The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

Aoxa- were your EE friendly? Edie has so much personality. She makes a noise & those babies run. And last night she saw me walking towards the run and she came running towards me clucking. She is not impressed with me holding her but the fact she comes to me I find amazing since it hasn't even been 24 hours. If I sit down she will walk over to me and let me touch her. When I make a clicking sound with my tongue she comes over & cocks her head sideways......I really thinks she is going to be lot of fun.

Yes my EEs were amazing. My rooster was the poster boy for a proper rooster. Never got close to me, respected boundaries. Never so much as cocked a head at me funny.

Eedie was my favourite of the girls. She'd squat as soon as I'd enter the barn. She'd follow me around and enjoyed my company.



Here she is at 14 weeks old. Pretty thing she was!

way to go, Shawn!


I got beef liver for the babies, it is the ugliest thing I've ever seen - comes in a frozen pack in slices. Grocery store clerk looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if they had any fresh. I'm a little nervous about the stuff that is in that beef liver as it is conventional, but the chick feed is vegetarian so I want to give them something animal.

My internal layer passed last night - I had guests so couldn't cull her earlier in the day, and planned on culling her as soon as everyone left.

When I ordered 16 chicks a few months ago, I had 14 hens -down to 9 adult hens now. A lot of death in just a few months - internal layer, owl, dead overnight suddenly, one unknown but way too much fat, and the one the lab necropsied which was e coli systemic infection probably stress related.

THats not counting the one wellie that Delisha helped me bring back to health.

Keeping my fingers crossed everyone stays healthy.

I can't think of anything in my chickenkeeping that could be improved except perhaps more animal protein.

Sorry to hear that!

 

[RedRidge]

Temperature for chicks.
I think acclimation is the biggest issue.
My chicks (even those I hatch in the basement or day olds that are shipped) are put in the brooder in the barn on day 1.
It doesn't matter what time of year or what the temp.
That said... there is a heat lamb that provides a place that is 100 degrees and enough rough that everyone can get out from under the lamp if they are warm.
They are in that side of the brooder (with two open sides) for 2 weeks, then moved to the other mirror image side for three weeks where a different heat lamp is set up much higher.

I have chicks of 3 different ages in the brooder right now and haven't lost any due to temps and we got down to 43 night before last. I think having varying temperatures to "go" is the key.

Another note... I never put a heat lamp in a corner - I want to discourage piling to prevent suffocating if it's a large hatch. Once they are moved to the teenage room at 5-6 weeks they have access to roosts, but any nesting boxes are covered with towels... I do not permit pre-laying chickens in nesting boxes - they develop a habit of roosting in. If they are not permitted access to the roosting boxes until they begin laying then all they do in the boxes is lay, not sleep, and I always have very clean boxes this way.

 

[lalaland]

chick pics, skip if bored




swedish flower hen?




icelandic 3 day old





fuzzy butts. the chipmunks are cream legbars. White is icelandic. Unsure of the black, maybe a fcm, and the buff color is swedish flower.




cream legbar 3 days




icelandics

 

[armorfirelady]

Lala beautiful chicks

 

[BlueMouse]

Yay cream Legbars! Yours are so cute! I'm hoping that I'll have some in another week or so to show off! totally adorable.

And obviously I have very lttle experience, but my EE is the frendliest bird in my bunch too. She's the one who always wants to sit on my shoulder, see what I'm doing, etc. Very sweet.

I cannot believe how fast these cornish are growing, I swear that they have more than doubled in a week and a half. For all that they're pleasant friendly chicks. I'm brooding them in the house and there is basically no smell. their droppings are so hard that I don't even have to change the littler daily, just stir it up.

Off to clean the house before my parents get here! Hoping that everyone has a very pleasant memorial day. Take a minute to be grateful to those who served, and for those who never came home.

 

[RedRidge]

This post is about money... or saving money...
Question for those of you who feed mealworms... live or dried either one.

I have a very detailed spreadsheet that has been developed over years with pages of data about a lot of various ingredients... including mealworms.
One of the many things I track when I "re-evaluate" my rations (which I do periodically), is cost.
Yes... protein and some other things such as minerals, etc. also get tracked... with animal protein being high on the list.
The nice thing about the spreadsheet is that everything changes automatically each time a change is made to the ration, so you can "play with" various rations to adjust protein, costs, etc.
I do update the current price of ingredients once every few months to keep it somewhat accurate when cost is what I'm really looking at.

But still... keeping costs down is a consideration.
To feed the type of feed I want to feed... with no soy or gmo ingredients AND get the amount of animal protein I want is not cheap, so I'm always trying to find ways to keep the quality up and save money.
I'm also always trying to find ways to add more animal protein in the winter without breaking the bank.
Mealworms has been a consideration from time to time... but every time I reevaluate it and look at it, it DOUBLES the price of my feed.

So... for those who feed mealworms... are they dried? do you raise them? do you have an inexpensive source? how do you justify the expense?
Serious question... no criticizing how other people feed... just trying to justify the costs of what I'd like to do against what is practical.

 

[midnightroo]

Good morning everyone and Happy Memorial Day! I haven't read the posts from late last night and this morning. It is a beautiful day here so we are going to enjoy it before a day of rain comes tomorrow. Could you help me with an issue though?

My husband and I are not in agreement on one of our chickens. I think she has an impacted crop, but he does not. Her crop has looked big to me for the last five days or so and there was no poo under her spot on the roost this morning. The thing is she acts normal, gave us an egg yesterday and shows no other sign of an impacted crop besides it not going down in the morning. I know chickens will hide their illness so could you please confirm if she her crop is impacted and if I should make her throw up! Thanks for your help.

 

[lalaland]

i would be worried too - have you massaged the crop? does it feel squishy or hard? do you know if she is eating?

smell her breath too - I'm thinking an impacted crop is different than a sour crop but it is probably a matter of degrees.

 

[armorfirelady]

This post is about money... or saving money...
Question for those of you who feed mealworms... live or dried either one.

I only use the dried ones for occasional treats or animal protein when I have nothing else. I probably haven't gave them any in a month or so. They are very pricey and even after searching the internet I did not find me a cheap source.

Mine get their animal protein from canned mackeral, meat leftovers from dinner & beef liver. I don't give it to them every day. Probably every other. I was thinking of using the fish meal for over the winter but I can't find it at the feed stores near me so I need to do some searching online.

I have fed them live & dried meal worms. My girls have no preference they are all chicken crack to them

 

[aoxa]

i would be worried too - have you massaged the crop? does it feel squishy or hard? do you know if she is eating?

smell her breath too - I'm thinking an impacted crop is different than a sour crop but it is probably a matter of degrees.

I would think sour crop before impacted crop, due to the way she is acting

Feel and smell is definitely important to know. Sour crop is easier to cure in my experience.