The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Good morning everyone.

So sorry BMD about Gunnar he was beautiful. I hope you can find a reason for his death for peace of mind. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/380109/are-spiders-dangerous-around-chickens I did find this on here about chickens and spiders. My dh got bit by a brown recluse years ago once on his knee so I know how much they can can mess you up, but I can't imagine the fangs going through the scales on his legs. It would have had to crawl up to his body to bite him.

Thanks for that link! Very interesting

 

[aoxa]

I believe I read somewhere not to feed chickens bread. Anyone have a reason? We began feeding bread almost everyday last year when I learned they love it. We aren't a bread addicted family so most goes bad at my house. It makes me happy the chickens eat it. But am I hurting them?

Bread is loaded with sugar.

It leaves them feeling full while providing no nutritional benefit to them.

Yeah they love it. I bet they love bugs better.

I may feed the ends of bread loaves to the chickens, but it is extremely rare. I do not eat a lot of bread. The rest of my house is Gluten free.

 

[midnightroo]

[COLOR=FF0000]For those of you with flocks of 20 or more chickens that have free access to at least 1-2 acres or more: [/COLOR]

Could you tell us:

-What kind of feed you give.

1.  Number in your flock (if you don't know for sure, just as close an estimate as possible).
2.  Do you have a livestock guardian with your flock?
3.  What is the average number of birds that you lose to predation in a month's time (average over the number of mos. they can be outside).  And - what type of predators do you deal with most often?
4.  Is the property primarily open pasture, wooded, or mix?
5.  The amount of property they range approximately (Stony estimated his use about 3 acres, for example.)
6.  Compare the amount of feed you have to give them during a typical June or July vs. the amount of feed given in a typical January.




[COLOR=006400]For those of you with any size flock that free range any size property:[/COLOR]

Could you tell us:

-What kind of feed you give.

1.  Number in your flock.
2.  About how much area do they have to range?
3.  How long do they get to range each day?
4.  What is your experience with predation? 
5.  Is the property primarily open pasture, wooded, or mix?
6.  Compare the amount of feed you have to give them during a typical June or July vs. the amount of feed given in a typical January.



Personally, I don't know if I can answer these questions myself as I haven't kept good records.  But what I'd like to do is keep a record from here out - especially on feed - so I can get a more measured idea of feed needs, etc. 

It would be extremely helpful to me - and I hope others here - to have this info from as many as possible in all of the varying situations (region of country, weather, land stats, etc.) as it would help for planning feed costs and getting a good idea of if I can reduce my feed input or if I'm at a pretty good level. 


[COLOR=800080]Anyone willing to join in and keep records to share with us all if you don't already know your usage?  (This doesn't have to be "anal" just a general idea for comparison.)[/COLOR]

And..those of you that do know, please share!

(And I'm thinking once all the info comes in it would be great to compile it all into a blog post to have all together in one place )

Right now I am feeding start and grow, but fed layers before the chicks. I have bought four four 50 lbs bags of fed in less then a year. This last bag was last bought in march when we bought the chicks.

1. Right now 7 soon to be 6. Was 3 before March.
2. They can free range about .5 acre, but stick to less
3. Amount of free range in hours depends on whether we are home and the weather. Bought premier fence last week and now they can be in that area while we are away.
4. We have lost two chickens to hawks we think, one will be culled. We have stray dogs and neighbor dogs that come over so once the roo is gone we might have more losses.
5, grassy with a few mature trees
6. I don't really keep track of feed so I can't compare, but they do seem to eat less on spring and summer. They do seem more hungry last few days though.

  driving can be dangerous, walking can be dangerous. Either can get you killed.Eating food from the grocery store can be dangerous. etc etc. 

Year to year I can have 30 roosters come and go. In the last 10 years I have had only 2, yes only 2 roosters who attacked me. They were delicious. So were the gentle ones. 

   A rooster who attacks is dinner. Don't take 1 bad experience and assume that is the norm. As it is not. 

   Big picture............

So true, but unless one of my chicks is a roo I don't want to go through the whole quarantine thing to bring in a good roo. I have been vegan/ vegetarian for the last seven years, but I am thinking I might just have to some some of this roo for all his trouble. After I posted I let them out, not two minutes later he was chasing a little then a pullet. Everyone is now separated and I am determined to do it tonight. Just got to get the ax from our neighbor.

 

[stonykill]

You have such a high percentage of gentle roosters because those two mean ones were culled. I do believe aggression is genetic. This is a perfect example of that.

It's only permissible if it is a broody who is doing the flogging.

well yes that is true. Also my experience is Sumatra roo's are gentle to begin with. The only mean ones were mixes. But like I said only 2. And I purposely hatch mixes every year to have bigger roosters to eat and some medium sized hens that lay large eggs like crazy.

 

[RedRidge]

For those of you with flocks of 20 or more chickens that have free access to at least 1-2 acres or more:

Could you tell us:

-What kind of feed you give.

1. Number in your flock (if you don't know for sure, just as close an estimate as possible).
2. Do you have a livestock guardian with your flock?
3. What is the average number of birds that you lose to predation in a month's time (average over the number of mos. they can be outside). And - what type of predators do you deal with most often?
4. Is the property primarily open pasture, wooded, or mix?
5. The amount of property they range approximately (Stony estimated his use about 3 acres, for example.)
6. Compare the amount of feed you have to give them during a typical June or July vs. the amount of feed given in a typical January.

1. About 80
2. Yes, Italian Maremma
3. None... if I did my maremma would be useless. Mine are out 9 months out of the year, closed in or confined Dec, Jan and Feb (just like the sheep and cattle). This protects the good forage from hoof damage and from being overgrazed when it isn't growing. We have coyotes and fox, bears and cougars (and now a panther caught on game cam), feral dogs, and the biggest threats are flying... hawks and turkey vultures. I have a friend 2 hours from here who lost 60 newborn lambs and 3 live calves to turkey vultures last year. Big problem. He was using llamas as guardians - they apparently do not look "up". He has switched to maremma.
4. About 30 acres of pastures surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods.
5. I use electronetting to rotate all my livestock so the chickens never have more than 3-5 acres at a time, but it's not always the same 3-5 acres.
6. I feed nothing in the summer to the free ranging flock... in the winter the adults average .33-.45 lbs each of dry grains and BSF. I have not fermented over the winter yet so I will be curious to see how much they consume then.

 

[stonykill]

So true, but unless one of my chicks is a roo I don't want to go through the whole quarantine thing to bring in a good roo. I have been vegan/ vegetarian for the last seven years, but I am thinking I might just have to some some of this roo for all his trouble. After I posted I let them out, not two minutes later he was chasing a little then a pullet. Everyone is now separated and I am determined to do it tonight. Just got to get the ax from our neighbor.

you don't think that a roo chasing a hen pullet is bad behavior I hope. If you do don't ever get a roo. Roosters are horny and like sex. A lot of it. That behavior is beyond normal. One morning I watched my head Sumatra roo mount every one of his 8 girls one after the other. Mount 1, jump off, mount the next.

 

[aoxa]

you don't think that a roo chasing a hen pullet is bad behavior I hope. If you do don't ever get a roo. Roosters are horny and like sex. A lot of it. That behavior is beyond normal. One morning I watched my head Sumatra roo mount every one of his 8 girls one after the other. Mount 1, jump off, mount the next.

It would be abnormal if they didn't.

 

[stonykill]

you don't think that a roo chasing a hen pullet is bad behavior I hope. If you do don't ever get a roo. Roosters are horny and like sex. A lot of it. That behavior is beyond normal. One morning I watched my head Sumatra roo mount every one of his 8 girls one after the other. Mount 1, jump off, mount the next.

It would be abnormal if they didn't.

 

[midnightroo]

Stony, yes, it is abnormal for him. He never chased them before. He seems frustrated, heehee perhaps they keep telling him they have a headache. Part of it might be that I only have two hen pullets for him, but I saw it for the first time today. I guess I don't want a roo.

 

[stonykill]

Stony, yes, it is abnormal for him. He never chased them before. He seems frustrated, heehee perhaps they keep telling him they have a headache. Part of it might be that I only have two hen pullets for him, but I saw it for the first time today. I guess I don't want a roo.

trust me it is not abnormal. Not even for him. You just haven't seen it or he is just coming of age.

yes if you don't like this behavior you shouldn't have a roo as this is as natural as it gets