The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[CourtsCacklers]

I have been worried about mine too.  They aren't feather picking but they seem bored.  I put up another roost in the run and it is a large branch.  They liked having something new.  Last week I added a piece of firewood for them to stand on.  They liked that.  I think they need chicken toys.  The only other thing you can do is what I did today.  I went into the run and put a cover on the firewood and sat in there with them.  They like having company. LOL  Unfortunately for me as I spent time with them I realized they were picking at themselves.  So I picked up Charlie Sheen, my Bantam Roo because he is black and lice are easy to see on him.  Yup, he has lice again.  I thought the lice were licked (ha, ha) but the joke is on me.  My B.O., Shirley had pulled out tons of feathers when she had the terrible case of lice.  I thoroughly dusted each of them in wood ash and then again about 5 days later and Shirley looked better.  New feathers were coming in and she looked good.  I cannot figure out how they are getting them.  I even put in a dust bin with sand and wood ash which they are using.  They don't go out of the tractor, no other birds can get to them , i clean the coop religiously and add liter to the DL in the run.  I stopped using my bagged leaves because I was worried the lice might be in them.  So this really makes no sense to me.  What am I doing wrong?!!  I read that lice live only on the chicken and not in the run or DL.  Is that true or can the actually live in the DL?

I can't be out with them for long periods of time as I have three little boys-- I did go out like a trillion times (Okay-- more like 6 times) for 5 to 10 minutes each time and try to visit and occupy them! So sorry about the lice.... what a bummer... I did look check mine and I didn't see anything on them... this picking is the very ends of the feathers... I even see them do it occassionally (I am thankful there are NO bald spots!) It is so irritating and I keep telling DH that the weather needs to break for these girls and he keeps telling me that it is sticking around for a while this time... :O( This is a real bummer... I do have Lisa Steele's "Fresh Eggs Daily" and she recommends dusting them with food grade DE (Diatomaceous Earth) but obviously you have to be very cautious about the dust getting into your lungs or theirs. She says for lice that the infestation has taken hold you can set up 2 plastic dish tubs and mix 2 C. salt into 2 gallons of warm water in one tub and soak the hen for 10 minutes and then soak her for 5 minutes in the second tub of 2 gallons of warm water with 1/2 C dawn dishwashing liquid and 1/2 C of white vinegar mixed in. She says the lice will drown and float to the top--then you rinse and dry her thoroughly and dust with the DE. It can be repeated every day or two until you no longer see evidence of it.... I hope something like this isn't my problem and I just am not seeing it-- I have never had to check for it before.....

 

[CourtsCacklers]

I have all the things you list in my coop as well. (Minus the fresh greens) I put the homemade suet in a suet hanger. They can pick at it as they want it. I am guessing if you leave it in there they will eat it. I also threw some on the floor as well. I would also give them meat every few days for a month or so. See if that helps with the feather picking. It might be a protein problem. My girls get meat at least once a week and I have never had a problem with dpfeater picking even after being in their coop for 4 days when our last blizzard came thru.

The temps here have only made it to 10 the last week with below zero temps at night all week. for this weekend lower temps during the day & more snow and possibly another blizzard. Girls got some extra suet and tomorrow I'm going to fluff all that hay from the last blizzard. And toss in some leaves as well. Thank goodness I left the inside plastic flaps up. I put those down tonight to give them a smaller place to roost and stay warm.

I give them credit tho they have been outside all week even if it was just to meet me at the gate or go from the old run to the coop. And walking thru the snow doesn't seem to phase them anymore. Found a squished egg tonight. It coated the other 2 eggs in the nest. I know the egg wasn't in there last night so it's weird to find it that way.

Stay warm everyone who is affected by polar vortex 2.......I think Mother Nature and old man winter are fighting this year with the wacky weather we are having

mine are doing it too. They just don't want to go out but are bored inside. It was better when I gave them a cabbage heads to play with. But those have not been on sale recently, and I have avoided going to the large grocery stores for the better part of a month. Mainly just milk stops here and there.

I'm having some feather picking, too. Just the two bottom of the order barred rocks. I give them meat every other day or two and they have never free-ranged, except in my "portable paddock" on weekends in the summer.( They are in the 10' x 20' coop/run.) I have a cabbage "swing" set up and throw some scratch, leftover veggies, sprouts, etc. into the deep leaf litter, so they are busy looking for stuff all day. (They also have layer pellets in a free feeder & I give them a helping of fermented pellets with barley & wheat & scratch & BOSS each morning.) I wonder if I'm giving enough meat? How much do you give "per chicken" at a time?

Thanks everyone.... not happy to hear that you are dealing with it too-- but kind of nice to know that it isn't just my girls off their rockers..... I will try some meat tomorrow-- I have never given them meat but I have some frozen beef and pig liver in the deep freeze that we won't eat.... is it better cooked or not cooked for them and how small does it need cut up? Any help here would be great! Thanks!

 

[Scott H]

I always feed it cooked...cut up large bug size..LOL

 

[lalaland]

I'm having some feather picking, too. Just the two bottom of the order barred rocks. I give them meat every other day or two and they have never free-ranged, except in my "portable paddock" on weekends in the summer.( They are in the 10' x 20' coop/run.) I have a cabbage "swing" set up and throw some scratch, leftover veggies, sprouts, etc. into the deep leaf litter, so they are busy looking for stuff all day. (They also have layer pellets in a free feeder & I give them a helping of fermented pellets with barley & wheat & scratch & BOSS each morning.) I wonder if I'm giving enough meat? How much do you give "per chicken" at a time?

I swear it is a combo of boredom and close quarters. Although that bedroom the hens were in that I got with the well-entrenched feather picking habit was a big bedroom, I figure they were understimulated (no wind, no sun, no bugs, no grass, nothing!). The chicken signals book says to make sure there are plenty of "pecking targets" - they use things that look like little round cement bricks. Basically something to keep them occupied. But mine have deep litter, feed blocks, cabbage, scattered scratch, etc....still the nibbling goes on.

And it is definitely learned behavior that gets passed on.


i feed raw meat unless it is cooked leftovers. I just make sure it is either a solid chunk of meat that they pick at, or else the pieces are small enough that they can't choke on them.

How much meat? I give what I have: leftover meatloaf, enough thin tidbits of liver that everyone gets a 1/8th of a cup or so - not that it has helped. Just up your protein and see if that helps.

 

[Leahs Mom]

(Sorry I may have missed this earlier on but) Is there a reason you prefer to buy dry mealworms over farming living ones yourself where you can control all of the factors?

For me it was because the mealworms I could raise were just a "drop in the bucket". The amount they could eat vs the amount I could raise just didn't make sense. Some ground meat was actually cheaper by the lb. that doing mealworms.


Feather Picking:
If the feather picking IS a protein need (and not just plain boredom) ANIMAL/INSECT protein is what you need...not more grains and legumes.

Note that they're going after BLOOD here.

(NOONE has ever seen a chicken pick at a soybean plant or a soybean

)

 

[mlowen]

Thanks everyone.... not happy to hear that you are dealing with it too-- but kind of nice to know that it isn't just my girls off their rockers..... I will try some meat tomorrow-- I have never given them meat but I have some frozen beef and pig liver in the deep freeze that we won't eat.... is it better cooked or not cooked for them and how small does it need cut up? Any help here would be great! Thanks!

I feed raw, too, except for leftovers. I have ground up stuff in my food processer and if I cut it, it's about bug sized. I drop little bits off a spoon into the litter for them to hunt for. They love meat! Especially the two leghorns. I pray daily that I never fall down in there!

 

[armorfirelady]

Look what showed up at the coon trap......

While not good that you had this visitor it's really cool to see one. What a great camera you have. I might put one on my tax return list. I know I get deer and rabbits in my yard but I know there other predators around as well. Thankfully not near the coop. I think maybe the dogs deter them.

LM you know my girls actually like their Canadian peas........guess I have strange chickens lol

 

[fenwickchic]

@CourtsCacklers thanks so very much for the information on treating the lice. Do you think that is something I should do during this cold sweep? I'm worried that even if I blow dry them they won't get completely dry and if I leave them in long enough to get completely dry, then it will be too much of a shock to put them back outside. We just got a weather warning that it is going down to -5F tonight. I don't ever recall it being this cold. I am so worried about my chickens. I have no heat source because the light would be too close to the chickens. There is not enough height above the roost. I'm looking into an outdoor doggie heating pad. I would attach it to one of the walls I think. Anyway, I'll do the water buckets thing when it warms up some and I'll just dust each one every day with the wood ash. I'll get food grade DE when I buy the heating pad. Thanks so very much for responding. I need all the help I can get!

 

[Leahs Mom]

LM you know my girls actually like their Canadian peas........guess I have strange chickens lol

I was thinking "in the wild" or natural state that they wouldn't pick on soy or soy plants.

(When they're captive, they're stuck eating what we give 'em.)

 

[RedRidge]

No power and only 2 degrees here this morning.
Nothing I can do about all the incubators... :-(
But I have 24 hr old chicks in the basement. We heat with a wood stove (Thank you Lord!), so at what point do I start bringing chicks up and start putting them by the fire? It's probably 55-60 in the basement where the chicks and bators are, course its 70 up here and even warmer by the fire, but with no heat lamps or ecoglow those chicks are ok for how long?