The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Chrysolinsbirds]

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Well that's weird.pictures not showing
Guess I will keep trying =)

 

[armorfirelady]

 
This hawk thing is so frustrating.  Mine are still in jail and whenever I open the gate (when I'm working outside) the mom does NOT want her kids to go out (even though they're 8 weeks old) and the others literally tear out across the open area they have to cross to get to the little woods.  Then they only stayed out there about 5 min. before they all came back.

I haven't seen hawks HERE but likely only because I haven't been out at the right time.  I do see them EVERYWHERE while driving...been observing like Sally suggested. 

If I didn't have the kids w/the mom I think I'd just let the gate be open now.  But I feel protective of the kids. 

As soon as that gate goes open they all start eating grass!  I've been uprooting the green pepper plants since they like the leaves on those and they strip them clean when I put them in jail w/the birds.

mine are still locked up too.  There was a hawk circling our yard and house today when we came home from church.  I have to wonder if the chickens are hiding less since they are under the net and feel safe.  I'm not letting them out for a wile though.  Maybe this Saturday when I have time to spend with them out there.  But they are hard to get back in so they don't get let out unless I'm outside for the rest of the day light hours.

Hawks still around here as well. We saw them circling around. The crows were busy chasing them away. Girls choose to stay in coop on their own. They did come out later this afternoon after my mom stopped with carrot greens for them. I had her throw them in the compost since it's covered with netting. I don't think they realize the netting protects them from the hawk but at least they spent a couple hours outside. They will go out in their area if me or my mom go out there. I guess they know the hawk won't come near them when we are there. I left the dogs out all evening also since the rain & hail stopped. I don't know of the dogs deter the hawks but I can hope.

On the protein issue - I don't feed soy.  That eliminates items like calf manna and many other high protein feeds.

If I could afford animal protein I wouldn't even feed any legume.  But...I do use the field peas for lack of a better source.

I'd prefer not to give fish meal either.  I tried to find "meat meal" and it's about impossible to get anymore.  That is what USED to be used in poultry feeds until they needed somewhere to use all the soy that was being marketed.

I do have one butcher shop in our area that sells "pet food" meats but it has a high percentage of chicken in it. Chicken, bone, chicken skin, beef liver in it mostly.  And it was $1/lb which is a better price than the fish meal.

I wish I could find more beef/venison whatever besides the chicken, but I may start using it more.  Due to the high percentage of bone in it I was concerned about giving it to the chicks so there's another thing. 

I may approach them to see if they'd do something special for me with less bone and more liver, beef scraps, etc.


So, anyhow, what I'm looking for is a good source of ANIMAL protein rather than vegetable protein.

I know you don't like feeding chicken to the chickens but I found hearts and liver for about $1 a pound at Tops one of our local grocery stores. I bought half a dozen and packaged them up in hen portions and froze them. Save a lot has calf livers. $2 for 2 large pieces. I left them half defrost then cut them up into smaller pieces and froze them in portion sizes also. I also keep posting on FB for hunting friends to save me deer hearts & livers. And come thanksgiving I will post again to have people save me turkey carcasses. The carcasses gap freeze great and the girls love to pick them clean.

ETA I've been using my glass bowl for feeding. And of course I broke the handle off one. I told ya glass wasn't good for me lol. it's still usable tho

 

[lalaland]

Lala sorry about the hawk attack!!! It's Hawk-A-Palooza in my backyard these days!! Yesterday I heard them calling for awhile and then my girls froze the hawk was in a tree 20 feet away it then went and perched on top of a Cyprus at the top of my property calling and calling for a good 10 minutes. Today I've heard them on and off circling.... It's interesting ... When the hawks are close the squirrels are quiet!!! When they leave the squirrels are back to hopping branches!

I found a soft shelled egg under the roost today. I'm guessing its my uber skinny lavender orpingtons ... She refuses to gain weight no matter what I do. I noticed that her eggs have started to have a kind of ring of thicker shell near the end. Hmmmmm. My vet told me that at an avian conference she attended they said that any soft shelled egg laid is a sign of infection.... Makes me wonder. My hen is totally normal besides being skinny :-0 thoughts??

thanks, I love the term "Hawk-A-Palooza" , made me laugh.
And I have worms on my mind, obviously, but a skinny hen....worms?

There's a lot of Marigold in there, too. I'm wondering if it's that instead. I know Marigold and other plants are often fed as having anti-mite or other properties... I'm just starting a chicken feed garden. Working on a design that uses gutters planted with a mix of herbs that can be raised and lowered or moved in a rotation so the chooks don't strip everything up by the root... Maybe by Spring.

I've put marigold (tagetes) in the nestboxes, but I've never had a chicken eat them, nor the more common marigolds either! would be great if they would eat them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Bummer on the bowl! Is it the thick stuff like pyrex? I guess I better be more careful since I always toss mine on the ground...

Those are a lot of GREAT ideas for getting meat! I need to keep remembering to ask my hunting friends. Still not sure if any of them will do it but at least I can ask!

Last time I had a deer processed I asked for the bones to make soup. I had forgotten that I put them all in the freezer and over the weekend I was making room for some stuff in there and remembered they were there. I thawed some and realized they had a good amount of meat on them so I did a little experiment. I took some of those bones out to the run just as they were to see if they could get that meat off them.

It was quite hilarious watching chickens running around the jail with bones in their mouths - like dogs! Some of the meat would come off but they really had to work at it.

After that I ended up going inside and cutting meat off the bones that I had left and got quite a bit of it off for them yesterday and today.

It is amazing how CRAZY they go for meat.

More than anything else I've ever given them. It's just a fury of activity when the meat comes out. I'm going to keep my eye on the shop for liver on sale too. Last time I got it I think I paid about $2something an lb but I think they do sell it cheaper. However...now that they're putting it into the "dog food" meat packages and they know they have a market, I'm not sure how cheap I can get it.

AFL - how much are you paying for your fish meal per lb? Of course, I'm thinking that the meal would be more concentrated per lb. since it's dried so the protein level is higher for a smaller amount. The fish meal I get is "approved for organic" whatevertheheck that means. I think I'll call the mill this week and ask if they have a bag and label I can look at to see exactly where it's coming from.

I do like the idea of having several different meat varieties around so it's not always the same.

 

[armorfirelady]

The bowl didn't breaking tossing it on the ground. I was gently tossing it into cupboard taller than me lol. It was just a chip. It's not a Pyrex bowl but I thought it was thicker glass.........it's just me I am a klutz lol

I haven't figured out the cost per pound on the fish meal. Its on my to do list for a long day at work. I want to see what cost is per 50# of mixed feed and see how long it lasts. I'm not good at math but I have the prices of the bags of feed and how many pounds of each grain I need to use so I should be able to figure it out lol

ETA my girls are crazy for meat also. They play keep away and tag.........they spend more time chasing each other to grab from each other's beaks than eating it. I like the smart girls who grab a piece then find a hiding spot to eat quick A turkey carcass is in their future.........I better gets a. Lot of eggs that day lol

 

[lindz8504]

I got my first egg out of chicks that I have raised!!!!

 

[Rnbwbrite1207]

Congratulations Lindz8504!

 

[lindz8504]

Congratulations Lindz8504!

Thanks!

 

[CoopChick719]

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.

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

Lala--Thank you for posting this picture! It is very helpful to me! I would have been looking for worms to be much bigger not thread-like. Glad you found the cause of her illness!! I thought worm overload could be caused by being on the same ground for a while.

I'm just starting a chicken feed garden. Working on a design that uses gutters planted with a mix of herbs that can be raised and lowered or moved in a rotation so the chooks don't strip everything up by the root... Maybe by Spring.

Sounds very interesting! Can't wait for photos of your setup!

Just hatched at midnight

At 7am..


About noon

ETA I've been using my glass bowl for feeding. And of course I broke the handle off one. I told ya glass wasn't good for me lol.

it's still usable tho

AFL, I had the handle break off of mine too. I wasn't being rough with it either. It was Pyrex..maybe it had a crack in it. The edges were too sharp to leave in with the girls so I had to chuck it. I'll have to find another at Goodwill.

I got my first egg out of chicks that I have raised!!!!

Congrats lindz8504! That first egg is so exciting!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I got my first egg out of chicks that I have raised!!!!

Yay! Not much more exiting than that first egg!