The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Mumsy,
Last year when I cleaned out my coop, I would just dump it in a 5 gallon bucked every day and than dump that into a pile outdoors. I than forked that over and used that in my garden. Was that a bad thing to do to a vegetable garden?
My brother in law said it was not good.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

What I am wondering about is since my flock is on FF...is their manure as "hot" as fresh, regular manure? Guess I'll find out pretty soon, it's not that long until the cool weather vegies will be going in.

 

[aoxa]

A few pages back (well more like 10-20 now) we were discussing fertile eggs VS non-fertile eggs. BDM Was supposed to get a picture of a non-fertile egg. I have one of a fertile egg. It is very clearly fertile.



From one of my RSLS who just started laying.

 

[armorfirelady]

I agree with Mumsy. I have been DL since I got my hens in August & except for a few shovel fulls in the doll house coop haven't removed any. Those few shovel fulls went in the veggie garden. And I only removed them because it was halfway to the roosts!
My DL in both the doll house coop & enclosed run has no smell and u can't see poop in it. It's broken down marvelously and has a fresh earth smell to it. I turn it about once a week or so with help from the hens when I toss BOSS in there when I have to lock them in early.

I have no fears of putting more in the veggie garden in the spring. Heck the veggie garden is part of their outdoor run area so they poop in there daily. but yet i still dont see poop piles in there since these girls have no qualms about digging thru snow to the leaves underneath hence stirring in their poop.

My goal this summer is to work on my gardens around the house and that includes adding DL to them along with compost from the compost pile.

And thank you Mumsy for reminding me not to put DL on the acid loving plants & for the great tip on using peat moss in the DL. I always add a few bundles to the veggie garden but never thought to add to their DL

 

[stonykill]

A few pages back (well more like 10-20 now) we were discussing fertile eggs VS non-fertile eggs. BDM Was supposed to get a picture of a non-fertile egg. I have one of a fertile egg. It is very clearly fertile.



From one of my RSLS who just started laying.

you captured that perfectly.

I have never cracked one of my eggs open to cook and seen it not be fertile. I'm sure it must happen.... I must get one or 2 that aren't....but I'm roo heavy... so eggs are fertile.

 

[aoxa]

Picture time.. It's been a good 2 weeks since I took pictures of the flock. Here are some new ones.




Doesn't take much for Sandy to squat for Randy.


Hey baby, how you doin'






This one is for whoever asked about the other parties interfering during mating. I know it was about chickens, but ducks also get offended when their man goes after another woman.

I would say Bertha made herself very clear.


This here is the head Hen, Denny. She's a Delaware. Very old gal. Not even sure the age.


Winston my young gander who came from Kansas. He was hatched at Good Shepard Poultry Ranch, and if you know your breeders of Rocks, then you know exactly who they are. What magnificent birds.. Anyway.. Back to Winston. He has grown so much since I brought him home in October. Here he is with the calls.


How stinking cute...


The bantam Ameraucanas are out of the basement and in the barn with heat lamps. It sure was cold this morning.. Going down to -30 tonight.


FF Chest


It was REALLY hard to decide which pictures to show you of Clementine playing in the snow.. I have so many really cute ones..











Like I said.. Really hard to choose which pictures... She has been doing so well. She even is learning RECALL. Oh I'm so happy!!


Here she is in the barn.. I usually don't like her in here, but she snuck up behind me


I have some unique nesting boxes.. This one is a favourite.


But beggers can't be choosers. There are quite a few layers now, and only 10 nesting boxes.

That little white stuff is my poodle's fur. I have all sorts of weird nesting material. The hens really like the fur.


Not big fans of the snow...


Everyone LOVES the dirt bath hang out.


Delisha, this one's for you specifically. I remembered you wanted to see how Tom grew. It was you right? Well he's filling in quite nicely.



Well he thinks so.

Since that's a million pictures, I'll stop at that. I have plenty more where that came from. Please don't quote all the pictures

 

[aoxa]

you captured that perfectly.

I have never cracked one of my eggs open to cook and seen it not be fertile. I'm sure it must happen.... I must get one or 2 that aren't....but I'm roo heavy... so eggs are fertile.

I don't eat eggs a whole lot, but I did this specifically for BDM. Then my dogs got a good treat, as we were heading out the door. No time for breakfast.

Glad you think it shows it clearly. Very easy to spot Bullseye. Someone's been getting busy.

 

[Ashdoes]

So, keeping with the DL and compost theme...I have a pile where I cleaned out our barn when we first moved in. It's right outside the run, and mostly really old horse poo. Can I start dumping my extra DL and just the chicken poo there? And, like someone else asked, how long till it's not hot?
Someone else mentioned straw, and I have an idea for mine. At the end of summer this year, we had huge piles of drying weeds that were taking over. I ran over the piles with the mower. The chickens loved it. Still the same weeds, but smaller and easier for them to pick through. So, when we don't need straw all over the barn anymore I'm going to run it over with the mower and dump it into the run. I'm really hoping it will eventually break down and change the soil in the run, which at the moment is like sandy dust.

 

[stonykill]

duck mating.... omg I can't look towards the duck run the last few days without catching duck shananagans going on

. All kinds of "funky ducking" going on.... then the mounting begins

 

[Leahs Mom]

A few pages back (well more like 10-20 now) we were discussing fertile eggs VS non-fertile eggs. BDM Was supposed to get a picture of a non-fertile egg. I have one of a fertile egg. It is very clearly fertile.



From one of my RSLS who just started laying.

Well I can see THAT one!!!!!!!!

And your photos are so beautiful they almost seem like they can't be real!!!