The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[ki4got]

Question:
I understand that fertile rate for Cochins is about 50-60%.
I also understand that trimming the feathers around their vent can increase that rate.
Is this considered a natural practice?

for show quality bantam cochins, yes that is pretty much the norm... many do AI so they don't have to trim fluff, if they're conditioning for a show as well. for hatchery quality cochins, no you don't need to because they don't have that thick heavy underfluff like the show quality ones do.

is it natural? no, is it necessary? if you are breeding show quality, without trimming you may not get ANY fertility... it just depends on what you want, and what birds you're working with. I have one new boy who will need to be trimmed, but most of my other boys seem to manage just fine on their own.

trim the hens above the vent, the roo below the vent... if you scissor it too short the girls will get stabbed by the stubble/feather shafts. many prefer to pluck. personally, I use scissors and just trim the outer edges of the fluff, down about an inch or so each time, until I start seeing better fertility in the eggs. maybe once a week or so. if the stubble gets so short that it's starting to irritate the hens, then you need to pluck.

sometimes just plucking some of the fluff to thin it out works as well, or a combination of trim and pluck. it's up to you.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
you do NOT want to use clippers on the cochin fluff... unlike hair, the feathers don't grow back that quickly, all you'd be doing is leaving feather shafts in place that can give the girls stubble burn in all the wrong areas... if you have to trim them that short, pluck the feathers a few at a time... but usually a quick trim with some sharp scissors is all it takes. I just take some of the length of fluff, without getting it so short you have to worry about hard feather shafts.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote:
Hmm. :/

 

[lalaland]

A quick feather trim seems a better alternative then holding a roo doing undainty things to him until he gives you a deposit then holding a hen while you give her the said deposit! lol

kassaundra, "undainty" made me laugh!

 

[Pozees]

Sorry about all your cold temps!

I've noticed something that's concerning mine about my chickens. They all seem to be losing weight. They eat the yard and the kitchen scraps and they have access to fermented feed and dry feed and what's left on the ground off the corn from before ( last week). They're not interested in eating almost any off the feed I have out for them and they seem healthy otherwise.
Is out normal for free range/ foraging chickens to look skinnier in the winter and still be healthy?

Tea Chick, I'm noticing the same thing. My girls have lost a lot of weight. I've replaced their feed with 22% protein crumble. They avoid it. They are eating BOSS, cracked corn, sprouted BOSS, barley, wheat. Occasional bird seed, table scraps, about once a week I give them a can or sardines, and I give them table scraps or occ egg. Their crops are never full like they are in the summer. Only one girl laying now.

Last month I switched the adults over to Ranchway Poultry Feed, and they have been gobbling it. When it got super cold they cut way back on consumption, then it warmed back up and now they are going through it like crazy. I do not understand why they would eat less when it got really cold, but they did. We also give scratch every afternoon about an hour before sundown. That, they really didn't slow down on

 

[Jewelwing]

@ Chaos:
I like your spiral egg thing!!! I want one!

Here it is on Amazon in black, but it comes in different colors:

http://www.amazon.com/Egg-Skelter-Black-Medium-Large/dp/B006MXCLUQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hg_4

Junk food chickens will eat: table scraps including bread, pasta, rice, cookies, pie, cake, and even left over restaurant food. My chickens have eaten chick fil a and they love it.
Chicken food that works as junk food for chickens: scratch from the feed store, cracked corn, .... There were at least 4 different bags of stuff I could use as scratch at our local RK. I went with one that had 12% protein over the cracked corn and others. I still think of it as junk food but it encourages litter turning.

Do you worry about what's in food from Rural King? I can't tell if it's gmo or organic, so I'm assuming none of it is either of those things. The people who work there never seem to know anything about it, including whether they can order non-gmo feed or not.

I guess that makes sense as a general definition of "natural".
A strict definition being anything they can find or would do in the wild.


Yeah, all of what you and Sally said we give too, well we put that stuff in our compost hole and the chickens take what they want (and leave the rest for the bugs to eat them later

I have smart chickens

).
Anyway, 2 things we don't give them are lasagna, and dessert!!! Those things just don't make it that far down the food chain in our family. lol
We don't generally give bread, but they get it when DS doesn't finish his lunch or when it gets stale (in the summer we make croutons for salads, but we don't eat salad in the winter, so the chickens get the scraps of bread).
Yeah, I guess we're in the waste not want not category. There's very little we put in the trash, just if it's pointedly bad for the chickens. KWIM?

That's how we feed our chickens scraps too! It all goes in their pile and they pick out what they want and let the rest compost. I try to throw away as little as possible (partly because of being good to the planet, and partly because we don't have garbage pick-up because of where we're located out in the country). I love the idea of turning our unwanted food scraps into eggs!

 

[fenwickchic]

HELP!!! I've been using a chicken tractor all spring, summer, and fall with great success. I decided to make it stationery for the winter so we placed it up on our concrete patio (after first laying down tar paper then weed barrier over that) and added pine flakes and dry leaves. Chickens seemed fine and loved the leaves. Several days ago I was checking the coup area to see if it needed poop scooped out and saw some blood droppings. Scared the life out of me, but everyone seemed to be still eating, drinking and moving about. I checked all 6 chickens and discovered that one was a mess. I immediately got paper towels and warm water to try to clean what I could away from her behind to see. I then discovered that she had lost a lot of feathers underneath and her skin was extremely red and hurt her. I panicked and sent pictures to a friend who said it looked like lice and suggested I dust all the chickens with Sevin. Well, I have been raising them organically and I hated the thought but she was so bad that I had no time for extensive research into what to do. I really felt it was an emergency. I didn't know what to do about the coop. I read that lice stay on the chickens and that you don't have to worry about cleaning or dusting the coop. I also read that if you are deep littering then you definitely don't want to get rid of the deep liter. Well, I couldn't stand it so I decided to let the run alone, but cleaned the nesting boxes and the coop poop boards which are actually the flooring. Today (last night now) I actually had time to check up on how she was doing. She looked o.k. but not great and I decided to check the others again more thoroughly. Now, I am really, really, really upset because the other hens and my roo are infested!!! The question I can't seem to get answered is how in the world did these chickens get lice and in the condition they are in?!! I was fermenting their organic feed from Countryside in 2 bucket method, but something went wrong with the process at one point and I'm now thinking it was because the buckets weren't food grade. I was getting a nasty looking scum on top that everyone agreed I needed to dump and not feed to the chickens. Unfortunately, my husband had fed some already. Did this weaken/poison them? I basically spoil these chickens and love them. I chop fresh veggies up for them everyday and put them in their food tray and I have baked flockblock. I try to let them free range a couple hours a week but every time I let them out (and they want out badly) I get a bunch of vultures showing up and circling. Yes, turkey vultures. Now maybe they won't hurt chickens but they don't seem very intimidated even by me. The chickens were under tree branches but it still scares me. Again, I'm trying to give them every health benefit I can and now they are infested and ruined by Sevin dust because I freaked. So I have just spent 6 hours reading everything I can on what to do and and still wondering about the chicken tractor/coop. I have no place to move the chickens to, so what do I do? Please help!! I have fireplace ash and have read that I should rub down all the chickens with fireplace ash making sure to get it onto the skin and into feathers. So that is my plan for tomorrow. I also went out and bought a plastic tub to put sand into for dust bathing. I had put sand underneath the coop area, but that got covered in leaves and wet and froze so the chickens had no dusting area. The sand I bought was wet in the bag so it is now in my basement laundry room which is the warmest area in the house and is sitting beside a dehumidifier. Hopefully will be dry tomorrow so I can put it in the coop. I am hoping the sides are low enough they can get in, but high enough to keep leaves and flake out. I just cannot believe that I have taken such poor care of these poor birds. I love them and they are miserable, yet still laying 3/4 eggs a day. My poor little girls!!! My friend said she is always fighting bugs. That just doesn't seem right. Healthy birds that are well fed in a clean environment shouldn't have this kind of problem. Please tell me what I am doing wrong. I am now worried about their feet too. Not sure they look exactly healthy. I will follow up with pictures from my phone if I can.
''

 

[lalaland]

fenwikchik, take a deep breath!

its going to be ok. it is good you caught it now, and I agree about not using sevin. I would however, use poultry dust, because it sounds like it is a strong infestation. Thats just me, I would get them thoroughly dusted, and then follow up with making sure the ash bath is available for them. If you were seeing them, but not having the blood and red areas on your one hen, I might be willing to try the wood ash but I am worried your one hen is approaching critical condition.

use the stuff with permethrin - it is a synthetic poison that mimics natural substances from chrysanthemums. Try not to breath it, but don't panic - in the US they actually sell clothing treated with it to keep mosquitos away. You will need to repeat this in a week or so. You can sprinkle it in the nest boxes in the cracks, and on the tractor "floor". You don't need a lot! If you object to the permethrin, you could also dust with sulphur powder...but I think you would have more immediate results with the permethrin dusting powder. sometimes it is sold in the garden section, but it will say "poultry dust" on it.

Easiest way to use it is to get a nylon stocking, pour some in, tie the stocking off so you have a powder puff. be sure to apply under the wings, and throroughly around the vent area, plus everywhere else. I wear a bandana as a face mask, but have also done it barefaced.

For your one hen who is doing so badly, I would order some nustock online and get it shipped overnight if you can. It might be in your feed stores too, sometimes near the horse products. It is a sulphur based ointment with pine tar, and you goop up your girls red skin and vent area. It has a lot of uses for chicken keepers and I would not be without it.

I couldn't tell if you feel confident that you have lice or if you have mites.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong as a chicken keeper, these varmits can be transmitted from wild birds...but you can put into practice a weekly throrough inspection of each chicken where you check for mites, lice, vent, eyes, weight - over all health check - and that way you can get to these problems before they get too bad.

about the sand....some people have used peat moss and found their hens really really like it. that might be something you could use and keep the sand for summer.

why are you worried their feet? If you think you have scaly leg mite, the nustock will work well for that, or you could just oil up the legs.

 

[armorfirelady]

Now, I am really, really, really upset because the other hens and my roo are infested!!! The question I can't seem to get answered is how in the world did these chickens get lice and in the condition they are in?!! '

Like Lala said take a deep breath. Most of us on here have battled lice/mites. We all have different ways we treated them.
Lice/mites are everywhere. They can mask their infestation pretty easily. I noticed they were scratching a lot when I went in to check them after they roosted. I use wood ashes for mine. When they got infested in the fall I gave them a wood ash dust bath every night for several nights then waited 10 days & gave them one last bath. (in case eggs hatched) They were clean of bugs. They now have a large container full of wood ashes available 24/7 that they can dust bath in to their content.
I also sprayed any wood in their coop with neem oil (beware its strong smelling) look for the organic kind. I also removed all their litter, bagged it & threw it in the garbage. I didnt want it in my compost since I knew it had lice/mites in it.

I was fermenting their organic feed from Countryside in 2 bucket method, but something went wrong with the process at one point and I'm now thinking it was because the buckets weren't food grade. I was getting a nasty looking scum on top that everyone agreed I needed to dump and not feed to the chickens. Unfortunately, my husband had fed some already. Did this weaken/poison them?

Without seeing the *scum* that you had on top of the food I can't tell you if it was bad or not. What did it smell like? sour? pickled ? rotten? When I used commercial feed I would get a whitish/grayish covering on the top. I would just stir it back in. It smelled sour and sometimes pickly.
Also how were you fermenting? Did you use ACV with mother? kefir? buttermilk? Everyone has a differerent way they start theirs. That can also change what you have on the top. Leah's Mom is the guru about different kinds of fermenting.
Here is another BYC forum you could try as well:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds
I would also give them meat to boost their iron level. chicken hearts, beef liver, etc. Depending how infested they are they can be anemic. Also I would give them some coconut oil, garlic & basil. They will help with their immunity as well.
Also you mentioned bloody poops? Thats not from lice/mites. That could be from worms. (also found everywhere in the ground) And all chickens have worms its just when they become overloaded with them that they become a problem. So add some cayenne pepper and pumpkin seeds to the above mentioned herbs. I add herbs to either eggs I feed back to them or yogurt.
It will take a little while to see a change. They didnt get them in a day so it will take a few to get rid of them. Give them some eggs & yogurt a few times a week with the herbs for a few weeks. They certainly wont hurt the chickens.
Once everyone wakes up I am sure you will get some more advice

 

[lalaland]

-28 this morning. haven't opened up the coop yet as it isn't quite dawn. Last night I put a metal stool under the heat lamp to see if it could absorb some heat and radiate it out. lucky I get to work from home today so I can feed them a warm mash this morning. will report back later this morning with a Booster update!