The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[starlingdaly]

I also use a lot of vinegar for cleaning too - I do keep bleach around for certain things, to use rarely, sometime just to sit in the toilet bowl.

My disinfectant of choice is a bottle of Everclear - LOL. I dilute it into a spray bottle and use it on EVERYTHING from bathrooms to kitchen. I even used it to disinfect my kids toys when they were little. I couldn't stand to see people spray their babies' and toddlers' toys with Lysol - yuck! You can soak stuff in a solution of it or just spray on and let dry. Kills pretty much everything without any toxic smells, etc. Around here, ranchers even buy it from the liquor store to clean their tractors. It  might seem pricey to buy the initial bottle of it, but it really does last a long time as you can dilute it quite a bit and it's still very effective.

I got rid of all my bad cleaners and hygiene products when I got my first kitten a few years back. It was a great wake up call to be more Eco friendly. For some reason doing things naturally is so addictive and within a few weeks I had replaced just about everything with my own recipe or all natural product/reusable.

Congrats on the SFH chicks!!!!!!!
I have 8 Ameraucana babies (BBS) due to begin hatching today!!

 

[aoxa]

Who's going to waste a beer to catch flies?

This made me really LOL.

I would. I hate beer. The beer we have we use to pay men who come to help out. Seems like their favourite form of payment.

a retired NYC writer who moved to the country with a few chickens

. NYC peeps think everything is bad for you. I once heard a convo between a NYC couple. Wife "why are some eggs brown and some white". Husband "brown eggs are unbleached. I would never eat a brown egg that is disgusting"

I'm not kidding. It happened at a farmers market.

I heard the same sort of thing on the "Funniest things a city slicker has ever said to you about chickens/eggs/meat" thread. My grandmother insists that brown eggs taste SO much better.

 

[armorfirelady]

RedRidge congrats on the SFH chicks. They are so cute

Loin....I would but only the cheap beer

A small dish of beer in your veggie garden attracts slugs & drowns them

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

Ya don't have to use beer...there are a whole bunch or recipes out there for these things using karo, etc.

W/the commercial ones, some of them have a poison in them so the flies will die right away and not sit there buzzing for hours! You need to be sure they don't blow down or get where the chickens can get to them.

(And I hate beer too....)

 

[aoxa]

Ya don't have to use beer...there are a whole bunch or recipes out there for these things using karo, etc.

W/the commercial ones, some of them have a poison in them so the flies will die right away and not sit there buzzing for hours! You need to be sure they don't blow down or get where the chickens can get to them.

(And I hate beer too....)

I'm Canadian. I'm supposed to love beer. and hockey. Neither of which I like at all.

I don't drink at all. If I do drink, it can't taste like alcohol.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

My chickens eat the flies for the most part. I think I saw 5 in the coop for the pan fry chicks that are around 11 weeks old but I also saw the chicks jumping and catching them.
I vote for more chickens to keep the flies down.

 

[aoxa]

My chickens eat the flies for the most part. I think I saw 5 in the coop for the pan fry chicks that are around 11 weeks old but I also saw the chicks jumping and catching them.
I vote for more chickens to keep the flies down.

Mine can catch the mosquitoes but not the black flies. They are too fast.

moose/buffalo flies can actually kill chickens during their breeding season. They can suffocate their airways or bleed them out.

What about a bug zapper?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yah...seems like a bug zapper would give them another feed source too. Bugs drop, chickens eat?

Oh...and so far I haven't had a fly problem either. Hope I never do

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
death by fly how horrible. I have not see any moose flies. I had to google to see a picture but thankfully we don't have them yet.

 

[aoxa]

Yah...seems like a bug zapper would give them another feed source too. Bugs drop, chickens eat?

Oh...and so far I haven't had a fly problem either. Hope I never do

It doesn't work so well for mosquitoes, but works awesome for flies and moths and JUNE BUGS. Yes June bugs are the best benefit. I hate those. You should have seen me scream like a child when one got in the mud room when I was letting Henry in from a pee. Seriously worse than a bat in the house... They go straight for my hair. My hair is the holy grail of fun for them for some reason. I need to cut it all of.

I never really have fly problems. I do have lots and lots of mosquitoes and the little gnats that bite. The tiny ones that look like baby black flies. They are getting less and less though.

death by fly how horrible. I have not see any moose flies. I had to google to see a picture but thankfully we don't have them yet.

You do not want to. They bite as bad as a hornet stings... We went tubing last summer down a river.. oh they are attracted to rubber.. So we had rubber tire tubes and I was bitten all over. They went for the face. So here's me, crying, panicking and trying to drown myself to get away from the things. I was sure they'd kill me (not really... but I am dramatic when I'm fearful).

I can totally handle snakes, spiders, mice and rats no problem. Biting moose flies, and hornets, wasps and June Bugs? Uhh kill me now. lol