The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[countrygirl74]

Just popping on here to say thanks for all the info on the electrolyte - made it and gave it to them today!

I posted this on another thread and didn't get any response... any thoughts??

It's about my 19 week old beautiful big Cochin boy.

He seems extremely healthy - beautiful feathering, healthy weight, eats, drinks, runs, recently started mounting the girls, etc. However, when he gets scared/stressed or when it's really hot and he's panting, he squeaks. Has anyone else ever experienced that? It's actually pretty loud sometimes - would it help if I got video? He sounds like an asthmatic chicken. I've never seen this before - none of my other chickens do this. It's only when he's panting hard - not when he's calm and cool and breathing normally. He doesn't crow at all yet - very quiet, mellow but acts completely normal otherwise.

 

[camilleathome]

Just popping on here to say thanks for all the info on the electrolyte - made it and gave it to them today!

I posted this on another thread and didn't get any response... any thoughts??

It's about my 19 week old beautiful big Cochin boy.

He seems extremely healthy - beautiful feathering, healthy weight, eats, drinks, runs, recently started mounting the girls, etc. However, when he gets scared/stressed or when it's really hot and he's panting, he squeaks. Has anyone else ever experienced that? It's actually pretty loud sometimes - would it help if I got video? He sounds like an asthmatic chicken. I've never seen this before - none of my other chickens do this. It's only when he's panting hard - not when he's calm and cool and breathing normally. He doesn't crow at all yet - very quiet, mellow but acts completely normal otherwise.

I THINK mine are about that age for my HRIR and they arent crowing yet either. Im horrible with dates but AOXA remembers their hatch date and Im sure hubby does too XD

 

[delisha]

Just popping on here to say thanks for all the info on the electrolyte - made it and gave it to them today!

I posted this on another thread and didn't get any response... any thoughts??

It's about my 19 week old beautiful big Cochin boy.

He seems extremely healthy - beautiful feathering, healthy weight, eats, drinks, runs, recently started mounting the girls, etc. However, when he gets scared/stressed or when it's really hot and he's panting, he squeaks. Has anyone else ever experienced that? It's actually pretty loud sometimes - would it help if I got video? He sounds like an asthmatic chicken. I've never seen this before - none of my other chickens do this. It's only when he's panting hard - not when he's calm and cool and breathing normally. He doesn't crow at all yet - very quiet, mellow but acts completely normal otherwise.

That squeek might be his beginning crow. When the boy start crowing some of them have some strange sounds. My Orpingtons whistle at the end of a crow. My silkies sounds like he is saying...mama when he crows.

 

[armorfirelady]

Delisha loved the videos. That silkie made me laugh. He looks like he has pants when he walks

 

[Pozees]

y'all are just getting tired of me trying to figure out what in the blazes the chicks I ended up with are, and I'm just never gonna know, am I? and here I've been holding off and not clogging up the thread wtih pics of all 14 chick s that I'm clueless about.
dagnabbit.

oh well. happy friday all!

I think your crested one is SFH with some weird frizzling in the back feathers, the other I have no clue, maybe a cross? Once they get older and complete juvenile molt you will have a better idea, I would think.

jockeyba I had the exact same reaction to the story chooks4life posted about the mangled horse corpse, how horrifying! I am really interested in more pics of your mystery chicks. I think they are chickens, but no idea what kind.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Update on my duckling with the sideways legs: I had to use yarn to keep the legs together but today when I went to change the yarn it could waddle on its own correctly. So no more yarn.

Sorry I did not get a picture when they were still sideways. I saw the post mentioning a picture last night but the legs are better this morning.

And my ducks are growing so much faster than my chickens. They are either going to be giants or stop growing a lot sooner than my chickens.

 

[aoxa]

y'all are just getting tired of me trying to figure out what in the blazes the chicks I ended up with are, and I'm just never gonna know, am I? and here I've been holding off and not clogging up the thread wtih pics of all 14 chick s that I'm clueless about.
dagnabbit.

oh well. happy friday all!

I'm not getting tired of it. I just have no clue. My guess would be mutt on the last one you showed, because it looks way too soft in the colouring to be a SFH, and I have never seen any other crested breed that looks like that.

I just wish I could answer what they were

I posted the picture in another thread and all said turkeys that answered.

That was my first thought. I find turkeys and peafowl look very similar at this age, although turkeys have that snood.

I knew they didn't look like chickens! Glad I'm not the only one that thinks so.

I think it's more likely someone gave free turkey poults rather than free peafowl chicks.. Peafowl are crazy expensive here.

OK I have video of the brat boy

Again with the inappropriate recommended videos. The first one recommended twerking. OH MY GOSH I laughed so hard. Sorry Del. Had to say it.

The silkie is really cute!

I THINK mine are about that age for my HRIR and they arent crowing yet either. Im horrible with dates but AOXA remembers their hatch date and Im sure hubby does too XD

I don't remember off hand. I keep calendar full of hatch dates. April 13th. They are 13 weeks old today.

 

[Bulldogma]

Lovely horses. Question though: do you know of why anyone would cull an apparently healthy yearling filly and chop off her neck at the shoulders, her legs below the knees, and gut her? They just left her in a gully like this on their farm next door, seemingly trying to bait pigs and wild dogs, since they shine a floodlight on her corpse at night. But it's strange they cut off those potentially identifying parts. (No brand on rump). I wonder if she was a theft. A lot of farmers round here can be malicious or vengeful like that, but maybe I'm just being suspicious.
Originally Posted by chooks4life

A lady drove up several days ago with these 10 chicks, she said a friend of ours told her we might take them off her hands.

Of course we did. She only had them 3 days, feeding them tamales.

She got them from a friend that said her hens laid large brown eggs, thats all I know about what they may be. Any guesses as to what breed or crossbreds?

I have no idea. And tamales??? Really??? (What is wrong with people??)

Quote:

Looks like this chick of mine (no idea what breed)



Any guess to who this is either? I originally was hoping swedish flower hen, but ....she has pink legs, a crest, she is very very fluffy, and right now a weird ruff of back feathers sticking up thru her wings. Here's another pic:

Possibly a SFH cross, but she does not look pure by any means. I've never had one that round at that age - mine are very athletically built - long and lean. Also, there should be more white on a SFH... the white tends to be very pronounced and not muted.

 

[chooks4life]

Id love to see photos. Im very visual

Sorry, I've moved away from that place, and the chooks aren't in a customized cage right now. I could do you up a sketch, or something, if you'd like.

Those do not look like chickens....

I posted the picture in another thread and all said turkeys that answered.

With crests?! I've raised many turkeys and they don't look like that! However, there was some supposed evidence that turkeys and chickens can on some rare occasions interbreed, leading to a messed up looking creature that is essentially worthless. I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, because many other species occasionally produce hybrids with distantly related species. They do look odd, but I've had chooks basically identical to that.

The sound they're making ought to identify them.

He seems extremely healthy - beautiful feathering, healthy weight, eats, drinks, runs, recently started mounting the girls, etc. However, when he gets scared/stressed or when it's really hot and he's panting, he squeaks. Has anyone else ever experienced that? It's actually pretty loud sometimes - would it help if I got video? He sounds like an asthmatic chicken. I've never seen this before - none of my other chickens do this. It's only when he's panting hard - not when he's calm and cool and breathing normally. He doesn't crow at all yet - very quiet, mellow but acts completely normal otherwise.

I had two chickens have serious issues with having inhaled something. Often when I first got them I would notice the hatchery girls would guzzle wildly at all foods and tiny cracked bits of grain (or anything small really) would often get in their airways. Most squeaked for a few minutes then got it out. One nearly died, she made horrible squeaking braying noises with every inhalation and exhalation for days and couldn't go far. After a few days she recovered and went on to live a long life (still got her, lol); the other progressively lost airway space until she was unable to move, blue around the edges of the wattles and crest, weak from oxygen starvation, and we culled her because she was struggling so badly with every breath.

In my experience the ones that squeak have more of a chance than the ones that don't. If they don't make much of a noise, it's too deep to be dislodged easily. There's nothing much you can do in either case as far as I know.

Your rooster sounds like he might have some kind of restricted airway issue that could be damage from a previous or existing lung infection. Doesn't sound like he's inhaled anything obstructive or inflammatory. But that said he could be sensitive to something in the environment which aggravates him when it's hot; maybe something that releases pollen when the temperature rises? I don't know, just theorizing. I notice some plants wait for a certain temperature before flooding the yard with perfume. Some lung issues do permanent damage. Some are inherited so best to keep an eye on him. If his offspring do it too... I'd make him into dinner.

Best wishes with that anyway. Maybe he's just gotten into the wrong sort of ash or something and burnt his lungs a bit. I'd suspect temporary trauma unless he's been that way all his life.

The only reason I can think that somebody would do such a thing would be if the animal had a life-threatening injury and had to be put down... I suppose if they were trying to attract pigs or dogs, then why not use the meat?

That's what I thought. Maybe she had an accident during a show. She was polished and oiled and preened to a high standard. They didn't own horses, so maybe they were saving someone a grave digging task. But it's strange they wouldn't use the whole thing for dogmeat, since they had dogs. I don't know what they were up to. I have often heard of horses getting stolen but that's bizarre. Recently someone stole 500 000 head of a prime droughtmaster herd of cattle. The cops have asked the abbatiors to keep an eye out for them, but really, whoever did that one has an extensive operation going with many accomplices in high places, and most likely a good few million acres where they'll never be found. Doubt they'd steal them to kill them immediately, they'll be spotted if even one cow from that herd makes her way into a slaughterhouse. I bet they stole them to breed, really.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Wow, took over an hour to catch up 400+ posts. My work schedule has me VERY busy. I picked up a mating pair of Buff Silkies last week to help a friend financially downsize her flock. Have one of their eggs under a broody with a bunch of other bantam Salmon Faverolles and Light Brown Leghorn eggs. I have some smut to breed out in the Buff, but have the time and space to work with it. Also got a Blue Grey Silkie(Genetically Blue, colored Grey and was told the color should be called Blue Grey by Sonoran Silkies), it is the product of my Buff cock over a Splash hen. Not sure on what is going to happen with this one. I may try and produce this color in my yard since I have the BBS to work with, then see what comes out with breeding the Blue Grey together and see if it breeds true or not. Finally ate our last "Frankenchicken". Prolly not going to do Cornish X again. I am thinking of Dark Cornish or Favorolles for my meat birds. I have access to both within 10 minutes of my home. So in the BBS and pet Silkie pen I have 3 Blue cockerels ages 5-9months(penned together separate) and Special Needs Porcelain cockerel with my PQ Buff/Lav Split pullet, a Black pullet, Light Blue pullet, and Dark Blue pullet ages 4-9months(penned together in the larger section of the Silkie pen). The Buffs and Blue Grey I got last weekend are in a quarantine pen and they are inside the tractor. I have about 20' buffer zone around the tractor, not the greatest quarantine, but it is the best I can do with what I have. Gonna be getting 3 Blue Marans chicks next weekend to grow out and put with my Wheaten Marans cockerel, gonna work on Blue Wheaten Marans. I will be processing 2 OE cockerels and a Fav cockerel once they are a good eating weight. Other than that just waiting on my original girls to start molting and the juvies to start laying. Crazy life on this mini farm.