The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Sally8]

Originally Posted by Pozees

This would make a great jigsaw puzzle!

I've seen some gorgeous pictures on this thread but this one makes me want to just stare at it. So very pretty and serene.y last comment on it, I promise)

as for the person who mentioned sand and no bugs, well there are ants and some other tiny bugs that live in my child's sand box. We have to flood the think at least once a week to drown the bugs or he get bites. We covered it a few times and everytime we uncover it in the morning the bugs are all on top and ready to flood.

 

[lalaland]

Regarding mites and lice: I raised my poultry on raw garlic as part of their staple feed, and was always able to bring in a bird from outside with terrible scaly leg mite infestation or lice, and treat it through diet, no dusting or extra feeds or special feeds, just letting their bodies build up on natural defenses. I never had to treat perches or other birds or nests. Once or twice I backed off the garlic to see how much of an impact it had, and immediately parasite levels rose, so I amped the garlic back up, problem solved.

In the case of severe scaly leg infestation, like when the bird's lost most of its scales or is in obvious pain or is even going to lose some toes, I use pine tar (stockholm tar); it's a great pain and infection killer as well as insecticide. The scaly mite infected areas just shed off and leave fresh healed skin and scales in their wake after about two or so applications. Animals love it; I use it on the sheep's hooves, on fox bites, gangrenous or golden staph infections, messy accidental amputations, all wounds, cycsts, and generally anything. Some people think scaly leg is normal; I read one commercial layer book saying it was an indication of age! Great herbs to regularly give your poultry and other animals include sage and rosemary, and all aromatic herbs are generally useful as medicines. I've heard really great things about oregano oil, it's one of those up-and-comers in the medical world because recent studies have proven great efficacy in its applications. Wish I knew where I'd read that! I will link if I find it.

chooks4life, can you talk about how much garlic you have found you need to maintain that level to keep the parasite levels? I assume you are using fresh minced garlic? or powdered, or jarred...

when you have used pine tar on chicken legs, have you just done a light smear (not even sure if you can do "light" with the tar) and has it been a problem sticking to things?

thanks!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I don't want you to feel like we are squashing your sand idea but we gave up our grandchildren's sand box also due to bugs. We had to cover it to keep cat's out from using it as a litter box but when we would uncover it the spiders would pour out.

One thing, though...even though we have the bugs in the sand, we never had chickens in the sand eating the bugs....

Quote: The NuStock that we're always talking about has pine tar in it. Several folks on the thread here have had good success using the NuStock for scale mites.

 

[lalaland]

Yeah, I've used nustock on the legs. It is just that you can't tell if progress is made - I've never seen the scales that have lifted come completely off. So it contnues to look as if there is an active infestation. I try to keep up with treating, and preventive treatment of clean legs, but maybe a year later I'll notice a hen who was previously scaley leg mite FREE start to have the mites.

Could be the huge number of wild birds in the coop run, who knows.

garlic in feed would be easier than continuing to treat legs preventatively, but the amount of garlic might be too costly for me. especially since this years garlic crop is tiny as moles destroyed it over winter in the garden.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm interested to hear more about the straight-up pine tar amount and the garlic amount too. I do give garlic from time to time, and put dry oregano in their feed 1 or 2x a week, but I'm guessing I could give way more garlic than I do. I may put garlic in once in about a 2 week period of time but I could do it more consistently. I LOVE the smell of the garlic and oregano in the hen house when I put it out there. (Yes..I do feed in the house....)

I've not had mites or lice to experiment on

(for which I am very grateful!!) so I can't comment on the NuStock remedy..... I hope to keep preventing them (which is my "motto" in natural chicken keeping... PREVENTION FIRST by good practices.... then knowledge of the most natural/least intrusive treatment if needed.)

 

[SunnysideupstateNY]

Yay Kombucha! I have a scoby coming in the mail and I'm super excited about starting some! I'm hoping that my DH will like it. He has stomach problems (I suspect that he really has IBS) and refuses to eat things like yogurt, or fiber, or pretty much anything that might help him.

Kombucha is full of all those good helper bacterias and might be more palatable to him than Keffir or yogurt.

The kombucha at Wegmans (if you're in NY) will grow a mother if you let it set out a while. My mom makes her own, and if she runs out of mothers, she just runs Wegmans! I think she uses the .5 gallon jars.

Nice find on the crock! I've been looking for one for Sauerkraut and have yet to find one without cracks in the glaze

 

[BlueMouse]

I would give her live chicks as soon as you can. Call around and find a few cream legbars in your area. Float test your eggs in the incubator.

Float test:

1 highball glass fill with 100 degree water 2 inch from the rim
slowly lower one egg into the glass..if the egg is viable..it will....move...move..move
if it sinks..it was never fertile.... if it slowly sinks it was an early death. if it just sits still it is a later death.

No cream legbars in my area

That's why I chanced the shipped eggs. I straight up cannot afford to order chicks from somewhere like greenfire. I can get some chicks this weekend though, I've already talked to a couple local breeders.

The kombucha at Wegmans (if you're in NY) will grow a mother if you let it set out a while. My mom makes her own, and if she runs out of mothers, she just runs Wegmans! I think she uses the .5 gallon jars.

Nice find on the crock! I've been looking for one for Sauerkraut and have yet to find one without cracks in the glaze

Great tip, thanks!

 

[BlueMouse]

Oh, I forgot something of course. Can you use goldfish in a water tank with a cover (loosely) on it? My water bucket is growing grunge at an accelarated rate.

 

[armorfirelady]

I've been rambling a lot lately so it was probably got overlooked but...

Those of you that use electric netting at what age did you put chicks in it?  And did they get stuck in the netting or zap themselves?

My big girls have not touched the electric netting to my knowledge.  But Stella the 5 week old BR went right thru it today followed by one of the BCMs.  The netting was not plugged in because one of the cords is bad

I got my fence after my original kiddos were older.  And my new kids were big enough before they were out with the fence.  I know that Premier states quite a bit in their literature that it won't contain smaller chicks.  My main concern would be that they'd start to go through, get caught, and then get zapped over and over until they died.

One thing you could do is put a fence just inside the electric fence line that has smaller holes to keep them away from the electric net until they are larger..   I have seen folks set up like that but you have a LONG net and that would get expensive to do a "liner" on the whole fence. 

I'm not sure how you have them housed...I think you said the littles are in your smaller coop so they have their own door into the net area?  Would it be possible to fence off a small area inside the electric net that they could use until they're a little older?  Like if it fenced them INSIDE the perimeter of the electric so the bad guys can't get to them, but still keeps them away from the electric until they grow a few weeks and are larger than the openings of the electric?

That's my fear that Stella will try to get through it again. I think they will stay in their run for now and perhaps in a few weeks they will be big enough to not fit thought those holes. They are growing so quick !! Tho I might try a small fenced in area to put them in when I am home. They were so excited being on the grass yesterday and sun bathing

 

[armorfirelady]

Oh, I forgot something of course. Can you use goldfish in a water tank with a cover (loosely) on it? My water bucket is growing grunge at an accelarated rate. 

I think red ridge does at. As soon as I can catch up on my never ending to do list I plan on scrubbing out the rain barrel and building a new stand for it and putting a few Walmart gold fish in it and see how it goes