The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Temporary fence link found! Two BYC-ers sent it to me. It's a great idea. I'm sure I can do something like it for myself.

http://www.ranch-coop.com/Moveable-Chicken-Yard-Garden-Posts-Video.html

Thanks for posting! I love that idea for a variety of uses...(not just chickens). Can't wait to show my husband

 

[armorfirelady]

Ok so I wanted to get a 2nd opinion (or more) & not think its wishful thinking that maybe I found something that is finally healing Mrs Greens bumblefoot.

Here they are end of June before I started treatment

Here they are Tuesday. Between June and Tuesday I have tried iodine & sugar wraps, blue kote, drawing salve. Wraps and I did soak them as well. I had a few weeks when she just had blue kote on because of work and traveling

And here they are tonight after 2 days of coconut oil wraps and one soaking. I was able to scrape the scabs off and even pull out a chunk out of the center of the big one. To me there is a marked difference in 2 days.
What do you guys think?

 

[Sally8]

As far as Delawares..have you gone to kathy's BYC link? She has created Delawares from scratch and they are beautiful. I think they are in F4 right now.

Could you briefly explain what F4 or F1 means? I see that now and again.

 

[delisha]

It is working..good job

 

[delisha]

F1- F5 are used to show where you are at in a breeding program.

For example..lets use a chicken that has yellow legs..the chicken should have white legs. The body is beautiful, the feather quality is great. The only fault is leg color.

You need to find a bird with the correct leg color or an over exaggeration of what you want.

The first breeding of that pair is called F1. You might need to breed 200 chicks to make two correct colors. Those look like correct colors, however they also carry that yellow gene. You breed those correct color legs together and cull all the ones that are not correct. That is F2. You take all of the correct colors you have bred and bred it back to the original correct colored legged bird. Those are F3. You cull all the incorrect and bred the correct together. You keep repeating the cycle until you can bred true. That is F5. You also need to keep *type* while changing colors of legs. Type is more important than color. If you loose that you went backwards. You need to build the house before you paint it.

 

[Kassaundra]

AFL, looks good the coconut oil is working well

Sally that is generation, F1 would be the first offspring of Pullet a and Roo b, F4 would be the 4th generation from the originals.

 

[Sally8]

Thanks. So, by the time you reach F4 or F5, the yellow legs would not show up. For breeders, that sell for $$$, couId you sell those F5 chicks for pure breed or are they always referred as F4 or F5. (I figured it was something like that.)

 

[BlueMouse]

I find this breeding stuff fascinating! Not for me with my little backyard flock, but amazing and fascinating! I really wish that I could afford to get some of the really NICE orpingtons just to have them. My orpingtons are some of my absolute favorite birds. Such nice personalities.

 

[Sally8]

I'm waiting for my grandson to fall asleep so I can bring Cecilia in and wash her up. It looks like she has a large area of blood pooled but couldn't really tell. Still giving her antiobiotic by injection and putting on NuStock. I separate her at night but let her with her chicks during the day. By confining her can keep track of some poop. I thought she was laying eggs but she hasn't since Tue. I'm quite concerned about that. I don't feel anything, like an egg.

 

[lalaland]

sally, shock will cause a hen to stop laying for a while. I'm confused though, didn't you say she just hatched the chicks? but already started laying again?
glad you are keeping us up to date on her.