The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Just got home & did my nightly hen check. Only 7 hens.......Edie was missing. Figured hawk must of got her. Walked their area but didn't see any feathers. Walked the back yard and figured should check front as well. Found her perched on old nesting boxes on old coop. She looks ok. No marks that I can see. She picked a good spot out of the wind but it's been hailing off and on all evening but she wasn't wet either. Tucked her in between Stella and a big girls on the roost. They will warm her up.

I don't know why she was outs the hawks have been in the trees all day watching for the hens to come out. They stayed in all day. I'm guessing they must of ventured out after I left & the hawk swooped and scared Edie she must of flew the electric fence & ran for cover. She hasn't flown the fence since last spring. I doubt she would of today unless something was chasing her. Just happy I found her

 

[Pozees]

ok part 1...
I have no idea if she's been treated for anything or not... she's already been dewormed tho (automatic as soon as they come in the door) and there WERE worms in her stool...
as far as seeing the gape worm, maybe easy for YOU... that pic just looks like a chick with his mouth held open... and I can't wrangle a bird to get that good a look (nor do I want to if I can help it with this girl).
if it is a vit b issue, then the ff should help. she's also getting polyvisol in her water too.

if it' is gapeworm, ivermectin is typically not 100% effective against them. that's why I use it. like heartworm in dogs, you don't want to kill it off fast, or they'll potentially suffocate with dead worm blockage. but treating with ivermectin in lower doses over a period of several weeks will kill them off slowly and prevent them from reproducing in the meantime. as they die they are resorbed, coughed out or swallowed. actually the long term treatment for heartworm is the same. (the rapid treatment for HW in dogs has a high chance of killing the dog because of those blockages mentioned above, and should only be used in young, healthy, strong dogs.)

part 2... the alpaca. YUP. BTDT.

last time was a 3-way cluster*&^%... me, holding feed bucket for a blind horse because everyone else was stealing her food. grace, the blind horse, eating her food without having to fight off starving alpaca or another horse. alpaca, sneaking up behind me, to reach that long snaky neck around me and steal a mouthful of grain. grace pins her ears and bites at the alpaca, alpaca spits at grace. unfortunately, I was in the middle. large chomp on one boob, blob of glop dripping off the back of my head...

I can laugh about it now, but that day I was chasing one alpaca around the yard with a driving whip, trying my hardest to kill her. thankfully (for her) her owner got home in time to rescue her from me... so nope. I don't have a great fondness for their faces. fortunately for her, her owner also decided to move soon there-after. taking her, the 2 miniature-colt-eating-danes and himself to another state. (well, the month old mini colt did live, but still has scars to this day, at 8 years later... including a ruptured iris on one eye.) ok i'm done venting.
not really but...

FWIW, I am treating my flock tomorrow with Safeguard. 1/2 cc per bird LF, 1/4 cc per bird Silkie/juvenile. I have birds dying for no apparent (to me) reason. No respiratory distress, just losing weight, stop eating, we have treated with handfeeding and vitamins and nutridrench, and no success except one pullet who still seems weak legged. Treated for mites when we spotted them on one bird, they were present on others after treatment when the carcasses fell off the RIRs, so we treated again a week later, but now no sign of them. Tonight I have another bird going down. I am out of ideas what it might be, so going for the Safeguard and hoping that's the problem. I had Marek's go through the flock earlier this year, and thought I was finally done with challenges. I was wrong. I had the Safeguard 2 months ago and waited, and now regret it.

 

[Pozees]

Karen, I have read that Ivermectin may not be as effective as other wormers, and am treating my flock tomorrow with Safeguard. Might be something to consider if you don't see improvement in your little girl.

 

[delisha]

Just got home & did my nightly hen check. Only 7 hens.......Edie was missing. Figured hawk must of got her. Walked their area but didn't see any feathers. Walked the back yard and figured should check front as well. Found her perched on old nesting boxes on old coop. She looks ok. No marks that I can see. She picked a good spot out of the wind but it's been hailing off and on all evening but she wasn't wet either. Tucked her in between Stella and a big girls on the roost. They will warm her up.

I don't know why she was outs the hawks have been in the trees all day watching for the hens to come out. They stayed in all day. I'm guessing they must of ventured out after I left & the hawk swooped and scared Edie she must of flew the electric fence & ran for cover. She hasn't flown the fence since last spring. I doubt she would of today unless something was chasing her. Just happy I found her

glad she is OK

 

[armorfirelady]

Thanks Del me to. I try not to treat them like pets but her & Stella like to follow me so it's hard. I gave her a good snuggle as we walked to the coop

I can't wait till this conference is over so I can string up the fishing line and shiny ornaments to hopefully keep the hawks deterred. :/

 

[delisha]

Just something for everyone who reads this thread to think about...
everyone has a right to choose what path they want..This is just my opinion..

Do you want birds resistant to disease and illness or do you want to be treating forever?
Tossing this and that drug at birds when you do not know what they have or what is wrong is a never ending cycle. Chickens should be fun and not stressful. Cull the weak out of your flock and bred the strong. If TLC and 24 hours does not show improvement..cull.

 

[delisha]

Thanks Del me to. I try not to treat them like pets but her & Stella like to follow me so it's hard. I gave her a good snuggle as we walked to the coop

I can't wait till this conference is over so I can string up the fishing line and shiny ornaments to hopefully keep the hawks deterred.

My back yard looks like tinsel town..DH mounted a plastic Owl and a huge mirror on the roof of one of the coops..since than..no hawks have come close.

 

[Leahs Mom]

A mirror, eh? Hadn't thought of that one. Do hawks run from other hawks?

 

[Leahs Mom]

oh..and how 'bout a photo of that mirror mount? I'd like to see how he did it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

AFL...that is too freaky. I'm wishing there were permanent fixes for the hawks. Like releasing hawk predators or something.

I had a lot of crows around last year but not so many this year. I saw them chasing hawks last year. A whole group of them would be following in pursuit of the hawks. And this year - just a few crows here and there.

Strange coincidence...there is a HUGE farm in our area that used to belong to the Catholic church for years. They sold it in the last couple years and I read that the guy that got it is using it as a testing ground for Monsanto GM seed crops. If the winds prevail like usual, they are down wind from us. But I wonder how that is affecting the crow population? I see the crop dust planes over those fields frequently.

I haven't seen any honey bees in several years. The collapsing hives are due to the pesticides on the GM crops which has effectively killed a whole lot of them off.

Anyhow...wonder where my crows are?