The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Nooooooo not changing leaves!!!!!!

On the curing, I don't think it's the same when you're talking about saw dust as the full chips. I just didn't want to have freshly cut resins that haven't gotten to rest/cure some. I like to wait on my chip piles until I see worms living in them. But I have time for that because I now have (I think 5) huge piles after the neighbor brought those over. 1 of them is almost 2 years old and full of worms. It was pine. The second pile is also pine and about 8 mos old so I have plenty of older stuff to work with.

 

[lalaland]

i was hanging out in the coop waiting for the temp to drop a little before shutting the door (it was 98) and heard the funniest thing. you know, half of the coop is the big girls roost, and the other end is the 17 youngsters. Everyone was on the roost, and the big girls would start that irritated high pitched grrrr sound, and all of the youngsters would join right in. They did it a couple of times, it was hilarious. sounded like call and response.

Leah's mom, the cherry wood is a good score - deluxe. I can't think of any reason why it would be any kind of problem for the hens.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

What size are your individual pens for the boys?



I just got several HUGE piles of cherry and maple chips from the neighbor's house from trees he had cut down. I've never had maple or cherry before... I won't use it until it cures so no sooner than next spring... but have any of you used cherry or maple on the runs? Does anyone know any reason it wouldn't be a good idea?

You should smell that cherry! It's upwind from the chicken house and I can smell it every time I go out

Cherry does contain cyanide, mostly in the leaves and bark. You should be just fine though if you're not using the wood chips for awhile.

 

[camilleathome]

Some of her runners had a bit of East Indie in them.

Whatever he is hes way huge. Hes just as big as those two I have. And those two together had to weigh like 30+ pounds together when I was carrying them. Ive handled a fourty+ pound snake and didn't have as much trouble as I did Lugging those two in a box XD

 

[maryhysong]

Just wondering if anyone else has seen a bird with this; Nasty smelly discharge from the EARS! along with sneezing and some discharge from the nose.

This is an Ameraucauna pullet, hatched last Dec. Not laying yet, tho her hatchmate started about 3 weeks ago. I did not notice anything odd Sat evening when I let birds out to range, tho I have heard a few sneezes the last few days (just didn't see who it was). But tonight I really noticed her, one eye almost shut, but not with any bulging type of swelling. Noticed her beard and muffs looked dirty and her sneezing. So looked closer, her ears were crusty. I cleaned them of the dried goo and noticed the smell. I never really looked at chicken ears before ;-) didn't realize there were actual holes there, I guess I was thinking the openings were covered with skin.

Anyway, I poured peroxide in both her ears because I could see more nasty whitish discharge inside. Got them as clean as I could and wipe out her nose some. She became pretty lethargic in my lap once she realized she couldn't get loose and when I set her down I was really thinking she is just going to die tonight, that she'd be dead when I came back to check on her. Well, not so. She was up on her feet and her eye was opening up bigger than it was.

So far her crop is empty and she is not wanting to eat yet, but man when I have a head cold/ear infection I don't want to eat either. I did put down a small amount of feed, with some chopped garlic and mealworms.

Some background, this bird has been raised on certified organic feed, fermented, from day one. We do tend to have bad bouts of feather mites or some kind of lice. I dusted everyone with sulfur about the first of the month and this bird has the first live bugs I have seen since.

Ideas, suggestions? I'm going to keep her isolated and give her a couple days. Otherwise off with her head. I don't need her infecting 80+ other birds.

 

[hotrodflash]

Just wondering if anyone else has seen a bird with this; Nasty smelly discharge from the EARS! along with sneezing and some discharge from the nose.

This is an Ameraucauna pullet, hatched last Dec. Not laying yet, tho her hatchmate started about 3 weeks ago. I did not notice anything odd Sat evening when I let birds out to range, tho I have heard a few sneezes the last few days (just didn't see who it was). But tonight I really noticed her, one eye almost shut, but not with any bulging type of swelling. Noticed her beard and muffs looked dirty and her sneezing. So looked closer, her ears were crusty. I cleaned them of the dried goo and noticed the smell. I never really looked at chicken ears before ;-) didn't realize there were actual holes there, I guess I was thinking the openings were covered with skin.

Anyway, I poured peroxide in both her ears because I could see more nasty whitish discharge inside. Got them as clean as I could and wipe out her nose some. She became pretty lethargic in my lap once she realized she couldn't get loose and when I set her down I was really thinking she is just going to die tonight, that she'd be dead when I came back to check on her. Well, not so. She was up on her feet and her eye was opening up bigger than it was.

So far her crop is empty and she is not wanting to eat yet, but man when I have a head cold/ear infection I don't want to eat either. I did put down a small amount of feed, with some chopped garlic and mealworms.

Some background, this bird has been raised on certified organic feed, fermented, from day one. We do tend to have bad bouts of feather mites or some kind of lice. I dusted everyone with sulfur about the first of the month and this bird has the first live bugs I have seen since.

Ideas, suggestions? I'm going to keep her isolated and give her a couple days. Otherwise off with her head. I don't need her infecting 80+ other birds.

Could be mites or a bacterial infection. Clean out the ears as best you can, use peroxide to "boil" out the ears and then put neosporin in the ears. My sisters rooster had this and after 3 treatments he is back to his normal self, no smell and ears are clean and dry. Could also use coconut oil instead of neosporin but I know the neosporin works.

 

[maryhysong]

Could be mites or a bacterial infection. Clean out the ears as best you can, use peroxide to "boil" out the ears and then put neosporin in the ears. My sisters rooster had this and after 3 treatments he is back to his normal self, no smell and ears are clean and dry. Could also use coconut oil instead of neosporin but I know the neosporin works.

Thank you! I have some triple antibiotic generic ointment; I'll check the exp. date and use that otherwise I"ll look for neosporin tomorrow. I moved her from the bathroom floor to a dog crate in the front room and noticed her head smells better already.

 

[beccasev]

Man you guys agree so lucky with your tree trimming services. All the ones I have called are happy to give you chips, for $25 a cubic yard. We are actually considering buying a chipper. We have the woods. Just need something to chop the stuff up.

 

[BlueMouse]

we can't find anyone to give us chips either.... I want them for under my pine trees. Someone is going to destroy the mower on those roots... We've called around and called around. Our friend has a chipper so if all else fails we'll have him come over and start chipping, but I'd much rather have someone just come and dump a load. I could use some of it in the covered run area we have for winter use too. It's a really small area (12x4) but it's netted and covered w/a tarp so it gives me somewhere to let the chickens out during the day if I really can't let them out into the yard for some reason. and since it's covered it will be free of snow in the winter, which will be nice for them too. I'm going to DL it over the winter so that it doesn't just turn into a mudpit, and so they have something to do digging through it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

BM - that's exactly what I do with my chips is put them in the run to avoid it becoming compacted and barren. It has worked really well. I also have been taking out the pine shavings from inside the building and dumping them into the run as well. I don't have a dirt floor inside so when I do take out some of the DL, I started putting it right into the run.

If I dig up a little with a shovel, right under it is soft and full of worms which is exactly what I'm hoping to create. In my best case scenario, this would get deep enough to continue to create heat during the winter and have worms near enough the surface that they could still dig around in there and find things. Haven't gotten it to that point yet.

Bummer you can't find tree services that will dump for you. In our area, they HATE having to find somewhere to dispose of it or haul it back to their own land. They'd rather give it away if they are cutting in your area. If they end up taking it back to their location, then they sell it because they have to make a special delivery in addition to several trips to dump it on their land first.

So...the way you approach them is to ask them if they will be doing any tree removal or trimming in your area and let them know that they could dump some of the mulch on your property which would save them having to haul it somewhere far away. That might put it in a different "light" for them.

Also, try the utility companies if you have electric lines where they are going to cut back the branches from the trees. Same thing. They are often happy to just dump it right near where they're working than to have to take it somewhere and dispose of it.

Around here, when we contract a company to cut down trees, they charge us more if they have to haul it off-site.