The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

"Sigh" checked the girls last night when thy were roosting. No red mites on new 2x4 but the white spots I've seen on the girls before well one moved on Sophie last night going to neem oil old roost again and ladder I picked up that's been outside. I put fresh shavings down Sunday. Does anyone know if they live in pine shavings to?
I gave irks garlic and basil in eggs Sunday. Today I gave them fresh chopped garlic and basil and oregano in yogurt hoping drive mites away. Started a fire in house last night so I would have ashes today and currently have big bonfire going outside for more ashes. I dusted them all Sunday as well but think they do better job themselves so hopefully inside ashes are cool enough. I'm going to put ashes down in DL as well to help kill them.

I did some research last night to see where they might of come from. Never had a problem till now and very little wood in their coop. Wasn't very helpful

What a pain in the rear

 

[aaggjg]

Whoops..on the Sunday Brunch photos I forgot to say that we keep some of the produce to feed throughout the week. This time we dumped every tomato out because they might go bad waiting much longer.

Each week when we pick it up it is a surprise as to what will be in the boxes. Some of it I have frozen for use during the winter just in case they decide to quit supplying us! If they keep allowing us to get it all winter long, these kiddos are going to be eating like summer in the winter.

Hubby says they're "spoiled". But it was him that wanted me to go get the camera and take photos and post them because he thought it looked so nice with all the color out there

LM I have the same deal at my farmers markets ... One of the stalls lets us take all the beet tops, carrot tops, various scraps and "spoiled" veg/ fruit.... I get a big bag on Sunday and try to make it last the week. I've gotten lazy trying to bag it all up ... so they are getting a HUGE helping on Sundays

 

[aaggjg]

I don't know if you guys saw this video yet. Thought I'd post it here in case you didn't.. My CX are 12 weeks here. I kept two of the smaller girls who have really grown since the competition for food is much less.

HENRY!!!!!!! He's SO BIG!!!!!

 

[aoxa]

HENRY!!!!!!! He's SO BIG!!!!!

Only getting bigger.

The big doofus had a run in with a porcupine this weekend. Just in his chin and upper lip (sniffed it). We had to pull them out. Not fun. He is SO strong. But we got them all.

 

[camilleathome]

That is way too much for chickens.. but ducks and turkeys eat a lot... Do you watch them finish their food? You could have mice or rats getting a lot of it.


You could get a llama!

we do. How long does it usually take for them to finish? Do you have a set time? We soak and give them two scoops a day now. I think were going through less but not much

 

[aoxa]

we do. How long does it usually take for them to finish? Do you have a set time? We soak and give them two scoops a day now. I think were going through less but not much

Should be gone within 20 minutes if they are going to free range.

 

[camilleathome]

She's free ranging AND soaking, so that is a lot of feed for her situation. Also a few are bantams, and most are young as well.

that and we've been losing more and more birds to predators. Im moving them back to the coop at the house and will most likely cull a few roosters for thanksgiving.

P.S Weve moved it to this Sunday evening if you and sue are available

 

[camilleathome]

Raw milk of any kind is better than anything homogenized or pasteurized.

Butter is easy, I do mine in 1/2 gal wide mouth canning jars... I like to add a little MM culture, let sit for about 24 hrs at room temp, them just toss it in the food processor for 2-4 minutes and ta-da... butter and buttermilk.
Make sure to pat and rinse the butter well while running it under cold, cold water... the more buttermilk you get out the longer the butter will last.
I make all of my butter in the spring and freeze it for the entire year in 1/2 lb balls.
Save your buttermilk, it is SO good for biscuits and pancakes!

I miss my goats milk. I got Martha when she was slowly drying up. I started out with like two cups and ended up with a quarter cup per milking so let her dry up. BUT we have a buck over here till probably next week(Hes been here for a month and a half) to breed my goats

 

[camilleathome]

For all of you who have experience with turkeys... some questions.

-If I wanted to raise one or 2 for meat, how old are they at processing?
-Is chicken and turkey feed basically the same - or are there different nutritional needs?
-Is processing about the same as with chickens? Bleed, dunk, pluck, gut?

I can say that my three turkeys live happily and peacefully with my flock(Same as my ducks!)

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

For all of you who have experience with turkeys... some questions.

-If I wanted to raise one or 2 for meat, how old are they at processing?
-Is chicken and turkey feed basically the same - or are there different nutritional needs?
-Is processing about the same as with chickens? Bleed, dunk, pluck, gut?

I did 5 BBB turkeys last year ... kept them segregated from my laying flock (which is in a big coop and run), and free ranging. I fed them Purina Flock Raiser (20% protein?) and they did very well ... all survived and were huge and one of the hens laid eggs and the toms were able to mate up til Thanksgiving. No losses until one "flipped" just before Thanksgiving ... but we were right there to process him and we ate him ourselves and he was delicious. I did have to keep expanding their "coop" as they grew fast and took up more space than I anticipated. But they were cooperative about it. The main issue was at a certain age they wanted to roost on top of the chicken coop ... which is greenhouse plastic which is no match for their talons and bulk. But putting them to bed in a pen/coop at night solved that problem until they got too big to hop up there to roost.

This year I did 25 BBB turkeys and after lots of research decided to start them on approved turkey starter ... 28% protein. They did very well at first, but a little later on I lost 4 at different times to mystery causes. So far I've butchered 2, and chose those based on who seemed to need to go (males who were limping a little and I didn't want them to struggle to get around). They are already huge, so I think I'm going to process the rest of them very soon ... sorry people who want a "fresh" thanksgiving turkey, but it is tough to get a 40 lb bird into most ovens ... and the bigger they are the more they cost. They eat a LOT at this stage.

Essentially you can butcher them as soon as they have as much meat as you desire -- 4 months or so? The industry does it at various ages to get birds of various sizes. I like a little fat layer for flavor -- you can feel the "squishy" layer of fat under their chests. It seems that the longer you wait to butcher the thicker the fat layer gets. At thanksgiving last year it was like an inch of fat ... started the birds in late April, I believe.

Turkeys are "easy" to pluck ... either dunked or not, though dunking makes a cleaner bird and makes getting wing and tail feathers out a LOT easier -- I used a "cooler" dunk this year and had nicer results ... in my experience it can be a little trickier to deal with the neck/crop of a turkey than a chicken. But gutting the other end is easier because there is more room to work.

I called the extension service in my area to advise about Blackhead ... it isn't common here but he still recommended keeping the turkeys away from chickens.

Turkeys are very entertaining and extremely social. They will follow you around like dogs, even from day one. They talk back ... this year some of the hens seem to want to be lap cats. For me this makes the thought of butchering them

but I know that eating them is

.

OH ... this year I got the jumbo killing cone. MUCH easier!