of them in half... made the bottom part 2' high and enclosed it which 24" chicken wire.
We have scrap wooden siding from another project and used it to build the boxes on the back... then we used 3 extra sheets to enclosed the back part of the bottom for during the winter. So... the bottom panels are removable with chicken wire underneath - we just haven't taken them off yet this year.
That's Buzz the Buff O rooster - he's in time out.

Should have been nicer to me.

The two tricks to having an easy to move functional tractor... one is that it isn't too heavy... the other is to make sure your feed and water are off the ground so they move with you when you move the tractor. So the feeder is hanging from under the back nesting boxes and the waterer is the bucker in the front corner that has chicken nipples in the bottom.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the top is just bird netting which is zip ties on.
The rope on the back is currently hooked on the nesting box flip up lid... but it's actually attached to the very bottom of the tractor on both sides to make it easy to pull around by hand - even easier and lighter when those bottom three panels aren't on.

 

[aoxa]

Goats- Escape artists, pain in the rear! But.... that said, I have a neighbor has a couple on zip lines. A long line from point a to b, with a shorter lead for controlling area. I think I saw them at TSC, and considered them for the dogs.

Y'all crack me up! I am lucky all my animals ain't kilt dead! When I butcher, clean fish, kill something, recover a dead piglet..... some animal on the farm gets it. ALL of it.

I look at it this way. In the wild, nobody separates anything cause they aren't there and the tree made no sound. Maybe if an animal gets sick and dies, the animals have an epidemic or maybe they leave the bad parts to others.

My chickens eat parts of the fish, then the maggots come and the chickens enjoy that, then the dogs roll in it..... Then I am sorry I didn't give it to the fish in the pond.....

That said, I had a brilliant idea to save the guts from my meat birds..... Stuff goes bad QUICK..... trust me on that.

Oh the dogs and the dead carcasses.. a smell I will never forget.. Having an LGD before.. she would unbury dead birds and lay by them. Our small dogs would come and roll through the dead birds.

I guess it's their form of perfume... It is gagworthy.

Now I do not bury dead birds.. I haven't had any dead ones to bury. I refuse to in the future though, because of the dogs.

did I ever tell you guys about a post hole we had on our property? Two call ducks went head first into them and suffocated. One right after the other. Was the weirdest thing I have ever uncovered. These are what the dogs rolled in.

 

[aoxa]

We've built a couple of these out of scraps usually. The other one we built we used a kitchen cabinet off the back - the 2 door kind that goes above refrigerator.
Perfect size for 2 nesting boxes - doors already on it and no back, so... ta da.
We've also built them in an A frame style
This one we did buy the "cover" for... it's a 4x8 sheet of flexible plastic. We started to use a tarp, but knew it wouldn't last very long.
I wanted something I could drag around myself - to light weight was a high priority while still having a decent size.
This tractor works great for breeding... they can still free range and you can collect eggs, feed and water without having to deal with a roo who maybe you don't want to deal with.

We used 2x4 that were 8' long and cut half of them in half... made the bottom part 2' high and enclosed it which 24" chicken wire.
We have scrap wooden siding from another project and used it to build the boxes on the back... then we used 3 extra sheets to enclosed the back part of the bottom for during the winter. So... the bottom panels are removable with chicken wire underneath - we just haven't taken them off yet this year.
That's Buzz the Buff O rooster - he's in time out.

Should have been nicer to me.

The two tricks to having an easy to move functional tractor... one is that it isn't too heavy... the other is to make sure your feed and water are off the ground so they move with you when you move the tractor. So the feeder is hanging from under the back nesting boxes and the waterer is the bucker in the front corner that has chicken nipples in the bottom.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the top is just bird netting which is zip ties on.
The rope on the back is currently hooked on the nesting box flip up lid... but it's actually attached to the very bottom of the tractor on both sides to make it easy to pull around by hand - even easier and lighter when those bottom three panels aren't on.

What about weasels and minks? Those birds would be dead if you had any of those around.

Can weasels get through hardware cloth? Where's Stony?

I would consider a tractor type thing for breeding season for a breeding pair or trio if it was safe. If you confine birds to a small run/coop it needs to be predator proof. they have no where to escape if a predator gets in, so it would be very, very bad.

 

[TipihlowLadies]

It would depend on where the goat was. Haven't given it much thought yet but I'm thinking dog chain. No rope. Metal stake in the ground

My father n law buys 3 goats every year uses dog chain moves them every day they mow the ditch seem to be very content.

 

[RedRidge]

Quote:
Ah... no problem... I raise Maremma...
We have wild dogs, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, snakes, mink, turkey vultures, hawks...
LOVE my maremma... I haven't lost one chick or chicken (and the chickens free range during the day), sheep or lamb, cow or calf, since I've had Italian Maremma.
I don't know what I'd do without them.

My oldest maremma Flo is currently in charge of all chicks, chicken, and replacement ewe lambs. Not even a hawk is allowed in the air space above our property.
The other dogs are all out with the breeding groups of sheep right now being rotated in electronetting on the large pastures... Flo has the pastures adjoining the barn the hen house.

 

[countrygirl74]

My question for the day...

The people I am giving my silkie roo to (he is 7 months old) have 6 two-week-old girls. How old should they be before we can just put them in the coop with my little guy? I don't want to take him there until they can be together because then he would be in a strange home all alone.

I currently have 5 (7-month-old) girls and 3 (7-month-old) roos with 13 pullets ranging in ages from 3 weeks to 8 weeks but didn't know if the silkie roo would hurt the babies without having any big girls there, especially being in a new strange place??? None of the boys bother the little ones at all right now.