The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

I know I know!! I said I was not going to post any more pictures. I am such a liar!

Soooo cute! Put our eggs in the 'bator today!

I have a silly question, we all have chickens that are Orps or Silkies or Cochins or whatever. But there is no paperwork stating that 6 generations ago there wasn't a Marans in with the Orps or whatever. Do you all go by the look? Dogs, horses, even cats have a paper trail with their bloodline. Do you just follow the SOP for that breed without ever knowing the history? Forgive me for asking such a stupid question but I've almost asked this several times but was afraid that it was as silly as it sounds.

Even if there were registries, having been involved in the dog and horse worlds for many, many moons, I can assure you that those papers can be faked. It's very unfortunate, but people who are in it for them money and not for the animals or the quality... well - it happens all the time. This is why the SOP / Poultry shows are so important.

Reputation of the breeder is paramount. The birds bred by a breeder will be shown, where they will be judged. Most good breeders never out breed. It can take 8-10 years to get rid of a mistake, and sometimes, the mistake is never un-done. The famous names of many breed strains date back 40-100 years. No outbreeding, ever.

Birds don't have paperwork. This is the purpose of the top notch shows. Again, a good reputation is hard to earn, but easy to lose.

I have Swedish Flower Hens - a new import to the US and there is not yet an SOP for these birds. In fact, because it is a landrace breed and had not been subjected to selective breeding, some SFH breeders argue against an SOP for the breed as it would seem contrary to the background of the bird.

Personally - I believe with a rare breed like this, we should come up with an SOP for the purpose of keeping the existing breed "pure." Though the breed has only been in the US for 2 years, there have already been a number of folks who received chicks/hatching eggs that, once hatched and given a few weeks, were clearly not pure SFH... its even harder to prevent unscrupulous breeders from cross breeding and selling eggs/chicks at higher prices when no SOP is in place for a breed.

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens! I would love to see an SOP put in place - and I would love to be able to show my SFH under SOP standards.

 

[delisha]

What does everyone do with the DL come spring?

I am searching for some new and inventive ideas
This is my first year ever doing DL. I have not even decided if I like it or not. It is so messy looking. However I like the extra time I have not having to work so hard cleaning frozen poo. Now I just knock it down into the DL. Much faster. I am also delighted by the lack of odor.
How is it going to smell come warmer weather?

I do plan on removing one of the rooms out of DL. The layer room. I want to scrub it down and use that great recipe for white wash. It has not been painted in forever. I might make it a little girly looking since I seem to be posting pictures.

So..do tell..what ya all going to do come spring?


OHHH and BDM...I know you will have a great hatch!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

As you know I just got some of the Swedes.... How do you tell if your breeder/source is reputable? You know where mine came from and they were both recommended by many people.... but how do you know where their originals came from, etc. etc.....

I think finding folks like we've dealt w/here on BYC have been really good folks to deal with for sure! But I think I'd like to see some kind of standard too. I'm pretty excited about getting some so early in the game from import!

 

[Mumsy]

What does everyone do with the DL come spring?

I am searching for some new and inventive ideas
This is my first year ever doing DL. I have not even decided if I like it or not. It is so messy looking. However I like the extra time I have not having to work so hard cleaning frozen poo. Now I just knock it down into the DL. Much faster. I am also delighted by the lack of odor.
How is it going to smell come warmer weather?

I do plan on removing one of the rooms out of DL. The layer room. I want to scrub it down and use that great recipe for white wash. It has not been painted in forever. I might make it a little girly looking since I seem to be posting pictures.

So..do tell..what ya all going to do come spring?


OHHH and BDM...I know you will have a great hatch!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the DL! I will have no problem finding uses. I've already taken three wheel barrows out of the barn and spread on the raised beds I will grow veggies in the potager garden. Another three wheel barrows will be spread on the raspberry row. Then I will mulch my newly planted fruit and nut trees in the orchard. If there is any left after all that I will use it to mulch the old roses in the wild garden. I consider my DL precious as gold when it comes to the garden.


I've posted this image before. My DL as a top dressing for the raised beds. They will host vegetables.
Edited to add: If you don't garden consider selling your spent DL locally or on CL. It is very valuable to gardeners. Not kidding.

 

[pigeonguy]

Ok,
1. 16% Last year they had free choice layena pellets
2. Currently feeding FF that's 1/4 Layena, 1/4 whole oats, 1/4 barley and 1/4 scratch grains. I do toss either alfalfa pellets or BOSS in the mix, alternating.
3. Started FF in October - best month ever for eggs. We were getting 10-12 a day until the olders started molting. Just realized that when I started, I had calf manna in the FF - leftover from fattening up an older horse.
4. Only 2 left that I can see with raggedy feathers. The other 3 that were molting back in November are all fully feathered again, but have yet to restart laying (EEs)
5. Pretty solid, white tops. I don't see as many runny brown cecal poops and their coop has almost no smell to it at all!

Not counting the alfalfa, cabbage or boss. Because it is not a constant you have 12% protein. So it is not real low but could be better. If they are eating a lot of bugs like you say it really should do the job. 50 years ago the experts said that is all they need then they decided that was wrong and said 16% is what is needed. 50 years ago there was a lot more free ranging which yours do so maybe that is the difference.
Other than that everything seems to be in order. So I have a tendency to go with laying some were else. The only other thing I would say is feed some pun kin seeds and garlic just in case its worms even though it really does not sound that way.

Just so you know you would have to use 4 times the layena to bring your protein up to 14%

 

[Leahs Mom]

What does everyone do with the DL come spring?

I am searching for some new and inventive ideas
This is my first year ever doing DL. I have not even decided if I like it or not. It is so messy looking. However I like the extra time I have not having to work so hard cleaning frozen poo. Now I just knock it down into the DL. Much faster. I am also delighted by the lack of odor.
How is it going to smell come warmer weather?

I had it all summer long in the sweltering heat.

True story...I have a friend who doesn't like animals and is a kind-of "clean freak". She came over one day this summer and wanted to see the work my husband did on the shed converted to hen house.

When I took her inside to look, she immediately said, "It doesn't stink in here!" I was totally surprised coming from her. We hadn't discussed smell at all before she went it. She was expecting to smell a stink because there were animals.

I just told her that I understood that if you are able to take care of the hen house using the method I was, that it was supposed to not stink and that was telling me that it was working right.

If you knew this girl, you'd know that was an AMAZING STATEMENT coming from her!

 

[Leahs Mom]

OH... And I plan on taking about half - 3/4 of it out in the spring to place either on the compost for further deterioration or right onto the garden. Then I'm going to continue on with the the litter adding new as needed. Kind-of like doing a ff by adding new to a little leftover old.

If I had too much for the garden, I'd put some of it in the enclosed run with some new wood chips or leaves or whatever to get my bedding deeper out there. My goal out there is to eventually get it deep enough that there are still bugs/worms that stay insulated enough under it in the winter that the chickens can scratch down to access.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

So..do tell..what ya all going to do come spring?


OHHH and BDM...I know you will have a great hatch!!

I'll be working the DL into the top layer of my compost pile to give it a kick and get it rolling for the spring. As the DL will contain some fresher poo, I don't want to put it direct on my garden as it could burn new plants. I'll use my older compost first thing in the spring.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I usually take out about half of the deep litter out of the chicken coop come spring and spread it around my blueberry bushes and straw berry plants plus in the flower beds spread all over. During the year in my duck and goose house i use deep litter too but everyday I do remove the soiled bedding it usually not much but having 15 water fowl it can add up in a week, that I go ahead and spread out around bushes and what ever i see may need some mulch. I haven't removed all the DL in my chicken coop in about 3 years. The only reason I did it then was because I had a mite infestation and was told I needed to completely remove all litter to treat the coop and kill the mites.

 

[galefrances]

I know I know!! I said I was not going to post any more pictures. I am such a liar!

Awww, so adorable. I miss having chicks.