The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Quote:
my main egg buyer noticed me saving the shell so she went and searched the internet for shell uses. I'm positive she is now gardening with them and using them as tiny seed starters. But I have asked others if they wanted to save the shells for me and the response was about the same, strange looks and won't they smell before I can get them back to you.
I leave my egg shells in a bowl on the stove. When I use the oven they dry & then I use my hand to break them up. When the bowl is full I dump them in their DL. The girls pick through them and then they compost down.

Funnier story about eggs........my Mom who checks on the hens when I work afternoons.....she still BUYS eggs.......I ask her why she buys them when she could just as easily take the ones at the house.......*well I don't want to take them from your egg customers....*

Of course she also just enjoys going over there & giving them some *nana crack* & talking to them.....well listen to them is more likely. Stella & Mrs Green tend to talk her ear off esp if she is slow in giving out treats

 

[TeaChick]

I am not putting anyone with her until her feet are healed.... It is one toe on each foot. Those nasty girls.... HUMMMMPPPPHHH..... It is really irritating! I can almost bet that once this snow clears they would probably all be fine with one another.... they generally get a long well. This winter is TERRIBLE....

I see. Yeah, I don't like winter either and it just visits here for a week or so at a time.

I can't imagine how it'd be if Old Man Winter moved in for three (or more) months!!!

I'm a wimp.

ohh your string of letters was not out of line. I should have used bold for the MY in the my family friendly meaning. Sorry, my mistake. Although we don't use that b word with toddlers. I'm with you on this!!! =) Toddler boys especially find some words too funny to say and then break out saying those words over and over again in the most inappropriate settings. Been there, done that, twice, the t-shirt got spit up on. lol
But the home page for the urban dictionary has words that most families consider "bad" words as part of their words for the day. So the site is not family friendly. In that case, I will probably stick to asking ppl I see using abbv. =) Thanks for the heads up! =)


That book is very math oriented so you might want to check it out early. Also it is common in my library.
Babies can be expensive but don't have to be. Lots of ways to keep the cost down. Avoiding formula, used clothes sometimes have not even been worn, shoes are not truly needed until walking, fancy toys are more for the parents than the child, basic old school diapers are a great way to save too.
Yes, formula and diapers are two huge money pits when you have kids (then shoes after they start walking, b/c the destroy them or grow out of them every five minutes!!!). I avoided the formula almost entirely; we bought formula a little and DH said (every time he bought it) I'm glad they're ____ (being nursed or eating solid food). The diaper pit is full of my money; we used disposables and I would not go back there. DH didn't want me to have to wash the extra laundry, but I'd rather do that than the alternative. PS: there are other absorbent items that can be either disposable or cloth and the cloth is much better for the person wearing/using them. (I hope I was dainty enough in that!!!

)

possibly....at this point I don't know if just a couple of them were taking part or all of them.... I do know who the bossiest one is.... they had the pop door open to the run and were in and out all day. It happened between 8a and 2p... normally I am out there more often than that-- seriously, I am a chicken stalker, but I thought I would ease up a bit and give them some space... apparently... a BAD idea....

She did lay an egg now that she is on her own.... the last few days she must not have laid.... this egg I haven't seen in a few days.... maybe because of stress.

I vote, keep stalking your chickens and this one obviously needs a vacation from the rest of the flock.
Now, I'm no expert; in fact, I'm a total newb and have made many mistakes (costing me more chickens than I care to admit all at the same time), so if I were you, I would definitely take the advice of anyone else on this tread before I took my advice.
Okay......

Sorry!!!!!

She just likes her new made up alphabet soup reply.

My kids tell me half of what I say is only in the Jenn-tionary.

So you're not alone, Scott. =)

apparently she's easily amused.

I was mobile last night, but......

 

[TeaChick]

Just me but I do not wash my eggs unless they are really, really dirty. They are hardly that dirt, even last year when we had so much rain & mud. I guess they wipe their feet when they come in from the mud

Even the eggs I sell I do not wash. My customers are ok with it. And I just got another egg customer today

IDK if I would wash for customers or not. I think I would not and then just not give them ones that need to be washed for aesthetics. (I used the ABC button for that one, Scott.)
Yay for egg customers!!!!

I have read that very lightly sanding is the only semi acceptable way to save the bloom for incubation purposes. I don't know. As an experiment I washed a really dirty egg and have a chick in the basement from that egg. Typically I do nothing to any egg bloom on an egg I want to set. But come summer I should have lots of eggs to eat and was hoping for a quick way to clean them if need be before trying to pass them on.

I think I would put them in the sink or a large bowl and fill it up with water. Then I'd gently stir them around watching for poo-ticles (snickers). Then I'd dry them with a towel or rag, and watch for the poo-ticles (hehe) and rub them off as I put them in a carton. I'd probably also keep an extra carton handy for ones that I couldn't get clean enough to pass on, so I could just put those in my fridge.
Normally, I keep eggs on the counter and I just stick some in the fridge before we use them (DH and I are accustomed to cooking refrigerated eggs, not room temp ones). Most of my eggs are in a carton on my counter waiting either to be cooked or incubated. =)

 

[tcmstalcup]

I only wash if they look bad. I don't get hung up about it. I have all the customers I can provide for and they know fresh eggs come 2 ways. Take it or leave it. So far no leavers......

 

[CourtsCacklers]

I see. Yeah, I don't like winter either and it just visits here for a week or so at a time.

I can't imagine how it'd be if Old Man Winter moved in for three (or more) months!!!

I'm a wimp.


I vote, keep stalking your chickens and this one obviously needs a vacation from the rest of the flock.
Now, I'm no expert; in fact, I'm a total newb and have made many mistakes (costing me more chickens than I care to admit all at the same time), so if I were you, I would definitely take the advice of anyone else on this tread before I took my advice.
Okay......

I don't agree that advice from anyone else is better than yours just because you are a newb. Even the old timers can learn a thing or two.... we can each learn from each other! Everyone's individual practices are also affected by whether their chickens are pets (with benefits) or if they doing it on large scale... for me it is 6 chickens that I will have till they die.... hopefully not before their natural life is over...if I wasn't such an animal lover-- a couple of them would probably already be gone...

 

[hellbender]

I only wash if they look bad. I don't get hung up about it. I have all the customers I can provide for and they know fresh eggs come 2 ways. Take it or leave it. So far no leavers......

The 'trick' is to keep the nests clean and filled with straw. If there's any residuals on the eggs, I just gently buff with one of those kitchen sponges with a rough side.

 

[Turkeytruff]

thats a coon for sure

Kinda fuzzy but I would say yes.....here's a picture of coon tracks in mud.



Here's a link that shows pattern of walking....

http://wildwoodtracking.com/mammals/raccoon/index.html

thank you both (sigh); little b#$%^&s are sniffing around my new turkey hen which is in quarantine in a large pen on the field near the hen house. Everyone else is indoors. So I now have a cage inside the larger (10x10) cage surrounded by heavy tarp that I put her in every night. I have just added a rooster for company (also to keep him away from the BCMs while I collect their purebred eggs).
Anyone had any problem integrating a new smaller turkey hen into a mixed flock with 5 other turkeys? She is 8 months old (4 of mine are 8 1/2 months old and they are almost twice her size - the beauty of feeding them FF

) The first day they saw her, the 2 toms marched up and down outside shaking their tails and undoubtedly saying~~‘ 'hubba hubba baby, check out my tail feathers & the way I shake my butt - are you impressed?’ The hens: “who does that hussy think she is, coming onto MY turf and flirting with MY guys?”

It's been a week now and she is very healthy and eating furiously to catch up I think. the hens seem much calmer with her through the wire. So fingers crossed they all get on when I eventually let her out.... and that she won't just fly away.

 

[chick rookie]

A warning about the Starlings!!! they will kill your chickens.!!!! found a hen in a corner under a big group of Starlings... they were pecking her. She cant hold herself up and she has not eaten for 3 days, I told DH when he got up that he needed to put her down. he don't want to but I am not going to let her suffer any more then she has. I have done all I can and she is tired of fighting, so I feel its time. Really upsetting!!! this winter I have lost 5 hens including her to this dang cold and the problems it has caused. I never thought BIRDS would attack a chicken!!!! but that mistake will not be made again!! I get one problem solved and another one pops up. So glade I got the Starlings stopped from coming in the coop... for now....
Cant wait till this cold and white stuff is gone..... So sick of it.!!!!!!
Anyway if your having problems with these birds WATCH THEM AND GET RID OF THEM they are killers!!!!!

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I had starlings trying to hang out inside my barn too. Hmmm. Thanks for the warning.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

A warning about the Starlings!!! they will kill your chickens.!!!! found a hen in a corner under a big group of Starlings... they were pecking her. She cant hold herself up and she has not eaten for 3 days, I told DH when he got up that he needed to put her down. he don't want to but I am not going to let her suffer any more then she has. I have done all I can and she is tired of fighting, so I feel its time. Really upsetting!!! this winter I have lost 5 hens including her to this dang cold and the problems it has caused. I never thought BIRDS would attack a chicken!!!! but that mistake will not be made again!! I get one problem solved and another one pops up. So glade I got the Starlings stopped from coming in the coop... for now....
Cant wait till this cold and white stuff is gone..... So sick of it.!!!!!!
Anyway if your having problems with these birds WATCH THEM AND GET RID OF THEM they are killers!!!!!

sorry about your hen.