The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lindz8504]

So, I am processing 6 cockerels for the first time tomorrow, and I have a few questions....

1. Is it better to leave them whole or go ahead and cut them into pieces when I process?

2. Do I need to brine them, or does freezing then thawing them give them enough time to rest?

3. Is there anything in particular that I need to know or watch for? I am doing it with a friend who has experience, but this is pretty much my first time (except once when I was 12 and helped my grandmother pluck some)

 

[armorfirelady]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

I agree that burying her is the best bet, but not sure I can do that. The ground is pretty frozen!! I could probably take her to our vet in town, though - they send their losses for group cremation. That's probably the way to go. The vet is a friend of mine, and I need to talk her into doing surgery on my daughter's rat ASAP anyway (DD found a couple lumps on her "baby" last night and is pretty freaked out - she wants to pay for histopath to know whether they're malignant or benign). Hard times for animals here the past couple of days!

Looking closer at the egg Ethel laid today just before she died, it looks like it has dried egg yolk bits on the shell. She plopped it out onto the floor as I was putting her back into the dog crate, so I know it didn't roll in anything - what's on it came from inside her. Anything else that could be besides dried egg yolk?

Would that likely indicate her cause of death? I guess I should do a necropsy to see what I can see. I guess I'll do it out in the garage. It's just so cold!! But I don't want to do it in the house. I have no idea what I'm looking for, though.


Here's the dried yellow stuff on her egg:

If I had to guess I would say she had an infection from an egg breaking inside her before this one formed. That would explain the yolk on this egg, her decline & death. But I am a newbie of 2 years so its just a guess. You would have to see what the OT's have to think

Quote: I don't have fruit flies around my grains I am trying to sprout. They are in canning jars.

I have no ideas about the mold on the fodder. I think people have said they use a diluted bleach solution to prevent this?? Leahs Mom or Kassaundra would know better.

 

[TeaChick]

I don't think it was idiotic at all....... I think it was very creative. I know because of experience and knowledge that it would not work in a traditional sense, but, I think one could be improvised that would work. Most slow cookers and crock pots have too high of a temp to work. But with some adaptations it would work. The biggest thing would be air holes. The next would be insulation and heat regulation. You might get it to work by putting it in an insulated box with the top off and the eggs setting above the crock pot..the possibilities are endless..

Thank you! =)
Yeah, that sounds like it should work.

 

[TeaChick]

Quote:
I'm so sorry!! I know how awful that feels to mess something up for your kids.

In other news, this morning I have one Speckled Sussex (one of the ones who's been laying for a couple of weeks but didn't lay yesterday) who has very labored breathing and poop like water. She also frequently makes a noise like a cough or sneeze or hiccup. Her crop is more than half full, her cloaca looks fine, and she did drink lots of water this morning. No mites or scratching. I'm going to scramble up an egg for her. She looks so miserable all fluffed up and breathing so labored.

It got down to 0F last night, but in the negative teens with wind chill. I had a heat lamp in the coop, and it's pretty well closed up from drafts, and has some ventilation up at roof level on one side of the coop.

The girls don't want to go outside today, so I put some more wood chips down to freshen things up, and tossed some dried meal worms and scratch on top. They get so freaked out when I bring the bag of wood chips in! The all scrambled up to the roost when I did that, and only a couple of them came back down for the meal worms.

I have the water outside, so every few hours I bring a warmed up glass water dish with fresh water and let them drink inside the coop. I don't want to leave it there because I don't want to add any more humidity, and it will just get wood chips in it anyway.

Thank you.

I hope your hen gets better!!!

 

[Shan30]

Yes as long as there is no mold you are fine....  

My Fruit Flies are OUT OF CONTROL ... Anybody have a sure fire fruit fly trap??  My vinegar w/ funnel bottle not catching a thing!!!  THEY ARE OUT OF CONTROL!!!

Switch your bait to BEER! They love it and die happy

 

[Kassaundra]

If I had to guess I would say she had an infection from an egg breaking inside her before this one formed. That would explain the yolk on this egg, her decline & death. But I am a newbie of 2 years so its just a guess. You would have to see what the OT's have to think
I don't have fruit flies around my grains I am trying to sprout. They are in canning jars.

I have no ideas about the mold on the fodder. I think people have said they use a diluted bleach solution to prevent this?? Leahs Mom or Kassaundra would know better.

Totally agree. I was getting caught up today and so just reading all this today, when you first posted that is what I was thinking, then seeing the egg confirmed it in my mind.

 

[TeaChick]

my husband built a brooding room for me in my basement in an old coal area..it had 4 foot walls alreday got some foam type insulation board to go all the way to the top...he is talking about putting a door on it...He went and got 2 milk house heaters for that room which is heated by boiler pipes in the ceiling...by the way the room is 12 X 12 or so... chicken math has got one of us..we repurposed a toddler bed 3 big rubbermaid tubs fit in side the frame of that and light can be mouted to the frame it is a wood sleigh type..and he is saying we need more brooders. i have 8 chicks coming next week 4 buff bramhas bantams, 4 EE and what ever packing peanuts.. and then more coming next month..He was actually bugging me today asking if the chicks would be here tommorow..

must try this as a brooder and see what I can do. Thanks!!!

For anything like this I use the calendar, set up appointments with reminders and set them to repeat every day.

Me too; my phone is always telling me what to do.

DH makes fun of me for it (good naturedly, of course).

Is there an app for that?

I did find an app for hatch days for poultry.

First hatch of the year... In the basement.
8 eggs, 6 hatched so far, 4 pullets & 2 cockerels.
I always brood in the barn... Have never had chicks in the basement before. So glad I have a tolerant husband since brooding in negative temps would be tough. Will be hatching every 5 days now beginning Feb 2. Wonder how long before he mentions moving back to the barn?

That's a good hatch rate and a great ratio of pullets to cockerels!!!
My DH isn't tolerant in general, but he's being extremely tolerant of my chicken-ing.

I'm hatching in the living room and then brooding on the back porch.

His attitude seems to be "ya gotta do whatcha gotta do".

Ok so Pearl, AKA LOUD MOUTH, my Splash Marans crowed AGAIN this morning!!! In her defense one of my local Hawks was casing the joint perched up my neighbors Eucalyptus tree but still a crowing hen does NOT work for me ... nope not at all!!! Silly Chicken!

So in my upper coop I have 4 next boxes built into the side of the coop .... I put a rabbit hutch in the run as an extra nest box as when there were broodies the girls would scream and yell trying to get access to the favorite nest box. Well the secluded hutch became a favorite spot.... So much so that LOUD MOUTH & Tank both went broody and nested in that luxury room. This made the other girls rediscover the original nest boxes ... when luxury accommodations freed up a few of the girls started nesting in there again but not all of them ... Now nobody lays in there ... not even loud mouth who was the last hold out.... Instead they have decided that laying in a corner on the floor of the coop is the best place! My silkies lay in the box but my Marans & frizzle lay in the corner. WHY??? This is a new behavior and they have switched corners over the last week .... I can not figure out what turned them against the nest boxes or the luxury private suite! How do I change their minds??? Silly chickens .......

I forgot to rinse my BOSS sprouts and they molded!

I just took them and poured them out! The BOSS and Millet I was sprouting was ok, so I went ahead and took it to the chickens. I then started 3 more jars of Millet/BOSS. Rinsed, and soaking now! Can someone remind me and Aoxa to check our sprouts tomorrow? and the next day... and the next!

Check your sprouts, Hon!
You too, Aoxa!

 

[TeaChick]

I think I'm going to lose Ethel tonight. Just when they all started laying finally (yesterday, at 27 weeks, the last two laid their first eggs - all nine are the same age). She's one of my Speckled Sussex, and she's at the bottom of the pecking order. Been laying for a couple weeks now, though. But not today or yesterday.

She's had labored breathing all day today, wheezing with every breath and coughing or sneezing (I can't tell which) fairly frequently. It got up to 7F today (-15 with windchill), but everyone came outside to forage in the run anyway. Ethel came with them, and poked around in the compost a bit. I tried giving her scrambled egg, but it was very hard to separate her, and she didn't seem especially interested in it. This morning, she did drink a lot of water when I brought out a new bowl to replace the frozen one, but her poops looked just like water too, not normal poops.

Tonight no one seemed to want to go back inside the coop. Maybe because I scared them by putting fresh pine shavings down? Maybe because there was a scary block of wild birdseed I thought they might like to peck at to keep busy? Anyway, I had to lure them in one at a time, and Ethel was the last one hiding under the coop while everyone else was inside. I sprinkled some meal worms on the ground, but she was unimpressed. So I went inside and scrambled another egg. She was still huddled under the coop, breathing heavily and loudly, but she slowly came out when I put the egg down and called her. She wasn't interested in the egg, but I was able to grab her and put her inside the coop with the heat lamp on. Then I brought in the scrambled egg and fresh water, but Ethel flew up to the roost and fell asleep while everyone else was gobbling egg and drinking.

She just sounds and looks so miserable. I hope whatever she has, she doesn't give it to anyone else!

Keeping up with Ethel's story. I hope all goes well!!!

and

 

[TeaChick]

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

)

LMBO

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

Feed what?
I'm having to skim b/c I missed seventy-something posts.

 

[TeaChick]

Well, I just lost Ethel. Now I'm down to eight chickens.

She actually made it through the night (after I spent over an hour getting her out from under the coop to put her inside it with the heat lamp and the other chickens). But this morning while everyone else was outside picking around the leaves, Ethel was on the floor of the coop (although she had flown up to the roost last night, giving me hope), with her head down in the chips and breathing hard, eyes closed. I brought her inside since she wasn't with the rest of the flock anyway, and put her in a dog crate lined with pine shavings. I squirted some vitamin water in her beak (she wasn't interested when I put her beak in a bowl of water), and in between gasps she did swallow. Then she popped out an egg as I put her back into the kennel.

After I dropped my son off at school, I stopped at Rural King to look for antibiotics. The only thing I could find that looked halfway reasonable was LA-200 (a tetracycline), so I bought it and injected 1cc into her pectoral muscle. Then I tried giving her more vitamin water, but she didn't swallow it. She died very shortly after that, so I don't know if it would have worked or not.

It sucks!

What should I do with her now? I don't want to feed her to the other chickens, not knowing why she died, and we can't eat her (she was a pet, after all!). Should I leave her in the woods for the coyotes (I can take her pretty far away from the house & coop)? Or should I try to bury her?

Also, probably not eat the egg she laid this morning or feed it to the others, right?

Oh, Chaos, I'm so sorry!!!

I agree with Delisha about burning the body.
I can't say whether I would feed the egg, personally, cooking should kill anything, but I don't know what I would do.

I'm so sorry, Hon!!!!!