The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Look who came home tonight!!

We spent part of yesterday at a little Boer Goat farm and learned quite a bit. What are you using for housing for these 2?

Also curious - are yours tested for CAE?

Do you have them in the same area as the chickens? How is that going?

 

[danib]

I have 5 chickens who are about to come off starter feed and go onto grower feed. The organic starter cost about $37 for 50 lbs. Anyone from Massachusetts know where I can get a better price? Or is that a good price?

 

[NanaLynn]

Thank you everyone for all the advice on free feeding vs just once or twice a day. It was nice to get everyone's viewpoint. I did not know that pill bugs are not liked by chickens, also how they are not good for them as well and that a lot of them don't like worms too. I think my plan now is to wait until they are fully mature and then limit their feed, if I need to. I'll trust my chickens to know what they can eat when they are out foraging, they certainly are eating something and staying busy.

Also thank you to all of those who gave the advice about if my hens would lay soon. You guys are all so patient with us newbies.

And now to read on and learn more from everyone else's questions and answers, there is always something interesting on this thread to read and learn.

-Lynn

 

[cywiar merch]

. There is a separate book for cats I need to get as in her cat and dog one she doesn't focus on cats as much as she was a dog lover. Her editor didn't do the best job there.

I followed her cure for two forms of parvo (gastro and cardiac) with perfect success even though the pup was nearly dead; also I kept a son of that pup who is now one of the sole survivors of his litter after a strange new form of parvo (neuro and respiratory) decimated them. (This was confirmed at the vet's). The normally reared pups dropped like flies. Mine never even got sick. I blame vaccines for aiding in development of a new form of parvo, to be honest, it's a powerful disease and the less we throw 'character-building' treatments at it, the better. (Man made antibiotics can be considered boot camps for keen diseases with talent, really). This new parvo killed many older dogs that were also immune to the other parvo forms. It killed both vaccinated and unvaccinated stock because it was not caught in time. It will no doubt be the cause of much grief in future.

Thanks for pi0nting that out. I hadn't realised. I only have cats so i will get that book. I haven't vaccinated my youngest cat but my first one has been. She is the one with health issues that the vet says she is just "medically managing" until I will have to make a decison.

 

[Bulldogma]

Delisha - love the pic of mamma chicken with her ducklings! We really need hen-cams to catch the expression of these mothers when their brood jumps into the water!

Had a real battle with raccoons this year. Caught 4 coons and lost 5 chickens. Sad spring for me.

Sorry for your losses! Are the coons getting into your coop, or taking birds that are free ranging?

 

[Mumsy]

Will be heading out here to the Farmers Tilth to sell extras from the garden and won't be able to catch up until this evening. I wanted to weigh in on a few things first.

My property is so small, sixty chickens wouldn't be able to find enough to eat free ranging all day without added feed. I feed FF feed twice a day to most of my birds except brooder chicks. They and the poults get free choice. I'm done with brooder chicks now. Turkeys turn six weeks old tomorrow. My flock will fight over earthworms. They grow huge here. One worm is a lot of protein. I enjoy watching the turkey poults hunt flies. They stalk them and eat quite a few. All the birds are out all day and shut in coops, barn, and runs just before sundown. Purslane and pill bugs are not on my radar.

I ferment Turkey/Gamebird chow with all the other goodies. Chopping up fresh Oregano and garlic from the garden into the mash now. I have a few Silkie cockerels in a grow out pen in the barn until I get another outside run set up. I pulled up a few Chinese cabbages that were starting to bolt and put them roots, dirt, and all in a small bucket of water to keep it fresh. Those Silkies shredded it in no time! They love the stuff.

 

[Leahs Mom]

On the earthworms - interesting that you say they can tell if there is something wrong. I never thought of that but -

I started a worm farm w/redworms last fall. Every time I've tried to feed one of those worms, they won't eat them. However, I see them eat the worms in their area all the time. In fact, one of the ee girls got hold of a night crawler (huge) just yesterday and slurped it down in one piece!

So, perhaps the worms I got for my worm bin have issues that they can tell by smell or whatever. They'd just always look at them cock-eyed, and walk away.

 

[Frizzle13]

Lolit my pet lambs in with my chickens to get the grass down and they were instantly mobbed by my hens well the cock continued to look uninterested until one nibbled his tail. Then he got cross.

 

[lalaland]

Leah's Mom/Sue, funny you should ask that about the little chick - whether it is an sfh or not: When I went back out to check the chick just now, it was stretched out sleeping, a posture I haven't seen ever it in - and there are markings that I totally missed before when it was all drawn up into a ball if that makes any sense. So I was looking at it thinking, oh oh, what is this?
I looked for chick pics of swf without much success. am going to pm the source of the eggs to see if she has any pics.
thanks

 

[groverlvchx]

Day 21--looks like this little one didn't make it past day 14...but this is good news because it means my roo is NOT shooting blanks! I have two broodies on 14 more of his eggs. Will know by the 18th whether he can have offspring. I have ordered 12 chicks just in case. Today's broody that was due was only on three eggs (two exploded already) and I broke this and two others open today thinking there would be no sign of development. Looks like one out of five started to develop. I have hope again that my flock can reproduce! So today's broody is on golf balls, hopefully staying broody until the 18th when the chicks are ready for transfer. This picture is bittersweet. I'm VERY relieved that I didn't kill it. I was so convinced there would be nothing there. I'll be more careful from now on.