The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

Mom got a renovated kitchen one year for Christmas doing that.

My dad was the fire chief at the time.

I wish my kitchen got renovated.
One house we lived in had a wood burning stove. My DH built up this billion degree fire in it one night and when a log fell out and I had to try to get it back in, the fire caught a beam near the stove on fire and I am the one who has the reputation for setting the house on fire. lol
Maybe I should have married a fire chief. lol

 

[lalaland]

The flogging roo thing. This is just for what it's worth and only from my own limited experience. The stick never worked for me, at least not permenantly. I thought I killed mine a few times w/ the stick b/c neither one (me or him) were about to back down. When I would win (and I always won) he was always injured b/c he wouldn't quit until he was, he would mind his pees and ques for a few days or even sometimes a few weeks, then bam out of the blue he would attack again. Until he died I carried a stick in the chicken yard until he died.

The most success I had you probably can't do this time of year was a water hose on jet. I discovered it by accident I was actually trying to drown him b/c I couldn't catch him (he put a hole in my leg that day) He respected and feared the water hose way more then the stick. I water boarded him out of the blue until he died just to keep fresh in his mind I was boss, he never actually attacked after that but I never trusted him and several times I caught him "thinking" about it.

My personal opinion on a cockerel that charges a human: Be prepared to cull him. Some learn fast and the rest are dangerous, or at the very least, irritating, if they aren't big enough to cause actual harm. Kassaundra's experience is illustrative. Also consider that the gene pool will carry that potential if you hatch anything he may have fertilized. No one but you can decide what you will tolerate in your flock, and if it was me I'd give him a few tries with schooling, but after that, if he kept charging, he would be in a stew pot.

I have worked him twice now today with the stick. He is backing down.

Someone mentioned a leghorn that was flogging, I think this guy is half leghorn. Guessing because I did order some superblue egglayers, and this could be one.

He definitely will be culled if I can't get him to mind his ways. Absolutely not going to deal with a rooster attacking me, or worse yet, someone visiting or a child.

He is hitting the 6 month mark, just starting to mate....this is kind of the make it or break it stage I think!

 

[lalaland]

Guess what?

was in the coop stirring the bedding and in came Princess, a sulmtaler - she's missing in the pics I posted earlier today about comb colors...and she hopped up on an overhead shelf. I thought, what the heck? so I reached up under her and there were two cold eggs so must be from the last few days.

Tiny pullet eggs, funny shaped. THe brown egg is from the co-op as no one else in the flock is laying.
Oh Happy First Egg Day!!!



I've been hoping the pullets will use the nest boxes in the other side of the coop. Hope this doesn't mean that won't happen. I am not going to put nest boxes in the half of the coop that these are in, I've been hoping they would eventually combine on their own with the older girls.

 

[lalaland]

aaggjg,

I was really hoping it was an injury as recovery chances would be so much better.
Isolating will let you monitor her droppings so you can tell more about what is happening with her.

I just went through this with mrs murphy. After 3 weeks I ended up culling her as she just went down hill. That was after worming her, and giving her antibiotics and treating for possible cocci.
Keep us posted.

 

[TeaChick]

Guess what?

was in the coop stirring the bedding and in came Princess, a sulmtaler - she's missing in the pics I posted earlier today about comb colors...and she hopped up on an overhead shelf. I thought, what the heck? so I reached up under her and there were two cold eggs so must be from the last few days.

Tiny pullet eggs, funny shaped. THe brown egg is from the co-op as no one else in the flock is laying.
Oh Happy First Egg Day!!!



I've been hoping the pullets will use the nest boxes in the other side of the coop. Hope this doesn't mean that won't happen. I am not going to put nest boxes in the half of the coop that these are in, I've been hoping they would eventually combine on their own with the older girls.

So happy for you!!! (and her/them) =D
Happy First Egg Day!!!

About the laying location thing: In my (admittedly limited) experience, if you don't want them to lay somewhere, pick up their eggs from there while they're watching. I don't think they're really with it right after they lay, b/c my DS picks up hens out of the nesting box and takes eggs from under them and generally messes with them and their eggs in the nesting corner, but they keep laying there. If you do want them to lay somewhere... 1. Good Luck! and 2. I have succeeded with semi-dark, closed in, covered overhead somehow. I had them laying in a mop bucket in their original coop, but I've had them lay behind the lawnmower, which was sort of covered with plastic sheeting, on a pile of blankets on the back porch (no other overhead covering), and in the middle of the coop/hen house.

You can see my original coop and new hen house and nesting corner here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/840456/teachicks-chicks/10#post_12419066

 

[Leahs Mom]

Just finished skimming zillions of posts!

Someone was talking about a "sun-room" with old windows. Here is what aart did at her hen house:

You can see her coop page at:

Quote:

 

[aaggjg]

aaggjg - any discharge from nostrils?  Do her eyes look normal?  Is she eating and drinking?  If I had to guess, assuming she has no discharge, I would say it is either Marek's or parasite overload.  Check for external parasites (mites/lice) which most often are evident under wings, around vent, and on head.

If you decide you want to worm, there is lots of information here and elsewhere, but what I opted for was Safeguard liquid for goats, 0.5 cc per large fowl and 0.25 cc per bantam (Silkie), repeat in 7-10 days.  I bought a box of 1 cc syringes without needles from Amazon when I ordered the Safeguard, but they also had the Safeguard at the local feed store.

If it is Marek's it is highly unlikely she will survive.  If it is parasites she may, although once they are down it's tough.  If it is something else (someone on another thread recently posted that his birds may have died from a leukosis (sp?), which I think he said was basically tumors that grow until organs don't work or until nerves or blood vessels are blocked) all you can do is support her and hope for the best.  I'd say separate from the flock, but if she has something contagious it's probably too late for that anyway.  I would still separate just in case.

I am very sorry, and am hoping she pulls through for you.  I think you did the right thing giving her some polyvisol, and you can try giving her some scrambled or boiled egg, some scratch, anything she will eat.  I will be thinking of you.

Thanks Pozees. I gave her a bath in dr Bronners, Epsom salt & reg salt. In case she had parasites. When I was drying her, I did see 1 mite and I think a few eggs are some feathers. I just ashed her as well. I've been battling mites for a long time so I check my hens pretty regularly.... I didn't see any around her vent, under her wing or on her head. Sigh.... She has no nasal discharge or watery eyes nothing. I felt her wings , legs etc checking for injury but she didnt grimmace at any point. She is eating! Mealworms, scrambled egg, grapes and some sprouted grains. She still isn't moving.
The first 2 poos I saw this morning were totally normal... Then after her bath she poo'd a very watery poo. I'm thinking maybe the stress of the bath?? She didn't love .... Nope not at all. I'm leaving her be for the moment as I think she thinks I'm torturing her.

 

[aaggjg]

aaggjg,

I was really hoping it was an injury as recovery chances would be so much better.  
Isolating will let you monitor her droppings so you can tell more about what is happening with her.

I just went through this with mrs murphy.  After 3 weeks I ended up culling her as she just went down hill.  That was after worming her, and giving her antibiotics and treating for possible cocci.   
Keep us posted. 

Lala I have her in the sick bay. Poor thing. She's not moving but she is eating a little so that's good.

I might go out to see if I can find her some liver....

 

[Leahs Mom]

Has anyone used the Vet RX? It's basically essential oils and I got some to put in my first aid kit. Just wondering if anyone has ever used it?

 

[aaggjg]

Has anyone used the Vet RX?  It's basically essential oils and I got some to put in my first aid kit.  Just wondering if anyone has ever used it?

I use it all the time. I call it the Vicks vapor rub for chickens