The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Quote: x2..the man made me laugh so hard.

 

[lalaland]

Just got home & did my nightly hen check. Only 7 hens.......Edie was missing. 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

good news, armorfirelady. I hate that sinking feeling when you know someone is missing. glad for the happy ending!

 

[lalaland]

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.

yeah, I am definitely struggling with Mrs. Murphy. on one hand, what you say makes total sense. I don't want to have chickens that are sick, or have poor immune systems, and no, despite pulling out the big gun of safeguard, I don't "approve" of the use of it.

On the other hand, there is a definite challenge to raising chickens while you work full time. In my case, that means I am not home a minimum of 70 hours a week, and the one or two days I am at home each week are often taken up with other responsibilities - for example, it is my turn tomorrow to spend time with my 91 year old dad who has alzheimers.

I saying this because if I was at home more, perhaps I would have caught that mrs murphy was going downhill earlier, and could have intervened. If time wasn't such an issue for me, and all the stress that goes with lack of time, I might have done the soapy water thing as a preventive for worms - but didn't get that done this summer either! And lack of time contributes to the fact that the hens are on ground that has been used for chickens for 6 years, and all the droppings during that time have soaked into the ground and litter and can contribute to ill health too.

So working full time plus = lack of time to provide optimal chicken care = more health challenges to chickens.

I'm going to add one more factor to this: money. If I had time and money, I would have been at the vets on Wed with a fecal sample to see if it is worms. Moeny to take off work, and pay for the vet services. So instead, I'm asking everywhere for advice and information, and observing mrs murphy, and trying to figure out what is the problem, and making a final guess on worms and doing the best I can for her with that assumption. Because money is short for me, culling at the first sign of a problem doesnt mean I can simply go replace the birds that have been culled.

Now, you and I are in very different places in another way, too - that is, you breed chickens, and I keep chickens. My chickens so far have always come from purchasing or trading, never ever from a broody or incubator. I'm hoping to start breeding my own flock, and then it will make so much more sense to be culling for weaknesses, and keeping only the healthiest whose immune systems can take on whatever comes their way.

I also have a very small flock, so the loss of one hen/pullet is a big deal - I'm down to 2 roosters, 9 hens and 9 pullets including mrs. murphy.

Delisha, I really value your adivce, and have been so grateful for the time you take in sharing information and your experience.

You know I have been reading poultry books from the turn of the century, and I read this one senetnce again and thought of you: "Best cure for an ill chicken is a hatchet and a spade". Wow, that makes so much sense if you are raising poultry - not keeping a small flock of by hens .

apologies for the long post!

 

[Leahs Mom]

That's definitely something that has to be considered in everything chicken. Some of us are breeders and show people. Some of us want a flock for healthy food source. Some of us see our chickens as farm animals; some as pets.

How you deal with the chickens will be based on your purposes, of course. Some cull for a defect in "conformation" since they are breeding show birds and better strains. Some of us just want eggs!

As always, we need to relate to our birds from the reasoning that we have them in the first place.

Lala...looking forward to hearing how things turn out!

 

[armorfirelady]

That's definitely something that has to be considered in everything chicken.  Some of us are breeders and show people.  Some of us want  a flock for healthy food source.  Some of us see our chickens as farm animals; some as pets.

How you deal with the chickens will be based on your purposes, of course.  Some cull for a defect in "conformation" since they are breeding show birds and better strains.  Some of us just want eggs!

As always, we need to relate to our birds from the reasoning that we have them in the first place.

Lala...looking forward to hearing how things turn out!   

Great post and very true. We all have our own ways we want to raise our birds. Doesn't mean my way is wrong just different from what others believe. Me ? I just like a diverse flock for color in my yard. But I don't want chemicals in my birds. I want simple care so I can watch more chicken tv

 

[aoxa]

Hahahahaha....That's exactly what I thought, Del.... When I saw that face I felt like I should duck in case she decided to spit

Alpacas aren't big spitters like llamas unless they feel threatened. Even then you can see/hear it coming. Nope she hasn't spit at us

 

[lalaland]

Guess what????? Mrs. Murphy, whose comb had pinked up the tiniest bit this moring, and who got a dose of safeguard equine paste last night, had worms in her droppings this morning.


I saw some moving. See all the white strands in the pic? there is one long one in the upper left corner, and others on the brown dropping part. I haven't seen worms in person, so these were so thin that if they hadn't moved, I would have thought they were just strands of urate. I am glad I got to see this because now I might recognize worms in droppings - I'm sure I have seen this before. am totally grossed out and totally relieved. Have to repeat the dose in 10 days.

I brought her outside to temporarily join the flock while they were grazing, and there was absolutely no reaction from the flock to her. I've had hens separated for just a day that were viewed as strangers, so this is a relief, too. She grazed for a bit, and then went into a rosebush and closed her eyes, so I scooped her up and brought her back in. She walked into the kennel, sank down, and started to doze. She is very weak, and I don't know how long it will take her to recover. eating well, but I am thinking the worm overload is severe.


You can see she isn't looking too perky!


I am putting soapy water in the water pail this afternoon, I know you aren't supposed to worm hens who are molting but I hope the soapy method is less harsh until the older hens finish molting and I will worm everyone.


Now to figure out what causes an overload of worms? Does it have to be a weak constitution?

 

[maryhysong]

Now to figure out what causes an overload of worms? Does it have to be a weak constitution?

I wonder this too. Or could it be environment, just a lot of worms out there? Especially if you have to keep you birds cooped a lot. Here we seem to have round worms and tape worms. Tapeworms are carried by lots of insects and by earthworms, so even birds out ranging are exposed to a lot.

 

[delisha]

LM..







and just for fun

 

[armorfirelady]

Great idea del thanks for sharing

And I love the chicken pic also. They are huge and stunning