The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

I saw a recipe to make "home made" fly paper on FED. I filed it away and thought I'd try it some day:
I'm all for diy, but that makes no sense to me to spend the time and money and wasting food....IMHO. as was pointed out, flypaper is cheap cheap cheap and you can get the kind that is nothing but sticky paper.
But fun to see the blogger coating her paper :)
 
I appreciate talking about natural living, but this thread has veered far from chicken talk.

Your so right!
So chicken question here... I have two wild roosters that live in the back pasture (someone just dropped them off one day) we give them water. Anywho my babies (2+ months old) were out in the yard playing around and the one rooster came out of nowhere and pins my one young rooster down and starts shrieking at him! Feathers all ruffled... Why would he do that? My dears arnt old enough to do anything yet!
 
I found one of my turkeys dead this morning. It was a total shock- they were all totally fine last night. So I was seriously thinking about (just thinking about... I have an irrational fear of dead things) doing a necropsy when I went in to get the body, and I saw a bunch of blood splattered on a trough near the dead turkey. So I used that as a completely lame reason not to do a necropsy, and figured it was a predator of sorts. But there doesn't appear to be any damage done to the fencing, so ??? I'm thinking one of two things- a raccoon reach through (but it's chicken wire around the bottom, and I figure a racoon would try to get through and stretch the wire, and I saw no sign of that) OR a weasel or mink. I've never seen any sign of weasels or mink here before, and we don't live super close to water... but there is a river like 3 miles away. Anyway, I'm thinking the turkeys, who were in a tractor last night, might be sleeping in the main coop with the broodies tonight. But even my main coop isn't 100% weasel proof. There's hardware cloth around the vents and everything, but there were a few places where I couldn't get my hands/tools up under the eaves to secure it very well. Here's hoping it was a one time thing...
That sucks to hear. I wouldn't rule out accidents just yet though. I once had a chicken get her throat caught on a bit of 'chicken' wire. Shredded down about 3 or so inches. Blood everywhere, but she recovered with a bit of treatment. Assuming your situation isn't a predator issue, I'd check around the trough for any sharp points. Maybe something startled the turkey & it caught its neck on a bit of loose metal.

However, I don't know the size of your wire spaces. Weasels can fit in 1" mesh without issue. But taking on a full-blown turkey, now that's risky.

As for the fly issue/topic, why not just lay out a bowl of ACV & let the flies drown in it? Then you can feed them to the chicks without worry of poisons. Seems a lot on this thread have ACV to spare. :)
 
Last edited:
I can't believe how fast my Cream Legbars are growing. I love when I go out there and they're passed out half under the Eco glow. I made bone in chicken breast two nights ago, and we pulled the meat off and gave the chicks one of the bones. An hour later the bone was a foot away from the plate and had zero meat left on it, the little chicks had huge crops and seemed happy.
Our Silkie broody has just over a week left on her eggs, she eats every day so I'm hoping she's not too skinny when she's done. My Cochin broody is very blasé about the whole thing, she gets up to eat and dust bathe, wanders around a bit then goes back to the eggs. We'll see how well her hatch goes.
 
I can't believe how fast my Cream Legbars are growing. I love when I go out there and they're passed out half under the Eco glow. I made bone in chicken breast two nights ago, and we pulled the meat off and gave the chicks one of the bones. An hour later the bone was a foot away from the plate and had zero meat left on it, the little chicks had huge crops and seemed happy.
Our Silkie broody has just over a week left on her eggs, she eats every day so I'm hoping she's not too skinny when she's done. My Cochin broody is very blasé about the whole thing, she gets up to eat and dust bathe, wanders around a bit then goes back to the eggs. We'll see how well her hatch goes.
How are the ducks now? I'm sure they are outside now and not making such a huge fart smelling mess?



My one and only duck above is 3 weeks here. Makes a huge mess of the pen, so I've been letting them out to free range. Henry got a hold of a chick and nearly killed it (playing) yesterday. I guess he didn't hurt it any, but it was completely drenched in slobber and it played dead for a second until Susan put it back in the pen. No puncture wounds, no broken bones. Just smelly like wet dog and probably with a wounded ego. It is completely fine. Henry got a stern punishment and is not allowed around the chicks outside right now.

He ignores the big chickens.. these chicks seem more fun to him. Something we will have to really work on.
 
Last edited:
I can't believe how fast my Cream Legbars are growing. I love when I go out there and they're passed out half under the Eco glow. I made bone in chicken breast two nights ago, and we pulled the meat off and gave the chicks one of the bones. An hour later the bone was a foot away from the plate and had zero meat left on it, the little chicks had huge crops and seemed happy.
Our Silkie broody has just over a week left on her eggs, she eats every day so I'm hoping she's not too skinny when she's done. My Cochin broody is very blasé about the whole thing, she gets up to eat and dust bathe, wanders around a bit then goes back to the eggs. We'll see how well her hatch goes.

Isn't it funny the different personalities chickens have? Before I had them I just couldn't fatham them being anything beyond a barnyard animal... Now they've wormed their way right into my heart, just so cute!!
 
Could the addition of ACV plus the high temperatures have made the water get extra moldy and nasty in just a few days?


I thought one of the main reasons for adding the ACV with the mother is to help keep the water and plastic waterers from getting slimy and nasty, particularly during the hot months...
 
I found one of my turkeys dead this morning. It was a total shock- they were all totally fine last night. So I was seriously thinking about (just thinking about... I have an irrational fear of dead things) doing a necropsy when I went in to get the body, and I saw a bunch of blood splattered on a trough near the dead turkey. So I used that as a completely lame reason not to do a necropsy, and figured it was a predator of sorts. But there doesn't appear to be any damage done to the fencing, so ??? I'm thinking one of two things- a raccoon reach through (but it's chicken wire around the bottom, and I figure a racoon would try to get through and stretch the wire, and I saw no sign of that) OR a weasel or mink. I've never seen any sign of weasels or mink here before, and we don't live super close to water... but there is a river like 3 miles away. Anyway, I'm thinking the turkeys, who were in a tractor last night, might be sleeping in the main coop with the broodies tonight. But even my main coop isn't 100% weasel proof. There's hardware cloth around the vents and everything, but there were a few places where I couldn't get my hands/tools up under the eaves to secure it very well. Here's hoping it was a one time thing...

Sorry about your turkey
sad.png
Hope you don't have any repeats. Even if it's a meat bird it sucks. everything here is 1/2 inch wire because of the weasels. We're right on a large creek.
Isn't it funny the different personalities chickens have? Before I had them I just couldn't fatham them being anything beyond a barnyard animal... Now they've wormed their way right into my heart, just so cute!!
I know! Our layers are way more like pets than they should be probably
tongue.png
I never thought they'd have so much personality and be so much fun, or that I would get hours of enjoyment out of watching the silly critters

All the chooks really wet and unhappy today, I keep seeing them huddled wet and miserable under various structures in the yard. Every time I ope the front door there's a different group of them sitting on the front porch. The kids and I are stir crazy and stuck inside. It's raining and raining and raining and raining some more. there's a bona fide stream running through my garden. I'm somewhat nervously watching the creek rapidly rise and keeping an ear out for the flood claxons. Huricane Irene is far to recent of a memory for this sort of heavy drenching rain on already saturated soil to be a comfortable experience.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom