The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Ok. So, I got the cup waterers and my DH made a great bucket waterer. But the chickens are NOT using it. At all. Even though I filled the cups with a little water a few times, hoping they'd get the idea... any suggestions from people who use them?

I havent seen my chick & big girls use them yet either. I keep dipping their beaks in it so they know where it is. Of course the tiny tots complain like I am hurting them

But I do have another water source out since the temps have been in the high 80s here

 

[aoxa]

We sure are moving along

 

[aoxa]

Oh and we will be painting every room but the chicken barn. It's very dark when the sun is not out. Can't have that. White should really brighten it up. Even if we do have lights in there.. Would be nice not to see the OSB.

 

[Quailsong]

Yes. I know exactly where you're coming from. My job from the age of ten was bottle feeding calves before and after school. I named them at birth and loved on them and then saw them slaughtered. and served onto my plate for dinner. Sometime in my childhood rather than that reality scarring me, it became necessary to learn from it and then grow past it. My mother thought I should become a veterinarian and use my knowledge and skill in the farming community. She came to realize my emotional connection to the animals meant that likely was never going to happen.

Interestingly, it has never once crossed my mind to suspect my FF. My mash was fresh yesterday morning. I had just stirred in fresh pellets. No bubble action. When I opened and smelled the contents of the crop, there was no odor of ferment. And even if it was...It was not gas bubbles blowing up this chicken. It was air.
I can follow a timeline of exactly when this bird started to blow up. It happened to him so quickly. I turned the HRIR flock out and filled their feed pans. I stood and watched each bird fill up for a few minutes. Went in the house to leave the bucket. Came back out within ten minutes. All birds were back in their coop but this one. He was sitting down next to the feed pan and his scalp was puffing up and he was getting rounder. I picked him up and he immediately began to gasp. In the following hour as I scrambled to get him isolated in a hospital pen in the green house and charge my camera battery he had grown so full I couldn't believe my eyes.

Remember. There was no ingesta in his proventriculis (first stomach). His food never got through his crop. His affliction began as soon as his crop was filled. Even more interestingly. His neck was filled with foamy bubbles and bubble pockets were all through his body cavity. There was less bubble pockets around his intestines. Huge bubbles were forming in his thighs, breast, head, and abdomen between his muscle and skin. Leaking intestines would have been visible, smelled, and necrosis would have started. There was none of that. There was no odor to these bubbles. It was just air.


You are welcome. Very often we will find dead chickens in the barn yard and just bury them and shrug it off. I used to just figure chickens died and who knew why? It is because of the strong nature of knowledge furthering on this thread that I do necropsy even though I hate doing it. The strange thing is, I still get no cut and dried answers as to what happened exactly to my birds. Learn yes. Answers. No. But I will continue to do them when I can. The birds deserve that much. Though my flock are not pets, I honor them by giving them the best chance at a good life and when something goes wrong try to continue to honor them in death by learning how to do things better through what the necropsy teaches me.

I swear to you. If that chicken had been filled with helium instead of air, I could have tied a string to his foot or he would have floated away on the breeze.

Mumsy, I can understand where you're coming from. In my case, it was breeding/selling show dogs/puppies during troubling family times. We lived in the city, although we did keep poultry during the warmer months (which we had to hide..). We had all manner of stray pets as well, and nobody really wanted to care for them (even some family members wouldn't care for themselves) anymore so I was often their main keeper. I did what I could w/ the little knowledge or money I had. Pets were often without their shots or proper vet care (due to money issues) so I was left with literally burying my mother's hoarding problems. It was hard, but I did learn to fix the animals the best way I could through attention, food & gave them a full-hearted burial so they were not forgotten.

I could say I was 'lucky' I never had to cull a pet or livestock animal & put it on the dinner table (nobody in my family knew how to cook, besides) so in that I'm a grateful that there was at least one part of my innocence/childhood left unscathed.

This summer, I do intend to raise, cull & cook quail as I feel I have the knowledge & confidence to raise my own well. They will be given the best life & love I could imagine for them, while still being considered egg/meat animals. If ever there's an issue with them, I will nip it in the bud carefully & quickly - whether that means giving them immediate treatment or culling if necessary. I will dissect, as hard as that will be, because I don't want another bird to suffer the same way. So for me, your dissection posts are not only handy (as I'm literally learning birds inside & out) but the confidence you're sharing with others says to me it's okay for us to make mistakes, to not be afraid of unknowns, & that hard decisions can often make more learning opportunities.

And again, you make me smile & laugh with your last paragraph. I agree that the bird's issue was incredibly quick & also believe the FF couldn't go that fast. Not straight through skin, muscle, etc like that. There was definitely something else going on. Maybe just a fluke in the genes or some unknown trauma. But that chicken definitely went out with a bang, or should I say, pop? >.>'

Edit: Wanted to note that I caught up to the end of the thread & saw your new post, Mumsy. I def think that was it w/ the air sacs now.

Also, I love your fuzzy silkies!

 

[Leahs Mom]

On the cup waterers, tap on them just like you would if you were teaching a chick that there is food there. As soon as one of them gets the point, the others will watch and get it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Mumsy - loving those photos. Such cute kiddos!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Here are some photos of my SFH at 22 weeks:


Miss Gray (or Miss Blue if you rather )









Miss Sweden





"The Man"



And... the "mystery chick" Miss Black:

 

[Quailsong]

Some of you are mentioning using a sourdough starter. I'm very interested in this topic.

I'm gluten-intolerant, found out through many years of (bad) experience. Hope to get a proper test when I move to the capital so I can get it on my medical records at least. I would LOVE to learn how to keep a sourdough culture going however & can probably adapt it to rice or another non-gluten flour easily enough. I'm a very visual/hands-on learner. If anyone could PM me how they start a culture, a typical day of maintenance, how they add more & what to do with extras I would absolutely be grateful for the info. Even if you can only recommend a YT vid or a website that you find most handy. It would mean so much to me.

Perfectly timed, btw. I just got my order of kefir grains & SCOBY mushroom for kombucha tea + ACV so I'm very much excited to get a good habit going with all of them. They are going to help me & my family in so many ways. Even though its my first day of starting them, I feel like I would be 'naked' without them. Even with already making cheeses & fermenting & soaking grains. I'm very excited.

 

[Leahs Mom]

You can start a culture with "wild fermentation" or with a culture. Take a look at the cultures for health website - they have cultures for sale but they also have videos, articles, etc. that are extremely helpful. Even articles that tell you how to leave and go on a "sourdough" vacation

If you do it "wild" some of the articles are still helpful:

Here's a link to some of their sour dough articles:
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/sourdough

And one for gluten free:
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/sourdough

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote: I've kept mine going since last fall without any problems, I just keep adding feed and water and sometimes a bit of ACV or whey. Smells just fine. That's for the adults.
I tried with chick starter for my newly hatched chicks and it was terrible, threw it out each time. The layer feed is cracked grains with all the additives and the chick feed is tiny crumbles, no obvious grains in it. I fermented the same way as I do the adults. Kind of discouraging since I really wanted to have them on fermented feed. BTW, I'm pretty sure that there is no animal protein in the mix. Why is this happening?