The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

OH... and before you cut your rain barrel....read my assessment of using them in winter. Don't want you to go into it without knowing that you might HATE it in winter...

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/02/poultry-cup-drinkers-waterers-winter.html

 

[aoxa]

Does anyone mind seeing baby chick pics? These are our hatchlings from last weekend (Mother's Day weekend). My other Cuckoo Marans has not laid in about 10 days, but she's inconsistant on the nest. The past couple days however, she's been playing Nanny with the babies. One even went to sleep with her in her nest box! Mama doesn't seem to mind. She hasn't abandoned any of them, but she doesn't mind a little time off when the other one has them.

They've been with the rest of the flock since hatching and we have had zero issues. Mama is very good!


I'm not really sure of their colors. I was told simply "splash, blue and black" but a couple of the blues look like they aren't all blue? It'll be interesting to see as their real feathers come in. One of the blacks has a lot of rust on his back and head. He's the first hatched, and I think he *is* a he. Stance and all. I think the splash is a "he" and one of the blues. 100% guessing.


Here they are today:



They only get up on Mama's back though

The pictures are adorable!

They look like they are Blue, Black and Splash to me.

 

[delisha]

I have my water outside in the run and it is a 5 gallon bucket with cups attached. It seems to be working out great now. I had read that it is better to have the water on the outside especially in humid climates and we get the humidity here, so that's why I put it out. At first the chicks had trouble with using the cups, but now since they are 14 weeks old they have figured it out. (I have 6 new chicks that will need to learn soon too, but in the meantime they have their separate area with a chick waterer for them)

I have a question for those of you who leave out dry food for your chickens. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for having the food outside of the coop? Types of feeders? Coverings? etc. Right now I keep mine in the coop, but I'd like to get it outside in the run, but I have not figured out a good way to keep it dry. I use a 5 gallon bucket with holes in it that pour out into a pan as their feeder. It takes up a lot of floor space in the coop, so I'd like it out to free up some room. Once outside it can hang from the run. If I can convince my DH to help me cover the part of the run that meets the coop the problem will be solved but we have been busy with work and life right now to get to that. So any ideas for a covered feeder in the meantime?

Eventually once I get set up I may switch to FF, but right now I am using dry.

One more question: I have my 3 week old chicks in with my 14 week old chicks and they are separated from each other when inside the coop and in the run, they have their areas to run to. I have only been letting them mix together when I am there to supervise. They've been together and separated for around 4 days now. From your experience when will the bigger chickens leave them alone? and at what age can they handle themselves better against them? Right now they are learning to run well and fast and get in a safe place, but my bigger chicks are relentless and corner them at times. I imagine they just need to get bigger and I have to wait, but what is your experience? I found some useful info on the thing which helped with my setup, so thanks again for that!

Quote: lol..I eat only fertile eggs.
To make you feel better..*don't worry..they are not fertile*
now..eat your eggs.

I have a setting hen who hatched 3 eggs on Friday. There are still 7 eggs in the nest. She is inside a pen with her babies. She has now moved off the nest and is setting with the chicks off to one side. Does that mean she is done and the eggs are no good? I didn't want to bother the eggs or the pen until I hear back from you guys.

Thanks,

Lisa

Quote:

Did I read correctly that All-Flock is the same as chick starter? Because that would come in handy for sure.

Not always. You can purchase all flock game bird for all chicks. That is what I will use if my grains are not available. You have to read labels. Some all flock is close..some are not.

I have a non-chicken related issue, but I know this is the place to ask this because in pretty much any other place I know what the answer will be...

My dog is off his food, and he's been puking since Friday. He seems mostly fine otherwise, although his energy is low for obvious reasons (not eating much for three days), but he still follows me around the yard, chases anything that moves (other than chickens), and plays with my other dog. He's eaten a little- I've been giving him eggs poached in chicken stock (which he kept down, although he puked up some water several hours later) and plan to give him some ground beef later today. Normally I would take him to the vet today just to be sure, but we are BROKE and the vet requires payment at the time of service. I know having a dog means financial responsibility, blah blah blah, but we're not like permanently broke, we're broke until Friday. Besides (and hate on me for this if you want, but it is what it is) our dogs are not our children. If we were to take him to the vet and he had some obstruction that needed surgery or something, I would either have him put down or I would see if the no kill shelter wanted to do something (see if someone else wants him who is willing to pay for the surgery or whatever). I won't spend hundreds of dollars on a dog. I know, I'm an awful person. But I'm okay with it.

Anyway, like I said, I knew anywhere else I'd ask the answer would be "go to the vet." End of story. But I know there are people here who do things a little different, so I guess I'm asking what would you do in my situation? Should I keep feeding him eggs/stock/meat until he starts to feel better? Could worms be causing this (I did see some funny stuff in his stool, which was a little runny, but I wasn't sure if it was grass or not- he's been eating a lot of grass)? Any other suggestions? My gut is saying keep him home until he starts to actually act more sick, and keep feeding him the good stuff in the mean time.

Worms it might be..try giving him some pumpkin seeds. Take in a stool sample..that is usually not expensive. I would take in a chicken poop too if you are going to go.

Quote: I use grass clippings.. hay..leaves..wood chips..straw...herbs..

Quote: me too..I see mostly blue and splash..the ones that look like they are not all blue and..splash..your rusty guy is a male

 

[NanaLynn]

Here it is in it's first winter of use. It still looks pretty much the same, although the canvas has faded some and the sides are roled up at the bottom now. The feeder isn't in there at the moment, but I have two of those crappy plastic chick feeders, lids removed, screwed to a 2x4 and THAT is up on cement blocks, which sits right in the lighter part of the a frame you can see in the picture. Pretty ghetto feeder, but it works! The water actually sits on another cement block right outside the cover, purely because moving it in and out of there, with the bending and the weight of the waterer, was a pain in my butt.

Like I said, I also built a smaller 8x8 one out of 1x2's (I used cedar, they're technically cedar battens used in board and batten siding, but they work really well for this, too) that has cross bracing on each side and more vertical supports (plus the roosts, which also give the structure some support) and it is really nice. The canvas comes down to about 1 foot above the ground on each side and the rest of it is hardware cloth (with a skirt). Really nice for hot weather. I obviously don't use it in the winter. Those chickens get fed outside, but only since I switched to FF.

That looks like a neat setup. I think I'd have more luck convincing my DH to help me cover part of the run with tarps before he will build something else for the chickens. We just started with chickens in February, so one step at a time, so he is burned out from building the coop and run. I am going to keep this idea on the back burner though for an extension in the future. Thanks!

I do find that this is where they like to spend their days when the sun is high & their shade is minimal. Its also where they run when air predators are near since its out in the middle of their forage area

That's a neat idea too for shade and cover.

Thanks, everyone on here has such great ideas, things that I never thought of, it is so neat to see the way others have things set up.

 

[midnightroo]

Is it too early to sex the GLWs? The first I think is a pullet and the second with the BR has alittle more red coloring. Also its comb appears to be more formed then the other. I was totally wrong on there ages the other day, they are about 13 weeks old.

Thanks

 

[armorfirelady]

OH... and before you cut your rain barrel....read my assessment of using them in winter. Don't want you to go into it without knowing that you might HATE it in winter...

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/02/poultry-cup-drinkers-waterers-winter.html

Thanks. I do remember reading that before after you mentioned it. I forgot you had problems with the cups themselves freezing.......hmmm back to the drawing board.

I was thinking of wrapping heating tape around the PVC pipe but that still wont help the cups.........

Quote: My questions would be... how much pressure can the water cups takes? and how much head do you have when your barrel is full?
IOW, you need to make sure your PSI doesn't exceed the capability of the water cups.
It doesn't take much head to create a lot of pressure.
By head do you mean the amount of space at the top of the barrel that is not filled with water?


Kian the baby pics are ADORABLE

 

[smccuen]

Does anyone mind seeing baby chick pics? These are our hatchlings from last weekend (Mother's Day weekend). My other Cuckoo Marans has not laid in about 10 days, but she's inconsistant on the nest. The past couple days however, she's been playing Nanny with the babies. One even went to sleep with her in her nest box! Mama doesn't seem to mind. She hasn't abandoned any of them, but she doesn't mind a little time off when the other one has them.

They've been with the rest of the flock since hatching and we have had zero issues. Mama is very good!


I'm not really sure of their colors. I was told simply "splash, blue and black" but a couple of the blues look like they aren't all blue? It'll be interesting to see as their real feathers come in. One of the blacks has a lot of rust on his back and head. He's the first hatched, and I think he *is* a he. Stance and all. I think the splash is a "he" and one of the blues. 100% guessing.


Here they are today:















Look at the baby in the middle! It looks like it's trying to get it's Nanny's attention





They only get up on Mama's back though

so cute....hope to hatch some of our own next Spring if the hens will set on them.

 

[aoxa]

Is it too early to sex the GLWs? The first I think is a pullet and the second with the BR has alittle more red coloring. Also its comb appears to be more formed then the other. I was totally wrong on there ages the other day, they are about 13 weeks old.

Thanks

They are both girls.

GLW have different patterns for boys and girls once their adult feathers come in (I believe 9-10 weeks they have their big boy & girl feathers).


here is a 12 week old GLW rooster.

 

[lalaland]

I CAN'T get rid of the mites!!!

I've sprayed all the coops with a permethrin solution after taking out all the bedding. I only scrubbed one of the coopds though, since the others had been scrubbedless than a week ago. I'm using the same bedding again, since I just cleaned, but will be dusting it all with the permethrin dust. I might never get completely rid of them, but my chickens have shown now affects and still as healthy as ever, so maybe with routine cleaning, and regular dusting I can keep it under control..... thanks neighbor who doesn't take care of his chickens....

I'm guessing you mean you are using the same KIND of bedding, right? not the bedding you cleared out. If you have mites, all the chickens probably have them - unless your coops are very separate and so are the chickens. You probably need to do both/all coops - replace the bedding - have you tried wood ash? are you treating the chickens too, not just the coops?

kian, keep the chick pis coming!
lockdown is tomorrow for the lady who is hatching the chicks for me....just a couple days to go.

good thing I have wednesday to finish up the interior of the coop.


Leah's mom, I'm with you on the nipple watering system. I am sure it is much easier, cleaner, etc - but I really enjoy seeing the chickens bend over to take a drink, straighten up and put their heads back to swallow. I once had two hens who had been raised on the nipples, adn they had such a hard time learning to drink water - and never learned not to "punch" the water, and I never saw them swallow the way a hen will do.

I can't remember who was asking about covers to keep feed dry if you feed outside. I've used a large galvinized garbage can lid to shelter the feeder - hung it from a tree branch with a chain down to the feeder so it didn't blow sideways.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: lalaland
That's a great Idea!

I also knew someone that took a rubbermaid storage container, turned it upside down, cut holes in the sides (like a dog house entry), and hung the feeder inside it. They went in to eat and the bottom caught any dropped feed.