The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

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I notice that my hatchery red birds are hunters too. It's fun to watch them when a new hatch of grasshoppers is out there. They're fast and efficient.

 

[lazy gardener]

Mlowen: I'll be interested to hear how your leghorns make it through the winter with their big floppy combs. I've chosen rose and pea combed birds due to winter frost bite fears, though in the far away distant stone age past, I had mini-leghorns in an insulated coop and although they lost a few tips, they did fine. My current coop is much smaller and not as well insulated. Due to size constraints, I've chosen LF birds that tend to be on the small size, as well.

Delisha's comment about leghorns being hunting machines makes me wonder if I should add a couple in the spring. Any readers out there have experience with the rose comb leghorns? I'm guessing that they are a bit flighty, but probably not more so than my most flighty EE. How big do the rose comb brown leghorns get?? And how aggressive are leghorns in general, and rose combs in particular. My current girls are pretty laid back. I'll be adding Doms in the spring, and expect that they'll be laid back as well. The white eggs would be a nice addition to my Easter basket.

My girls (7.5 mo. old) production has dropped to 50% within the last several weeks, prior, it was in high 90's. If I were to add light now, would it mess with their rhythm much? I think they are headed into a molt. The EE have shed their beards, with new prickles growing back in. When I handle one of the girls, she leaves a few feathers behind. I'm on the fence re: adding light now, vs. letting them coast through, and then starting some light after the winter solstice. I expect they will gear back up in Feb anyway. I'd love to hear peoples experience in this area. I'm sure this thread tends to be more conservative re: light than the general BYC population. THOUGHTS/COMMENTS????

 

[aoxa]

this was a good addition - he shows a little more detail about the butchering, and hearing a second way to explain things helped!

This guy has my favourite butchering videos.

I don't like the one with the girl because it makes me sad. I am not sure why it offends me like it does.. It seems to me the bird is way over handled, and it bothers me. This guy is quick and to the point. No need to handle the birds for any amount of time beforehand if you can help it.

If you have a pet bird that likes to be handled that is different... That bird did not appear to like the handling though, which is why I think it bothered me so much.

 

[aoxa]

Deffinetly. I will most likely get one eventually but for now the nesco will do a great job!

Camille, do you have a link to the dehydrator? We had one and it was terrible. We took it back.. Just did not like it

This was the one we had. It took FOREVER to dehydrate the contents. It was extremely loud too...

 

[Leahs Mom]

A SHORT PUMPKIN RANT (Subtitle: WHAT ISN'T GM NOW-A-DAYS?)

I've been contemplating for quite some time why my chickens wouldn't eat the pumpkins I got last year.

I got a whole pickup truck load and the birds wouldn't eat them. Not fresh; now frozen and thawed; not any way I tried. There was one exception - they did eat a specific type of pumpkin that I brought home only about 2 of. But they wouldn't eat the typical "field pumpkin". NOT EVEN THE SEEDS.

I keep reading about other people's chickens eating pumpkin and continued to wonder what the deal was.

Then, this morning, a little thought came to mind. I have read that animals will AVOID GMO products if they have any other choice of food. In the wild, they won't eat it from the fields unless they are starving.

So...I began to wonder if there are any GM pumpkins out there and if that might have been what was going on.

I should have known.

http://biotechnology-gmo.gov.si/eng/gensko_spremenjeni_organizmi/index.html
"Until now mostly genetically modified plants were put on the market. In 2008 there were 125 millions hectares planted with genetically modified plants. Genetically modified plants were grown in 25 countries, among them are 7 EU Member States. The most widened genetically modified plants are soybean, maize, cotton, oilseed rape, less widened are pumpkins, papaya, alfalfa and rice."


Enter growth hormones. Not only used on the plants, but on the seeds themselves. Another reason to grow your own stuff or know what the folks that are growing it are using - from seed to plant treatments.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabi...uash-GM-farmers-harvest-100-kilo-pumpkin.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...onorganic-watermelons-exploding-in-china.aspx

http://www.care2.com/causes/frankenpumpkin-growing-a-one-ton-pumpkin.html



Now I'm not 100% sure that was the issue with my pumpkins and the uninterested birds. But I'm guessing so. Not even any wild creatures would eat them.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Does anybody on this thread have Leghorns in your flock? I just have 5 birds, but there are significant differences in their behavior as well as body type between them & the dual purpose birds. Maybe it's due to their laying already, while their "sisters" are not, yet. But the Barred Rocks and Wyandotte seem to be [how shall I put this?] not too B-R-I-G-H-T. They are mostly interested in vegetables--grass, leaves of plants, seeds--and a lot of what looks to be dirt & rocks! The Leghorns are hunting! They want meat. They dig furiously and constantly for worms & bugs. They are first to come running when I walk anywhere near them. They jump up to look out the window as I unlock the coop door. They are almost frantic, if I bring them some ground beef or liver. The others will certainly eat meat, are VERY interested, but nothing like the Leghorns. Do you think it's the breed or the fact that they are producing eggs and need the extra more than the other girls?
Just so y'all won't wonder: I am feeding them all enough (maybe too much.) They get fermented feed each morning and they have dry feed in a hanging feeder all the time. They get some scratch & boss (to encourage turning the deep litter.) And veggie & meat scraps.

We only have hatchery birds so far, and have Brown Leghorns and California Whites (a Leghorn cross that's supposed to be spotted like a Dalmation, though ours just have a few black flecks). We also had White Leghorns at first, but they were terribly mean and we gave them away.

So far my favorites are the California Whites ... they were super cute chicks ... their combs aren't as big, they are "friendly" and curious but not pets ... they come to see what I'm up to and get very close so they can coach me while I'm working on a project, but they hop out of reach if I try to pet them. They seem to be super intelligent and let themselves out of the pasture as they please, and mostly let themselves back in. I think they like to get out so they can go hunt ... they are always doing something. They mix in well with the rest of the flock. I think they're pretty, too. I don't think their eggs are as large as the other leghorns, and I think the eggs are somewhat more round, but they were early layers and are a few months younger than the BLs, so their egg size might increase. They are a bit bigger than the Brown Leghorns.

The Brown Leghorns are just plain flighty. They don't even like to be picked up off the roost at night and will scream. They also are bossy about the nesting boxes ... making a HUGE amount of noise if anyone is in their box. And they have very large floppy combs that probably wouldn't work super well in a colder climate. I don't always know what they are doing as they try to be as far away from me as possible. One of those turned out to be a rooster, and he is now our top cock.

The CWs are probably better foragers than the BLs because the CWs are savvy without being panicky.

Whenever I give a broody eggs I always try to include some white eggs ... and I always hatch only males from the white eggs ... and the BL cockerels can be such little troublemakers!

 

[mlowen]

Mlowen: I'll be interested to hear how your leghorns make it through the winter with their big floppy combs. I've chosen rose and pea combed birds due to winter frost bite fears, though in the far away distant stone age past, I had mini-leghorns in an insulated coop and although they lost a few tips, they did fine. My current coop is much smaller and not as well insulated.

We only have hatchery birds so far, and have Brown Leghorns and California Whites (a Leghorn cross that's supposed to be spotted like a Dalmation, though ours just have a few black flecks). We also had White Leghorns at first, but they were terribly mean and we gave them away.

I'll let y'all know how they do with the winter temps. They do have large, floppy combs & wattles. I was very careful about plenty of ventilation and no drafts on the roost, but my coop is not insulated at all. My daughter in NH has an un-insulated coop and her hens have done just fine. (not sure about the size of their combs.)
These Leghorns are hatchery (or a generation or 2 away from hatchery) birds. They are top of the order, but I haven't seen anybody being mean to anybody else. They are the only ones that will let me pick them up out in broad daylight. Each started squatting for me a week prior to laying, and squatting hens are easy to grab. The others are ONLY catch-able on the roost (in the dark) or really well cornered. I am hoping for the squatting phenomenon to be universal! I'd like to more easilty get a good look at all of them, when I need to.

 

[CoopChick719]

Does anybody on this thread have Leghorns in your flock? I just have 5 birds, but there are significant differences in their behavior as well as body type between them & the dual purpose birds. Maybe it's due to their laying already, while their "sisters" are not, yet. But the Barred Rocks and Wyandotte seem to be [how shall I put this?] not too B-R-I-G-H-T. They are mostly interested in vegetables--grass, leaves of plants, seeds--and a lot of what looks to be dirt & rocks! The Leghorns are hunting! They want meat. They dig furiously and constantly for worms & bugs. They are first to come running when I walk anywhere near them. They jump up to look out the window as I unlock the coop door. They are almost frantic, if I bring them some ground beef or liver. The others will certainly eat meat, are VERY interested, but nothing like the Leghorns. Do you think it's the breed or the fact that they are producing eggs and need the extra more than the other girls?
Just so y'all won't wonder: I am feeding them all enough (maybe too much.) They get fermented feed each morning and they have dry feed in a hanging feeder all the time. They get some scratch & boss (to encourage turning the deep litter.) And veggie & meat scraps.

I have 2 Leghorns. Yes, mine love to hunt! They are the first ones out the door when I let them out to forage. If I'm digging in the dirt, they are right beside me. If someone else gets a worm, they are the first to notice AND right behind the lucky one w/the worm.

Thanks to Delisha on the feeding comment! It seems I may be overfeeding as well. However mine don't get to forage everyday...predator problem lately.

I get most of mine at this place: http://www.sherv.net/doctor-emoticon-1297.html For this forum, you can right click them, choose "copy image", then paste over here. For some other forums you have to use the urls.

Thank you LM!

Mlowen: I'll be interested to hear how your leghorns make it through the winter with their big floppy combs.

And how aggressive are leghorns in general.

The floppy combs are a concern for me too! I'll be coating them w/coconut oil (big jar from the Amish store for $12--woohoo!!) I haven't found mine to be overly aggressive just a little b*tchy at times.

A SHORT PUMPKIN RANT (Subtitle: WHAT ISN'T GM NOW-A-DAYS?)

I've been contemplating for quite some time why my chickens wouldn't eat the pumpkins I got last year.

ARGGGHH!! I guess that's how people are able to grow those gigantic pumpkins?!

P.S. It was Pumpkinfest last weekend in a little town near my folks. People hollow out the giant pumpkins to make boats then race them in a regatta! They even have different classes--some have motors on them!!

 

[aoxa]

Our new Alpaca, Vivian

 

[delisha]

Mlowen: I'll be interested to hear how your leghorns make it through the winter with their big floppy combs. I've chosen rose and pea combed birds due to winter frost bite fears, though in the far away distant stone age past, I had mini-leghorns in an insulated coop and although they lost a few tips, they did fine. My current coop is much smaller and not as well insulated. Due to size constraints, I've chosen LF birds that tend to be on the small size, as well.

Delisha's comment about leghorns being hunting machines makes me wonder if I should add a couple in the spring. Any readers out there have experience with the rose comb leghorns? I'm guessing that they are a bit flighty, but probably not more so than my most flighty EE. How big do the rose comb brown leghorns get?? And how aggressive are leghorns in general, and rose combs in particular. My current girls are pretty laid back. I'll be adding Doms in the spring, and expect that they'll be laid back as well. The white eggs would be a nice addition to my Easter basket.

My girls (7.5 mo. old) production has dropped to 50% within the last several weeks, prior, it was in high 90's. If I were to add light now, would it mess with their rhythm much? I think they are headed into a molt. The EE have shed their beards, with new prickles growing back in. When I handle one of the girls, she leaves a few feathers behind. I'm on the fence re: adding light now, vs. letting them coast through, and then starting some light after the winter solstice. I expect they will gear back up in Feb anyway. I'd love to hear peoples experience in this area. I'm sure this thread tends to be more conservative re: light than the general BYC population. THOUGHTS/COMMENTS????

I live in Wisconsin..if you have good ventilation you see less comb issues. They get damaged from the humidity and not the cold. Keep the water outside and keep the coop dry dry and you should be good!




we have snow and cold most months of the year. The top leghorn is 6 and she still has all of her points. The tips get off colors in the deep cold, but as soon as it warms up they return to normal.
the bottom one is 4 now and she has not lost a one either.

My leghorns are nasty mothers. They try to kill anything that ventures too close to eggs or chicks. I have one leghorn hen( bottom picture) who kills other hens chicks when she has chicks. She has ripped me open a few times too when I have picked her chicks up. I do not let little kids any where around her when she is broody either. Screaming nasty little thing. But she is a wonderful mother to her own clutch. I just do not let her raise many chicks anymore. She get one turn a year. Too much high maintenance and supervision. She constantly attacks the dogs too and one day the dog is going to kill her.

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