The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[salt and pepper]

They red one is the bug, that's a black ant for comparison. The brown tiny bugs have slowly been replace by these, sorry for the bad pic

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't want to start any fights, but I'm fairly sure coccidiosis is species specific. I did some research when I worked at a feed store because the owner kept telling me the chickens were going to give the kittens cocci.

By the same token, squirrels are mammals like us and we cannot catch chicken lice or mites because they are bird specific. I could be wrong, but I would assume the reverse is also true.
Squirrel lice/mites/fleas evolved for squirrel or rodent blood. I highly doubt they would survive on a chicken long enough to do anything worse than bother them with the occasional bite and itching for a couple of days.

That being said, squirrels WILL eat all your food and possibly scare the chickens.

Oh, and nothing is squirrel proof!

ETA if I am indeed wrong about any of these things it would be great if someone could point to research for me to learn from so I'm not inadvertently spreading ignorance.

My yard is squirrel proof............................. meet .....................

squirrelnator 1 (Tucker) and his side kick

Dog on crack just give me something to chase. (Sasha)

 

[armorfirelady]

Kausandra love your squirrel terminators. I have 2 as well named Bear & Lily. And thanks for telling me about duct tape booties. Held up during our thunderstorms yesterday so well I had to cut them off today.

Mumsy congrats on the new eggs !!! Are you able to sell those at your local market also?


Today was day 2 of bumble foot treatment. My mom was off and in charge of the foot soak. Her one foot has no black at all so I just cleanedit up & put more poultice on it and bandaged it.
Her foot with the biggest spot I tried to cut more of the black scab off with a new exacto knife. Still no luck but I was able to squeeze out some pus and get a bigger whole in the scab. When I squeezed it this would pop out:

Reminded me of a zit. It was stringy sort of. Not hard. I tried for over a half an hour to pull it out then gave up since Green was losing her patience. More poultice on it with new wrap.
Is this the core you guys have spoken of? I didnt want to pull it out or squeeze more if it is something that should remain in her foot (do chickens have muscles in their pads? Or is it like your cheek and just all tissue?)

The pad doesnt seem as red today. My Mom is able to help me again tomorrow so if this center tissue thingy is suppose to come out I will try again tomorrow.

On a happy note I picked 10#s of blueberries & 4 quarts of raspberries. Made a wonderful pie & jam

I even let the chickens try them. They LOVE blueberries & entertained me for half an hour playing keep away. The tots loved them so much they got within 2 feet of me. First time they have ever been that close to me

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I have one Sumatra. I must say the little chick is adorable and so small. We have named her Tiny. One of the few chicks that has a name. The week old chicks I have in my main brooder did not like the new addition so he is all by himself in a smaller box. She seems happy. I think she might be a loner. I added a small mirror to the box and she went nuts trying to get away from the mirror.

I am hatching some chicks from our rooster Buster that the owl got a while back. They should start hatching Thursday so Tiny will hopefully get some friends and a bigger box. I collected the eggs in the first week after the attack, but we had another rooster in with the girls after the attack. I'm only keeping the ones where Buster is the father. The rest should sell quick enough on craigslist.

Mumsy congrats on the eggs. Just curious, but do you sell your eggs locally?

 

[Leahs Mom]

A bit of humor

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=EADC17C55558EC771C29B1DCA1C1EC92

I resemble this remark

 

[starlingdaly]

I''m in agreement re: squirrels and chipmunks.  They're very destructive.  BTW, I once watched a chipmunk sit on top of my wood pile and eat a frog. 

I thankfully have no issues with tree rodents as 1. No large trees around the chicken area. 2. I have a dog with an intense chase instinct named Courage. 3. The neighbor with the goats has a LGD Great Pyrenees so between it all, no squirrels come within 100 yards of the chickens.

I would much rather my chickens be able to eat those frogs! I had a turkey nearly choke himself swallowing a toad last week. Turkeys are so persistent... Lol

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
I am at the point where I'm considering goats. But they would have to be the end unless we move. Oh no maybe I'm in over my head after all.

 

[starlingdaly]

I am at the point where I'm considering goats.  But they would have to be the end unless we move.  Oh no maybe I'm in over my head after all.

Next it will be BUTTER for your homemade bread!!!

On a serious note, I am thinking bees are the next step before goats for me.

 

[midnightroo]

Kass, beautiful dogs

Mumsy, congrats on your eggs.

Armor, glad your bumble foot seems to be improving. Ours love blueberries also! They eat them from our bush, though they don't seem to be interested in our raspberries.

I never knew squirrels ate birds, eggs I could see, but not birds. That's weird. I thought chipmunks were cute too. I guess I was wrong.

Does anyone have any issues with slow digestion and feed? My hen who had sour crop I think has digestion issues that are causing the crop to bloat. Yesterday she ate a ton of Japanese beetles and her crop wasn't bloated and she looked fine this morning. Then this afternoon I gave them dry feed and she has become bloated again. She ate some beetles then I felt her crop and I could only feel air, where did the beetles go? Any suggestions besides yogurt and garlic to help digestion ? It would almost seem to me that she would do best eating large particles of food rather then the small ground up food. Thoughts? Up until today I have been giving them feed that soaked overnight so I don't think that is helping or hurting her.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Eggcessive]

My sick chicks look better than they did 12 hrs ago. Hopefully I caught it in time, but I'll have to wait and see. I'm just not sure where it came from. They're in my basement and I keep the pens clean but not too clean. I did bring in some 1-2 week old chicks in about 5 weeks ago and I switched feed stores. Maybe the feed store? They would've been outside a long time ago, but the rain keeps coming!! We started our coop 2 months ago!! The few nice days we've had, my son has baseball games. We cleaned the brooders on Saturday and threw the bedding in the compost pile. My 3 month olds are out there. Should I treat them now since they were happily scratching in the bedding?

I have been reading some on coccidia, and the textbook says it is most common between 3-6 weeks, and that it is mostly spread by our shoes transferring the oocysts from contaminated dirt to brooders, etc. The 3 month-olds probably have built up immunity. Corid is not harmful though, so if you are worried, you can treat them without worry. Give everyone some vitamins when they have completed the Corid to replace the ones they have lost.