The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Great pictures..I took a picture today too

 

[camilleathome]

Great pictures..I took a picture today too

Too cute! I cant wait to see my hens doing this!

 

[aoxa]

Sounds like you have a large variety of chickens. I'm curious, why are you not planning on having Cornish X again? We're thinking of getting some meat birds and have never done it before, so I'd like any opinions anyone has. Thanks!

You really can't beat the food conversion of a Cornish X...

Their rato is 2:1 (intake two times what they weigh at slaughter roughly)> You wouldn't get that out of a DP bird.. Also the DP roosters have to be slow cooked.

I let my meaties out to free range all day. They did really well, even though half had to be placed back in the pen at close up (8:30 pm) They were outside for 12 hours.





It was unbearably hot. I had shade shelters and they hardly left them. Poor things.



Makeshift shade shelter. I tried to convince them to go under it with feed. Didn't work. They had to do it on their own free will. :/ Lol

I did feed them morning and around 2pm. I tried for an hour to get them to forage for their own feed before caving and giving them something. They need a few days to adjust I think.. I know the Houdans and Easter Eggers did, and now they are gone in the woods all day.

Great pictures..I took a picture today too

 

[delisha]

Thanks everyone for the comments and loves to the baby's. I love to see baby's on the ground with mom's.

Great work on the FR with the meaties. They will eventually go as soon as you open the door, it does take them a while.
I loved raising meaties. Food conversion is hard to beat. I have a cross breed to the original meaties. They still do very well. I do not breed much of them anymore unless i have orders. i have plenty of cull males to fill the freezer now with the other breeds.

 

[armorfirelady]

Love the pics Aoxa & Delisha.

I picked some lavender today. Need to read up more on when I should pick it. Had a very stressful day at work and got forced late as well. Went and sat with the chickens for awhile. The tots were trying some basil I held out to them. They loved it. I picked some more and put oregano and lavender in the nesting boxes and in their feed trough with some parsley, chamollie & kale. I am curious if it will be gone by the morning. I figure if they need it they will eat it. I want to start some more oregano from seed in pots to see if I can get it to grow so they have some into the fall.

I have to say Edie the EE is quite amusing with me. She loves to talk to me and come up to me. She won't let me touch her but I am ok with it. It's just fun to listen to her talk and tilt her head as she does. And George well no more crowing and the big girls still intimidate him but I swear his feet and shanks have doubled in size. I can just sit there and watch him walk with his big feet. I hope he grows into them........he still walks like they are shoes that are to big

 

[aoxa]

Thanks everyone for the comments and loves to the baby's. I love to see baby's on the ground with mom's.

Great work on the FR with the meaties. They will eventually go as soon as you open the door, it does take them a while.
I loved raising meaties. Food conversion is hard to beat. I have a cross breed to the original meaties. They still do very well. I do not breed much of them anymore unless i have orders. i have plenty of cull males to fill the freezer now with the other breeds.

I figured it will take them a while. They enjoyed the day as long as they had their shade! Hard to convince them that the woods have a lot of fun stuff to do and food to eat, as well as shade.

 

[Bulldogma]

Great pictures Camille, Aoxa & Delisha!

 

[Mrs Hutcherson]

The mystery chicks kinda look like the 2nd and 3rd pics from the bottom of camilleathomes flock pics...

 

[camilleathome]

The mystery chicks kinda look like the 2nd and 3rd pics from the bottom of camilleathomes flock pics...

Thats my little turkey

 

[Mrs Hutcherson]

That's what I was thinking
Little cutie