The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa -
When Margaret got her foot in the waterer and had frostbite...was she a young'un? While working on my winter water ideas, I've been wanting to keep the openings very small so that doesn't happen. Then Delisha said she doesn't have that problem with the adults and just leaves an open bowl of water.

So...how old was Margaret when she got in the water?

Has anyone else had any problems with you chickens stepping in water in winter and getting frostbitten?
Does anyone else have open waterers during winter?

Please share your experience with this.

 

[mlowen]

Aoxa--infected ticks don't usually transmit the Lyme organism until it's been on you for 36 hours, so if you found & got it out before that, you should be fine. Be on the lookout for a bull's-eye shaped rash around the site of the bite. If you see that--get thee to a doctor and insist on antibiotics. There's a lot of controversy about "chronic Lyme disease" but I know someone who has been totally disabled for more than 4 years and the only thing they can find is she was bit by a tick. (Brain damage and pain and fatigue symptoms...devastating.)

 

[aoxa]

Its time for guess the breed again! want to play? what do you think?

Is this your bantam?

 

[lalaland]

nope, she's twice as big as the bantam. The pic on the roost is at about 9 weeks, she is 11 weeks in the pics with the bo in them.
None of the other chicks look like her, so she is an only. Not sure if she is a leghorn x araucana cross= superbluelayer, which would mean I fell for the hype on that and ordered them AND actually got one, or something else!

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa -
When Margaret got her foot in the waterer and had frostbite...was she a young'un? While working on my winter water ideas, I've been wanting to keep the openings very small so that doesn't happen. Then Delisha said she doesn't have that problem with the adults and just leaves an open bowl of water.

So...how old was Margaret when she got in the water?

Has anyone else had any problems with you chickens stepping in water in winter and getting frostbitten?
Does anyone else have open waterers during winter?

Please share your experience with this.

She was roughly 8 months old. I was standing there, she was perched on the edge and drinking and a scuffle scared her, she flew right into the centre, and back out. That day it was -30 out. It was almost instant it froze.

She was limping pretty badly, so I picked her up, felt her feet stiff as can be and set her in the brooder with the chicks and a heat lamp while we worked on our breeding pens. They still weren't any better when we finished, she couldn't perch, they were straight out and clenched a little. She was walking REALLY weird. I decided to bring her inside and see if I could get her thawed out. I used mildly warm water so not to shock her.

The feet were swollen like crazy after a few hours, and I felt the need to drain them because I thought maybe it was something other than frost bite. The pressure was very painful for her. As soon as I lanced some she seemed to feel immediate relief.

Anyway, I probably went way too much into that!

 

[lalaland]

Quote:
in more than a decade, I've never had a chicken with the problem poor margaret suffered. But then, I've never had chicks in the winter, either, just p.o.l or older. And the waterers have either been the kind that chickens can't step into, or else the bucket type - not something that could be walked into. I did have a hen fly into the rain barrel, which was covered with window screen tied with a bungee, and somehow get into the water and drown. Now I keep a bicycle whell on top of the rain barrel. Might be something like the strange disasters that can happen, but don't very often.

 

[lalaland]

well, she was 8 months old, which throws my theory that she was a chick right out the window. dang. another thing to worry about.

 

[aoxa]

Lala,

she has a long tail... It's very unique. How does she hold it most times? Downward?

I'm researching. It's likely she is purebred correct?

 

[aoxa]

well, she was 8 months old, which throws my theory that she was a chick right out the window. dang. another thing to worry about.

If it makes it any better, she was recently put in with the big chickens. She was always on edge, as she and her sisters (and her rooster) were just getting used to everyone.

Probably wasn't the best time to integrate.. or the best option for a little bantam to drink out of. She had to perch on the edge to drink because she is so tiny.

 

[delisha]

Question, can you mix calf manna into FF. I have started a craze on a closed FB group and this question came up.

no, you need to sprinkle it on top just before service, or mix it in just before.

Lala...Wonderful!

Quote: Glass Daubers

Not sure what those are?

Quote: Thanks!

I know that website...seen them before. I was wondering if that was what you're reading. I don't have the address here where I am but I could post it when I'm on the other computer I think, if anyone is interested in a link.

They are one inch round glass bingo old daubers. Too big to swallow and 1/4 inch thick. They don't make them any more. They make the thin ones with metal now.

Aoxa -
When Margaret got her foot in the waterer and had frostbite...was she a young'un? While working on my winter water ideas, I've been wanting to keep the openings very small so that doesn't happen. Then Delisha said she doesn't have that problem with the adults and just leaves an open bowl of water.

So...how old was Margaret when she got in the water?

Has anyone else had any problems with you chickens stepping in water in winter and getting frostbitten?
Does anyone else have open waterers during winter?

Please share your experience with this.

I have had open water for 35 years and not one frost bite. I have had them step in snow and water in all temps. No frost bite.

well, she was 8 months old, which throws my theory that she was a chick right out the window. dang. another thing to worry about.

she has -30 days as a norm.
Congrats on finding your girl!!