The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[wolfglen]

That always seems to be the case, catch a few and the others wise up. Same thing with criminals, when I was a police officer, you'd catch a few members of a group when they made mistakes, then the others learn not to make the same mistake again.

 

[wolfglen]

Haven't made any hatbands, but lots of ear rings, brouche pins, fishing flies and things like that.

 

[fenwickchic]

@CourtsCacklers You won't believe this but yesterday was my birthday too!!! I did buy the DE and added an old bleached out and cleaned litter box filled with a mixture of sand DE and ash. It looks like they are using it but weirdly enough they are pecking at the mixture too. Do they "eat" DE? The strangest thing is that Shirley, the one that had the worst lice infestation last time just stands in the older dust bin and will puff herself up. No one could use it because she would stay there. That might be why Charlie has lice. My brahma, Dagney is definitely dust bathing in the new pan. YAY!!! Maybe she will show the others except she seems inclined not to get out too. Do I have to periodically change out the dirt mixture in the bins or can I just add to them?
As to your panels for your run. That's a great idea. I put an old water heater door off a mobile home up against the run so they can be shielded from the wind on that side then I used left over clear roofing panel and clear vinyl I sewed together to shield off the entire "people" door and again the lower half of the run. They come out everyday. Of course, if the want to eat and drink, they have no choice. But they stay out there all day and even get up on the roosts which actually puts them in the wind. I think the combo of the wind block and the deep liter keeps it warm in there for them. At least its warm when I go in and play with them. I will see if the DE added to the boxes helps and then do the bucket washing when it warms up some.
Anyway, Happy Birthday girl!! Hope you had a good day yesterday.

 

[fenwickchic]

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!!!

Is is cider vinegar? I don't think distilled helps. Also, I had that happen and realized that they were getting back out through the hole because it was too big. It needs to be very tiny. and tape around the paper and jar edge. Should work...

 

[ki4got]

Here are some nicer pictures so that necropsy photos aren't the most recently posted ones on the thread!

The first few are from one of the recent snow storms we had. If we didn't have to dig ourselves out and drive to the rest of the world, snow would just be fun!

And here's a little guy who got trapped in our garage when our daughter accidentally left the garage door open for several hours before nightfall. We noticed him the next day (the bag of kitchen garbage had been dragged under the car and ripped into), so we set up a live trap and released him back outside. He ran straight for a pile of brush near the house - probably his home!

that was a mistake IMO... releasing a possum just keeps the problems going... they can and will eat chickens. they also carry diseases that other animals can get. if I catch a possum, it's drowned and disposed of. if I can't catch it but see it, i'll shoot it. if it's in the road challenging my 2200 pound vehicle traveling towards it at 45 mph, it gets flattened. raccoons are on the same list but I will swerve to aim for them. lost another pullet today, during the day! the body was still warm when I found it. the head and crop had been eaten as well as part of the breast on one side. thru the cage wire of the pen... today's the first daylight loss from inside a pen. and my live trap is frozen open and to the ground... so it's useless.

 

[ki4got]

After having gone several years without losing a bird to predators other than one here and there to hawks, I've lost a dozen during the last week. Racoon that have been able to tear right through the chicken wire! I've trapped and disposed of six of the SOB's so far.

I have a hav a heart trap which seems to work fairly well and a tractor supply one which no matter what I do, it either shuts the trap at the slightest touch or doesn't close at all. I've tried dozens of little tweaking of the trip wire and tab, but no avail.

I probably should just build my own trap, I can design a better trip mechanism than what they have.

The coops are about 100 feet behind the house, I'm going to pitch a little tent with a sleeping bag and wait with the 12 gauge. For effect, I wonder about using my .375 Magnum (no, not a .357 mag pistol, my 375 Ruger carbine. 4,700 ft. lbs of energy.
Do I sound angry?

Jack

careful with the ruger... LOL you don't want to put holes thru everything BEHIND whatever you shoot with it. LOL.

got a two-fer not long ago... shot one deer with hubby's garand, from 20-30' away... went in the front of her head, out the back, and into the deer standing 20' further on, knocking her down but not killing (hit her in the spine)... so the .380 was enough at close range for that. I hadn't intended for that to happen, but the bullet was deflected just enough to head toward the other girl I wasn't aiming for... the third one jumped a bit, then just looked around. could have had all 3! but I wasn't that ambitious about cleaning them in cold butt weather.

tho I did take a suggestion I'd heard previously... after field dressing and saving the tasty bits, skinned them both (peeled more like it LOL) using a rope and the tractor, and carved them up in the shower. whole lot less frozen fingers and sore back, because I could take a few breaks here and there, and the meat didn't freeze solid when I did. LOL cleanup was a lot easier too.

 

[ki4got]

@CourtsCacklers You won't believe this but yesterday was my birthday too!!!

happy birthday both of you. it was my Dad's too.

 

[armorfirelady]

 
@CourtsCacklers
  You won't believe this but yesterday was my birthday too!!! 

happy birthday both of you. it was my Dad's too.

All the cool kids were born in January

 

[lazy gardener]

careful with the ruger... LOL you don't want to put holes thru everything BEHIND whatever you shoot with it. LOL.

got a two-fer not long ago... shot one deer with hubby's garand, from 20-30' away... went in the front of her head, out the back, and into the deer standing 20' further on, knocking her down but not killing (hit her in the spine)... so the .380 was enough at close range for that. I hadn't intended for that to happen, but the bullet was deflected just enough to head toward the other girl I wasn't aiming for... the third one jumped a bit, then just looked around. could have had all 3! but I wasn't that ambitious about cleaning them in cold butt weather.

tho I did take a suggestion I'd heard previously... after field dressing and saving the tasty bits, skinned them both (peeled more like it LOL) using a rope and the tractor, and carved them up in the shower. whole lot less frozen fingers and sore back, because I could take a few breaks here and there, and the meat didn't freeze solid when I did. LOL cleanup was a lot easier too.

Remind me not to get on your bad side! I shared your story with Hubby, and he said you could retire just on the money you save on ammunition!

 

[Turkeytruff]

After having gone several years without losing a bird to predators other than one here and there to hawks, I've lost a dozen during the last week. Racoon that have been able to tear right through the chicken wire! I've trapped and disposed of six of the SOB's so far.

I have a hav a heart trap which seems to work fairly well and a tractor supply one which no matter what I do, it either shuts the trap at the slightest touch or doesn't close at all. I've tried dozens of little tweaking of the trip wire and tab, but no avail.

I probably should just build my own trap, I can design a better trip mechanism than what they have.

The coops are about 100 feet behind the house, I'm going to pitch a little tent with a sleeping bag and wait with the 12 gauge. For effect, I wonder about using my .375 Magnum (no, not a .357 mag pistol, my 375 Ruger carbine. 4,700 ft. lbs of energy.
Do I sound angry?

Jack

No you sound pretty reasonable to me! Good luck with getting those buggers! We had someone in the local free ads asking if anyone wanted a freshly killed mink for skinning. Apparently he came out to the kerfuffle in the coop to find 3 dead hens, and his rooster standing on top of the dead 5 pound mink having pecked the crap out of it! Now There's a magnificent roo!

On another topic, a friend and I have just received over a hundred MG (Mistral Gris) chicks - we have a freshly made Ohio Brooder which so far seems to be working OK. Anyone else tried using them?