The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Has anyone tried pressure cooker instead of crock pot?

Quote: When I think of wild ducks, I think of them in the river/creek/pond fishing. Do y'all that have ducks free ranging have a waterway with fish?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Stony -
Do you let your birds (or at least your dogs) eat the predators that you shoot? Weasel, opossum, coon, ground hog...

 

[Mrs.SB]

 You would need to feed them something. You can try half rations in the morning, let them free range, and feed them the rest at lock up and see how they start to do. It is wonderful you are free ranging when you are home!! Any time you can give them is valuable. Maybe they might be able to skip that night feeding once in a while. Try it and see how it goes.

Thank you! I will try that Right now my 3 have free access to layer pellets but I have 10 babies coming July 15th and I'm thinking about doing FF with them.

 

[TipihlowLadies]

Can I ask you, Mumsy, Del, Bulldogma and anyone else that broods in raised pens:

How does that change things when its time to integrate the babies w/the rest of the flock?

Here is what I'm thinking and why this is a question.
I have this thought that if I don't have a broody, I'd divide off an area in the hen house for the babies and they would be at floor level with everyone at eye level. The older ones could always see the younger ones. Then at some point, I'd remove the divider but leave some kind of barrier that the olders couldn't get through but the little ones could. That would be their refuge so that when it was open between the 2, they'd still be where they always had been, but would be able to venture out and in at will until everyone was working well together.

Now I'd love to have new ones brooding higher to save the back as you are saying! But when I think of trying to integrate them, I'm at a loss as to how to accomplish that.

So do you all have an intermediary area - like moving them down to the floor but still divided off - so it's a 3 stage thing?

I did three level floor is last stage for me but since they are together all the time hens are in the coop they should integrate fine .

 

[Quailsong]

OK - the vet called with the preliminary results...

And I have come to the conclusion that the folks on this thread have been more helpful and insightful... because you're not all after my money - LOL!

OK - he didn't think it was the heart. He felt the cause of death was liver failure. He said there were lesions and an elevation of white blood cells in the liver.

The guy is an avian specialist and was trying to be nice/helpful, but he also seemed a bit put off by all my questions... because he wanted me to pay for more tests, I think. OK - so I respect that he wants tissue to be sent to the lab, but he was trying to get me to do it *now* by saying it could be avian TB. Um... no. Most birds will waste away for months prior to death with that lovely little nasty. Gunnar didn't start "wasting away" until a few hours before he died. (And I already told him my family has no money for all of this... )

So I cornered the doc with my questions and he finally said that yeah - a spider bite or exposure to rat poison/chemicals used by an exterminator could cause the issues he saw. We have a huge number of black widow spiders about right now - I've killed 3 in the last couple days. And then there is the exterminator that was on the farm just a few days ago.

So the vet pushed for the lab testing again (which he said would cost about $110 per test), so I asked about the state lab. "Oh well yeah - but there's a shipping fee involved with that!"

Oooooo $15 shipping fee! LOL! He's going to find out how much the state lab would cost and get back to me. In the mean time I pick up the remains on Saturday (because if I leave them there, there is a $25 incineration fee).

On the flip side, the vet complimented me on Gunnar's obvious health and called him "the most magnificent bird I've worked on in a long time."
Simple math: Obvious heath / Avian TB = Oxymoron

In the mean time anther SFH breeder from Richmond (and a wonderful person who I liked the first instance I met her last October) has offered me one of her beautiful roos! She's NPIP certified which makes me feel a bit more at ease about bringing an older bird on to the property (but of course he'll still be quarantined at first). Now we're just working out how to get the bird (Orion) from Richmond to southern VA. Keep your fingers crossed!

Your vet experience makes me nod like crazy and laugh at how silly (ie, money grabbing) the vet was. And again, I'm sad that you're going through all that stuffs. "Oh well yeah - but there's a shipping fee involved with that!" is absolute icing on the cake. Vets are such scammers - MOST I've seen, anyways. If any vets froth at me I don't care...good for you for being the 'exception'.

I'd def want to know if it was venom or if it was poison. Shouldn't it be easy enough for the vet to see the diff though? A wound on the side w/ a degenerated area of flesh would imply some type of bite. Or whatever's in the crop/guts. Spider bits, mouse bits, grain...etc.

So happy to hear you're getting a new roo, so generous of the lady. I will def be crossing my fingers for a safe shipment & fuss-free quarantine.

Edit: Oh I should note, black widow venom is a neuro toxin that doesn't leave much of a mark. Brown recluse (and Yellow Sac Spiders) do degenerate the skin as the venom is necrophying.

 

[stonykill]

Has anyone tried pressure cooker instead of crock pot?


When I think of wild ducks, I think of them in the river/creek/pond fishing. Do y'all that have ducks free ranging have a waterway with fish?

nope

Wild ducks eat aquatic plants as well as grasses and other tender plants. They also eat seeds, bugs, slugs, snails, minnows, small frogs, and anything else too slow to avoid a snapping bill. Ducks are omnivores so eat both plants and animals

 

[stonykill]

Stony -
Do you let your birds (or at least your dogs) eat the predators that you shoot? Weasel, opossum, coon, ground hog...

I no longer have a dog.

Ground hog (or as we call them woodchucks) are not predators. They are vegetarians and the last time I ate one it was delicious.

No I don't. Coon I way to afraid is diseased. All predators either get dumped way out back for vultures or get incinerated in the outdoor wood boiler if I'm to busy to drive it out back.

 

[delisha]

OK - the vet called with the preliminary results...

And I have come to the conclusion that the folks on this thread have been more helpful and insightful... because you're not all after my money - LOL!

OK - he didn't think it was the heart. He felt the cause of death was liver failure. He said there were lesions and an elevation of white blood cells in the liver.

The guy is an avian specialist and was trying to be nice/helpful, but he also seemed a bit put off by all my questions... because he wanted me to pay for more tests, I think. OK - so I respect that he wants tissue to be sent to the lab, but he was trying to get me to do it *now* by saying it could be avian TB. Um... no. Most birds will waste away for months prior to death with that lovely little nasty. Gunnar didn't start "wasting away" until a few hours before he died. (And I already told him my family has no money for all of this... )

So I cornered the doc with my questions and he finally said that yeah - a spider bite or exposure to rat poison/chemicals used by an exterminator could cause the issues he saw. We have a huge number of black widow spiders about right now - I've killed 3 in the last couple days. And then there is the exterminator that was on the farm just a few days ago.

So the vet pushed for the lab testing again (which he said would cost about $110 per test), so I asked about the state lab. "Oh well yeah - but there's a shipping fee involved with that!"

Oooooo $15 shipping fee! LOL! He's going to find out how much the state lab would cost and get back to me. In the mean time I pick up the remains on Saturday (because if I leave them there, there is a $25 incineration fee).

On the flip side, the vet complimented me on Gunnar's obvious health and called him "the most magnificent bird I've worked on in a long time."
Simple math: Obvious heath / Avian TB = Oxymoron

In the mean time anther SFH breeder from Richmond (and a wonderful person who I liked the first instance I met her last October) has offered me one of her beautiful roos! She's NPIP certified which makes me feel a bit more at ease about bringing an older bird on to the property (but of course he'll still be quarantined at first). Now we're just working out how to get the bird (Orion) from Richmond to southern VA. Keep your fingers crossed!

Liver does point to toxins/infection.

Quote: My ducks are great mousers. I put fish in the pools for them to catch.

 

[Pozees]

For comparing FF with dry, accidentally in this case, I started FF at ~4- weeks with some Egyptian Fayoumis, I had split the original order with others who did not feed FF. 4 weeks later mine are approximately twice the size of those the others have. Possibly due to added moisture for a desert breed. Don't know. My FF consists of 50% grower crumble, 50% home mixed scratch which is equal parts cracked corn, whole wheat, rolled oats, wild bird seed (includes BOSS).

 

[maryhysong]

For comparing FF with dry, accidentally in this case, I started FF at ~4- weeks with some Egyptian Fayoumis, I had split the original order with others who did not feed FF. 4 weeks later mine are approximately twice the size of those the others have. Possibly due to added moisture for a desert breed. Don't know. My FF consists of 50% grower crumble, 50% home mixed scratch which is equal parts cracked corn, whole wheat, rolled oats, wild bird seed (includes BOSS).

what are your friends feeding? If they are feeding a lower protein it would make a lot of difference in growth rates.