The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[midnightroo]

The swelling did go down some when I first lanced it but was swollen again when I couldnt do a bandage change for 4 days. Tuesday when I used the biopsy punch I was able to get more infection out and yesterday it was still swollen some. Today after work I am going to change the bandage again and see about getting some more infection out of the worse of the 2 feet.  The one with the minor bumble foot is def not as swollen tho. 

Ok thank you for your help. It helps me to judge how she is healing. I wasn't able to do a change tonight, but I will tomorrow night.

Lovely photos this evening. Camille I think your photographic skills are excellent.

 

[camilleathome]

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Lovely photos this evening. Camille I think your photographic skills are excellent.

Thank you. Im still practicing. Im not 100% happy yet with my photos but Thats probably due to my camera settings. I need to practice more. I want bright visit colors and crisp photos. Im waiting for another lens in the mail as well this one is 135mm So i have to be rather far away as its to get stuff really close up.

 

[Mumsy]

A question for those that breed chickens. When hatching chicks to breed and improve a flock, What are some reasons that you might cull a chick or duckling? I have a duckling with legs that go sideways. I've got them tied together and it looks to be doing much better. But it got me thinking, is this a weakness that I don't want. Since I have no intention of breeding ducks anytime soon, it won't matter but if it was a chicken I'm not sure I would want to breed it.

This is a good question and it's going to get a lot of different responses because we all want to do such diverse things with our flocks.

I'm sixty years old. My physical health is not going to last more than another ten to fifteen years where I can clean pens, butcher, and generally keep a flock going on my own. My husband is older than me and though we do things together now, ten years is our target for what we want to do with our property and our poultry.

So ten years is what I give my heritage Rhode Island Reds, Show and breeder quality Silkies, and maybe a breeding pair of Blue Slate Turkeys. The turkeys are easy. Raising them to eat. Only chicks with obvious deformities will be culled. The Silkie chicks that are hatched with deformities or serious defects will not stay to grow out. This will not be a serious issue with my Silkie flock as I am starting it with top notch birds that have come from top notch breeders. There will be an odd one here and there no doubt. I won't keep them.

The HRIR are the hard ones. They take a year to fully develop. Mine are four months old and eating me out of house and home. I just butchered one because it had severe knock knees and a solid white tail feather. I had fourteen cockerels. One was 'Balloon Chicken'. I now have maybe twelve males and eight females. I will keep two or three breeder males and all the females for my starter flock. It's brutal waiting. I need to cull out three or four cockerels as soon as possible to get my feed bill down but with this strain, I could make a genetic mistake by culling a slow bloomer. I need to devote three to five years of severe selection with this flock to get where I want to be with them. This variety needs preservation. There are still very few breeders of heritage Rhode Island Reds in the USA.

 

[aoxa]

This is a good question and it's going to get a lot of different responses because we all want to do such diverse things with our flocks.

I'm sixty years old. My physical health is not going to last more than another ten to fifteen years where I can clean pens, butcher, and generally keep a flock going on my own. My husband is older than me and though we do things together now, ten years is our target for what we want to do with our property and our poultry.

So ten years is what I give my heritage Rhode Island Reds, Show and breeder quality Silkies, and maybe a breeding pair of Blue Slate Turkeys. The turkeys are easy. Raising them to eat. Only chicks with obvious deformities will be culled. The Silkie chicks that are hatched with deformities or serious defects will not stay to grow out. This will not be a serious issue with my Silkie flock as I am starting it with top notch birds that have come from top notch breeders. There will be an odd one here and there no doubt. I won't keep them.

The HRIR are the hard ones. They take a year to fully develop. Mine are four months old and eating me out of house and home. I just butchered one because it had severe knock knees and a solid white tail feather. I had fourteen cockerels. One was 'Balloon Chicken'. I now have maybe twelve males and eight females. I will keep two or three breeder males and all the females for my starter flock. It's brutal waiting. I need to cull out three or four cockerels as soon as possible to get my feed bill down but with this strain, I could make a genetic mistake by culling a slow bloomer. I need to devote three to five years of severe selection with this flock to get where I want to be with them. This variety needs preservation. There are still very few breeders of heritage Rhode Island Reds in the USA.

You and I have very similar management styles in breeding. Thanks for putting it in such detail.

If only you had the land to exclusively free range they wouldn't need additional feed. :/

 

[delisha]

A question for those that breed chickens. When hatching chicks to breed and improve a flock, What are some reasons that you might cull a chick or duckling? I have a duckling with legs that go sideways. I've got them tied together and it looks to be doing much better. But it got me thinking, is this a weakness that I don't want. Since I have no intention of breeding ducks anytime soon, it won't matter but if it was a chicken I'm not sure I would want to breed it.

For all chicks: genetic defaults, failure to thrive, unsocial or aggressive.
Adolescence: bad attitude, poor feather quality, DQ's.
Adult: Fertility issues
Sally, if it is a meat bird, grow out to butcher size, if you are not eating it...depends on if you want or can afford to feed it forever. If you have the resources to feed out a duck for 10 years that you will need to keep seperate and not breed. I do not have that luxarey. I do cull if I am not going to use it to breed. (I do have silkies that I do not (cannot) personally eat, but I do feed them out to the animals)

HELP PLEASE>>> I picked up two chicks from a local breeder Sunday. I believe they are 2-3wks "a sizzle & a frizzle" both have 5 toes one has black skin the other white. The white skinned frizzle is doing great, very active and has already learned how to use the nipple waterer. Her companion now has a fluid filled sack the size of a small walnut on her chest. When I massage it she throw up clear no smelling water. She wont use the nipple waterer, she is eating she has no pasty butt, she has clear eyes. What ever this is on her chest is draining her though, she is not as active as the other. HELPPPP any advice is greatly appreciated.

I would need a picture. I can't give advise on something that sounds very serious with out seeing it. It could be as simple as an over full crop.

Quote: I sold my HRIR for this reason. I do not have the finances for 15-18 month to feed out 30-50 birds that might all end up in the pot. They ate more than my Orpingtons. My Orpingtons love to eat grass, herbs and spinach. The RIR loved FF and were so food aggressive. They might have done me a favor and forced the big Orps to range more since they were afraid to come close to a food area.lol

 

[aoxa]

For all chicks: genetic defaults, failure to thrive, unsocial or aggressive.
Adolescence: bad attitude, poor feather quality, DQ's.
Adult: Fertility issues
Sally, if it is a meat bird, grow out to butcher size, if you are not eating it...depends on if you want or can afford to feed it forever. If you have the resources to feed out a duck for 10 years that you will need to keep seperate and not breed. I do not have that luxarey. I do cull if I am not going to use it to breed. (I do have silkies that I do not (cannot) personally eat, but I do feed them out to the animals)
I would need a picture. I can't give advise on something that sounds very serious with out seeing it.
I sold my HRIR for this reason. I do not have the finances for 15-18 month to feed out 30-50 birds that might all end up in the pot. They ate more than my Orpingtons. My Orpingtons love to eat grass, herbs and spinach. The RIR loved FF and were so food aggressive. They might have done me a favor and forced the big Orps to range more since they were afraid to come close to a food area.lol

I have three HRIR and they don't seem to eat an abnormal amount. I didn't want to breed them, but I have a trio nonetheless. Maybe I will, who knows. The girls are much prettier than the boy who seems quite lanky right now (at almost 13 weeks).

My one buff orp ate enough feed for two full grown Barred Plymouth Rocks. Crazy eater, but boy was she a looker.

 

[Mumsy]

I have three HRIR and they don't seem to eat an abnormal amount. I didn't want to breed them, but I have a trio nonetheless. Maybe I will, who knows. The girls are much prettier than the boy who seems quite lanky right now (at almost 13 weeks).

My one buff orp ate enough feed for two full grown Barred Plymouth Rocks. Crazy eater, but boy was she a looker.

My HRIR are a very calm and docile strain. They aren't aggressive towards the food or the other chickens but they are big boned muscle bound birds and need a lot of groceries. You would laugh at how the little White Silkie hens and bantam RIR pullets bully those big cockerels off the feed pans. I laugh every time I see it. It's the main reason I wanted them. For that gentle good nature and a big meaty bodies that lays jumbo eggs. It's getting my breeder flock started that is the hardest part. I want a foundation flock of twelve. No more, no less. But I want them excellent in type. True to the SOP. Right now they get along in one large free ranging flock with my Silkies and layers but my property is very small. My house, garage, and gardens are a half acre. Only half of that is accessible to the chickens. They certainly are not easy on the pocket book right now but this time next year it will all be more manageable.

Edited to add: Your right Justine. At this age the girls are prettier than the boys. Those fellows remind me of awkward thirteen year old boys that have feet that are too big for them to manage. They are so clumsy sometimes. I laugh at them everyday.

 

[camilleathome]

just a quick question. my silkie hen had started to lay eggs every two days like clockwork and stopped a while ago. Im just worried. Maybe shes not getting enough of something? Their on grower right now as I have chicks in with them

 

[aoxa]

just a quick question. my silkie hen had started to lay eggs every two days like clockwork and stopped a while ago. Im just worried. Maybe shes not getting enough of something? Their on grower right now as I have chicks in with them

Are you still free ranging them Camille? She could be laying somewhere different, or the heat could do it for sure. My blue silkie hen has stopped maybe four or five days ago. Only one of those silkies is laying. Also, either Doc or Hope is. I am not sure which, but I am guessing Doc, as she is doing the broody sounds. Any day now!!

You need a hen in lay... Wish I had one for you!

I'm so glad you don't go out and just add. So many people do around here, and ILT was record high this year.

 

[RedRidge]

A question for those that breed chickens. When hatching chicks to breed and improve a flock, What are some reasons that you might cull a chick or duckling? I have a duckling with legs that go sideways. I've got them tied together and it looks to be doing much better. But it got me thinking, is this a weakness that I don't want. Since I have no intention of breeding ducks anytime soon, it won't matter but if it was a chicken I'm not sure I would want to breed it.

There have been several good answers here already, but I think the generic answer is this... it depends on what your goals are.
So many people want "cute", or "sweet", or "lays well"...
if that's the case... go for it.

But... I personally see a real need for maintaining genetic integrity and have hopes that for all breeds of all livestock there are enough folks out there attempting to maintain that the breeds do not suffer. I have zero problem of keeping everything, breeding and cross breeding without purpose, etc - I have a flock of production layers who are all kinds of mixes. But... to preserve and promote a specific breed I cull almost EVERYTHING.

I plan to breed what I don't cull. If I wasn't going to breed it, I might keep it for other reasons, but I only keep what I plan to breed. That's just me. And no matter HOW wonderful everything else is, I don't keep anything with a bad temperament. Again... that's just me and an important part of my goals.

Why? Because why would you breed and perpetuate anything other than the best? The only exceptions to this are "saving future culls".
Most people don't have enough of a breeding plan to even have a "future cull" list.
For instance... if bird A is awesome in so many ways but needs his comb improved... BUT he's the best I have so far. I keep him, breed him to the best hen who came out of a great combed bird... and get a bunch of chicks. Once I get a chick who is an improvement on his dad, the dad goes. The dad was a future cull. I knew he wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but he served a purpose to get me another step closer to that goal.

I have this philosophy about all the livestock I breed. A ram who was national champion... he doesn't stick around forever... as soon as he produces a son better than himself he has lost his status. I have a supreme champion bull... exceptionally nice fella in almost every way including temperament. He has one, not so obvious, fault that I really want to correct. As soon as I get a son out of him, he will go in the freezer (or maybe to help improve someone else's genetics - I haven't decided yet).

I takes time to sell and market quality stock - especially if you don't show and aren't "out there in the public eye".
I know many breeders who have quality stock and don't show. I will likely not being show over the next couple of years (last child off to college next month and a farm to run - spread too thin) and suspect I have some RC HRIR that would kick butt at the national level. But if I don't show them, I can't get that feedback for sure and no one will know me... I will not have developed a reputation in that breed to easily promote what I have. I will be limited to selling the quality birds only to those who take the time to look at them and have enough knowledge to know what they are looking at.

So... I have to ask myself... what are my goals? For me... I want to make sure that what I have 5 years from now is AT LEAST of the quality I have right now... hopefully better. To have the confidence that I'm doing that I am probably going to have to pack up a few birds and make a few road trips to get some professional advice from those more knowledgeable.
So , more importantly... you have to ask yourself... what are YOUR goals?

Wow... I probably got long winded there... sorry... got on a roll...