My first three eggs from my Golden Comet girls! They were 4 weeks old when I got them in June, and the first chickens we had!
First eggs are always so fun..congrats!!
The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!
- Thread starter Bulldogma
- Start date
First eggs are always so fun..congrats!!
Yay!!! First eggs!!! 
I've been fortunate not to have to deal with catastrophic disease with my flock in over twenty years. Never seen bumble foot or heavy worm loads either. I raise like del in lot's of ways. I have a closed flock since last winter. I practice bio-security with strangers or those that also raise poultry. (No access)
When an adult chicken shows signs of illness or chronic weakness, I bury them. My birds are not pets but I love them dearly. If one chick in a hatch is a weakling, I bury it too. If more than two or three in a hatch is weak or sickly, I bury the whole batch. My goal is to breed and raise healthy disease resistant birds. That's what I want to enjoy and propagate and what I want to stock my freezer and put on my table. Injury's are another thing. I will help all ways I can if a bird of mine is hurt and there is hope it can have a healthy future. My flock free range everyday and are exposed to wild bird populations. Yes. I know the risks. But still....I don't worm, vaccinate, or treat for disease. My chicks are raised separate from the adult flock until they are over five months old. I lose about one bird or chick in ten. Those are acceptable losses. Fertility is high with my males and females.
I do not judge others what ever their husbandry practices. If it is working for individuals, that is good for them. But I never lose sleep about the health of my flock. What I'm doing is working well for them and me.
When an adult chicken shows signs of illness or chronic weakness, I bury them. My birds are not pets but I love them dearly. If one chick in a hatch is a weakling, I bury it too. If more than two or three in a hatch is weak or sickly, I bury the whole batch. My goal is to breed and raise healthy disease resistant birds. That's what I want to enjoy and propagate and what I want to stock my freezer and put on my table. Injury's are another thing. I will help all ways I can if a bird of mine is hurt and there is hope it can have a healthy future. My flock free range everyday and are exposed to wild bird populations. Yes. I know the risks. But still....I don't worm, vaccinate, or treat for disease. My chicks are raised separate from the adult flock until they are over five months old. I lose about one bird or chick in ten. Those are acceptable losses. Fertility is high with my males and females.
I do not judge others what ever their husbandry practices. If it is working for individuals, that is good for them. But I never lose sleep about the health of my flock. What I'm doing is working well for them and me.
No more hawk netting needed
(I originally saw this on the Indiana Thread Credit: Gunchief25)
The search function helps a lot once you have an idea of what to look for. Skimming is useful too as many times pictures get reposted like I did above.I have been on this site for a while now......... I "found" this thread this morning.
I only have to catch up a little
2305 pages . . . .But, the information appears to be very good reading !!
- Sep 27, 2012
- 33,764
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Love that emoticon!Yay!!! First eggs!!!
Mumsy they look like cotton fluffs strewn throught your yard . They are very pretty
. They are very pretty
Happy Halloween everyone from Lucy, Stella & Sophie
Tots first time having pumpkin & they loved them
I spoke with a vet today & wanted to share the conversation.
Since our posts have talked a lot about worms, cocci, to vaccinate or not, I had been thinking and reading a lot about these things for the last several days.
I have not given any drugs, vaccinations, wormers, etc. to any of my chickens. Like Mumsy said above, I want to raise strong, healthy chickens via natural means; that is my goal. I want to produce eggs and meat that is different from the "factory farm" fare that I can get anywhere. I have treated for injury (bumblefoot) and would treat any other fixable injury.
So... I decided to contact the somewhat local "farm vet" office to talk about some of these things and also ask if they did fecal testing. This vet office has about 10 vets that make farm calls...or you can haul your goat in to the office if you so desire! Since their "house call" charge is only $30 to my area I imagine if I had a goat I'd just let the vet come to us (unless, of course, the goat needed an "outing", but I digress.)
The vet was very clear with me that gape worm is very rare. He also stated that in his practice he had not seen chickens that needed to be wormed. He told me that he had his own backyard chicken flock a few years ago and that he "made sure they had good food and clean water, and cleaned out the litter from time to time...otherwise he just gathered eggs."
He told me that some of the "factory farm" type operations he dealt with treated for cocci because if they got sick that was a lot of birds to lose all at once... (50,00 at a time) but that his experience with small flocks was that cocci was usually not an issue if raised relatively "naturally".
He said that if they are out where other birds are they would ON RARE OCCASION contract a respiratory disease (I left the proper name on my desk at work...sorry) that they referred to as "blood slinging" in which the trachea became inflamed, they could cough up blood and parts of the trachea and shake their head and the blood and trachea would be "slung" around. In that case he said, CULL. But that it was very rare to see it. He also mentioned Avian flu was possible if they have wild birds around a lot.
The conclusion of our conversation? He encouraged "letting the chickens be chickens" and not to worry about that kind of thing. Provide a healthy, natural environment and these things would very likely never be an issue. On the rare occasion, cull.
Myself....I haven't had to deal with disease or worms. If I thought I had cocci in young chicks I might treat them. I guess until I have that experience I can't be 100% sure how I'd deal with that. I think it would have a lot to do with the specific circumstances.
But my GOAL IS TO PRACTICE THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY THAT IS PREVENTATIVE rather than having to treat an illness after the fact. So far that has worked well. ie...The most natural feed I can afford, including "animal" protein and avoiding soy and gm ingredients, avoidance of chemicals and medicines to allow them to build their own healthy immune system, healthy housing and run built up with deep litter, free ranging as much as possible, fresh clean water, access to green growing things, bugs, etc. during the summer and saving some up for the winter, fresh air and sunshine, places for dust bathing year-round, observing for any signs of problems (like lice/mites) to catch them early........you get the idea.
I won't purchase started birds from swaps (and probably not anywhere else for that matter), and hopefully only introduce day-old chicks or use hatching eggs until I have enough diversity that I can breed my own replacements. I will likely not go to shows or into the poultry barn at the fair. If I do go around other flocks or birds I'll use common-sense bio-security by doing things like wearing different shoes and clothing and removing them to the wash before going into my own flock. Not allowing people that have chickens walk into the chicken yard, etc.
I have learned well from those of you that have raised flocks for years to be proactive about things like that. (Just today one of our Indiana folks had to cull her whole flock because she brought home birds from a swap at a local TSC. Birds were vet tested and confirmed with the disease after some of her flock began to get sick so she had to cull the whole flock and wait until next year to start over. Things like this can be prevented; just don't go. But this is something I never would have known without the input and experiences of the folks on this and a few other threads.)
So...sorry for the long post. Hopefully it is useful to someone.
Since our posts have talked a lot about worms, cocci, to vaccinate or not, I had been thinking and reading a lot about these things for the last several days.
I have not given any drugs, vaccinations, wormers, etc. to any of my chickens. Like Mumsy said above, I want to raise strong, healthy chickens via natural means; that is my goal. I want to produce eggs and meat that is different from the "factory farm" fare that I can get anywhere. I have treated for injury (bumblefoot) and would treat any other fixable injury.
So... I decided to contact the somewhat local "farm vet" office to talk about some of these things and also ask if they did fecal testing. This vet office has about 10 vets that make farm calls...or you can haul your goat in to the office if you so desire! Since their "house call" charge is only $30 to my area I imagine if I had a goat I'd just let the vet come to us (unless, of course, the goat needed an "outing", but I digress.)
The vet was very clear with me that gape worm is very rare. He also stated that in his practice he had not seen chickens that needed to be wormed. He told me that he had his own backyard chicken flock a few years ago and that he "made sure they had good food and clean water, and cleaned out the litter from time to time...otherwise he just gathered eggs."
He told me that some of the "factory farm" type operations he dealt with treated for cocci because if they got sick that was a lot of birds to lose all at once... (50,00 at a time) but that his experience with small flocks was that cocci was usually not an issue if raised relatively "naturally".
He said that if they are out where other birds are they would ON RARE OCCASION contract a respiratory disease (I left the proper name on my desk at work...sorry) that they referred to as "blood slinging" in which the trachea became inflamed, they could cough up blood and parts of the trachea and shake their head and the blood and trachea would be "slung" around. In that case he said, CULL. But that it was very rare to see it. He also mentioned Avian flu was possible if they have wild birds around a lot.
The conclusion of our conversation? He encouraged "letting the chickens be chickens" and not to worry about that kind of thing. Provide a healthy, natural environment and these things would very likely never be an issue. On the rare occasion, cull.
Myself....I haven't had to deal with disease or worms. If I thought I had cocci in young chicks I might treat them. I guess until I have that experience I can't be 100% sure how I'd deal with that. I think it would have a lot to do with the specific circumstances.
But my GOAL IS TO PRACTICE THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY THAT IS PREVENTATIVE rather than having to treat an illness after the fact. So far that has worked well. ie...The most natural feed I can afford, including "animal" protein and avoiding soy and gm ingredients, avoidance of chemicals and medicines to allow them to build their own healthy immune system, healthy housing and run built up with deep litter, free ranging as much as possible, fresh clean water, access to green growing things, bugs, etc. during the summer and saving some up for the winter, fresh air and sunshine, places for dust bathing year-round, observing for any signs of problems (like lice/mites) to catch them early........you get the idea.
I won't purchase started birds from swaps (and probably not anywhere else for that matter), and hopefully only introduce day-old chicks or use hatching eggs until I have enough diversity that I can breed my own replacements. I will likely not go to shows or into the poultry barn at the fair. If I do go around other flocks or birds I'll use common-sense bio-security by doing things like wearing different shoes and clothing and removing them to the wash before going into my own flock. Not allowing people that have chickens walk into the chicken yard, etc.
I have learned well from those of you that have raised flocks for years to be proactive about things like that. (Just today one of our Indiana folks had to cull her whole flock because she brought home birds from a swap at a local TSC. Birds were vet tested and confirmed with the disease after some of her flock began to get sick so she had to cull the whole flock and wait until next year to start over. Things like this can be prevented; just don't go. But this is something I never would have known without the input and experiences of the folks on this and a few other threads.)
So...sorry for the long post. Hopefully it is useful to someone.
Thanks girls...and to you too! And everyone else
Happy Halloween everyone from Lucy, Stella & Sophie
Tots first time having pumpkin & they loved them
Yeah, sorry I used the word "jump." I agree that the two issues might be related, which is why I was curious if she was still doing the chest scraping. If not, the two might be unrelated.
No more hawk netting needed
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