The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

Hi everyone,

Another lurker out of the wood work!​

Great to see you here! Your turkeys are beautiful and I love your description of how they eat and then try to liberate more from the buckets - LOL! We're hoping to get 2 turkeys this spring. I may have to get with you about some guinea eggs... we ate our 4 guineas a few months ago because they were beating up the chickens. I think if I hatch and brood the guineas with the flock, they'll be fine!

PeepsCA,
I dream of having guineas of my own but have only owned chickens since July 2012 and wanted to educate myself as I feel I needed to learn some skills before attempting to train guineas! I live in Dutchess County, New York which has some of the highest concentrations of lymes, (and other kinds) ticks in the nation, heck, the world for that matter. I could definetely use a few!

MB

MB - you need to raise them with the flock so they learn to respect chickens... aside from that, they're super easy to raise! Just be prepared for a bit more noise on your property... and their poop is never solid... lol.

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens


There is one that is 75-300mm but it has terrible reviews in comparison. Yes she has the exact same as I do. I really enjoy my lens

Geez!

I currently have the EFS 18-135mm lens. Thankfully I do OK with it as it will be quite some time before I can afford one like yours... but I'll be hiding my pennies from here out. LOL. Some of our tax refund is going toward a new coop (read: someone's old garden shed that they put out on Craig's List on the cheap). My flock is starting to expand, so that has to come first. Then feeding the family and then uber-nice camera equipment. LOL. Yeah... it's gonna be a while. In the mean time, I so enjoy your photos, and I'm grateful my own flock is comfortable with me getting within feet or even inches to photograph them.

The things you say crack me up... combectomy. Love your guard wookie too.

I far prefer making people laugh or smile than causing drama. I'm just not a soap opera kind of girl.

When a daddy turkey love a momma turkey very much .................

Aaaaahaaahaahaaaa... this totally cracks me up because that's pretty much exactly what I have said in the past to my kids! When my son was that age and asking questions (it's been a while - he's going to be 18 in a month or so) we were in the car. He was into dinosaurs at the time so I used the whole, "When a daddy dino loves a mommy dino..." Got through the entire explanation (translated into human physiology). He asked "why" it worked that way so I said, "Well, that's how G-d designed it to work." He was silent for a few minutes...

Then he pipes up from the back seat and says, "Gee - you'd think G-D coulda' come up with something better than that!"

**Disclaimer - the above commentary is in NO way designed to generate or perpetuate a discussion of a religious nature.

 

[Leahs Mom]

When a daddy turkey love a momma turkey very much .................

Quote: Aoxa

Tom???? Peeping Tom?????

Hmmmm.... Out of the mouth of babes.....

I have to confess I've thought the exact same thing!!!

 

[Pullet Surprise]

Great to see you here! Your turkeys are beautiful and I love your description of how they eat and then try to liberate more from the buckets - LOL! We're hoping to get 2 turkeys this spring. I may have to get with you about some guinea eggs... we ate our 4 guineas a few months ago because they were beating up the chickens. I think if I hatch and brood the guineas with the flock, they'll be fine!


MB - you need to raise them with the flock so they learn to respect chickens... aside from that, they're super easy to raise! Just be prepared for a bit more noise on your property... and their poop is never solid... lol.


I currently have the EFS 18-135mm lens. Thankfully I do OK with it as it will be quite some time before I can afford one like yours... but I'll be hiding my pennies from here out. LOL. Some of our tax refund is going toward a new coop (read: someone's old garden shed that they put out on Craig's List on the cheap). My flock is starting to expand, so that has to come first. Then feeding the family and then uber-nice camera equipment. LOL. Yeah... it's gonna be a while. In the mean time, I so enjoy your photos, and I'm grateful my own flock is comfortable with me getting within feet or even inches to photograph them.


I far prefer making people laugh or smile than causing drama. I'm just not a soap opera kind of girl.

Aaaaahaaahaahaaaa... this totally cracks me up because that's pretty much exactly what I have said in the past to my kids! When my son was that age and asking questions (it's been a while - he's going to be 18 in a month or so) we were in the car. He was into dinosaurs at the time so I used the whole, "When a daddy dino loves a mommy dino..." Got through the entire explanation (translated into human physiology). He asked "why" it worked that way so I said, "Well, that's how G-d designed it to work." He was silent for a few minutes...

Then he pipes up from the back seat and says, "Gee - you'd think G-D coulda' come up with something better than that!"

**Disclaimer - the above commentary is in NO way designed to generate or perpetuate a discussion of a religious nature.

Out of the mouths of babes!!!!

 

[aoxa]

I currently have the EFS 18-135mm lens. Thankfully I do OK with it as it will be quite some time before I can afford one like yours... but I'll be hiding my pennies from here out. LOL. Some of our tax refund is going toward a new coop (read: someone's old garden shed that they put out on Craig's List on the cheap). My flock is starting to expand, so that has to come first. Then feeding the family and then uber-nice camera equipment. LOL. Yeah... it's gonna be a while. In the mean time, I so enjoy your photos, and I'm grateful my own flock is comfortable with me getting within feet or even inches to photograph them.

Well we sold our house, so it was my Christmas gift Probably should have saved the money, but whatever. I am getting a lot of use out of it, and it's helping me with pictures for the website I'm working on (for the farm).

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well we sold our house, so it was my Christmas gift Probably should have saved the money, but whatever. I am getting a lot of use out of it, and it's helping me with pictures for the website I'm working on (for the farm).

How much did it cost?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Back to Deep Liter.

This morning I went out to move some of the litter from the "big girl" side of the hen house over to the side where my broody is raising her babies. The baby side didn't have much litter down and the building is raised up off the ground about 20" so the wind blows under there and I thought making the litter a little deeper would make for better insulation - especially since she's on the floor with them.

I dug down with a little shovel to get stuff from the bottom and it is beautifully broken down. It's only been working since about August I think so I'm pleased with that.

I think what got it going for me was the layer of dirt I shoveled in there from the garden around August. The good stuff in the soil went to work and has been doing a great job! If I'd had a dirt floor I wouldn't have needed to do that but since I don't, I just thought I'd try adding dirt to the mix - from the local yard - to see if it would do the trick in getting things going nicely. I'm really happy with the outcome of that experiment.

When I put it in the brooding side I just threw a few shovels full over there. That should also help the littles become exposed to things they should...


You can see the brooding side here in this photo before I shut it off for the December broody. The litter and dirt layer was very thin as I had just opened up this part.



Now momma and babies are in there and I hadn't added any depth at the time of this photo. So...now they have a little more insulation!


(I have been removing the HUGE broody poops that you see there to the right only because they're SO STINKY and HUGE. Too bad I caught it in this photo but I was trying for opportune shots and she had just done her thing...)

 

[aoxa]

How much did it cost?

$250

Sue,

I know what you mean about those broody poops. They are the worst smell you can ever imagine, and FF doesn't help

 

[Miss Lydia]

Back to Deep Liter.

This morning I went out to move some of the litter from the "big girl" side of the hen house over to the side where my broody is raising her babies. The baby side didn't have much litter down and the building is raised up off the ground about 20" so the wind blows under there and I thought making the litter a little deeper would make for better insulation - especially since she's on the floor with them.

I dug down with a little shovel to get stuff from the bottom and it is beautifully broken down. It's only been working since about August I think so I'm pleased with that.

I think what got it going for me was the layer of dirt I shoveled in there from the garden around August. The good stuff in the soil went to work and has been doing a great job! If I'd had a dirt floor I wouldn't have needed to do that but since I don't, I just thought I'd try adding dirt to the mix - from the local yard - to see if it would do the trick in getting things going nicely. I'm really happy with the outcome of that experiment.

When I put it in the brooding side I just threw a few shovels full over there. That should also help the littles become exposed to things they should...


You can see the brooding side here in this photo before I shut it off for the December broody. The litter and dirt layer was very thin as I had just opened up this part.



Now momma and babies are in there and I hadn't added any depth at the time of this photo. So...now they have a little more insulation!


(I have been removing the HUGE broody poops that you see there to the right only because they're SO STINKY and HUGE. Too bad I caught it in this photo but I was trying for opportune shots and she had just done her thing...)

Wow LM I had to take a second look I thought it was a chick at first..

 

[delisha]

That is not huge..I have some that drop baseball size at broody time. I agree with the smell. About gag ya.
love the pictures
PeepCA

love the pictures and looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks for the deep litter pictures.

I am getting so many great ideas about what to do with all of the hay and straw. I love the law mower idea of mowing it over. I don't. think it is broke down enough to put in the garden yet. The straw would never till under with out clogging the tines. It seems to be getting better and perhaps in a month it might be OK to use.
I have a huge mound of black dirt i will need ideas for too. The dirt is actually the top layer of someones front yard. They dug it all up to put in new sod. FREE!

 

[Melabella]

Guess what guys? I have a second girl laying! Last Monday I had my first egg, and have an egg every day since. Today when I went to open the coop door and set feed, I saw an egg sitting on the floor under the roosts. Wonder if it was laid from there? Good thing for a thick bed of shavings underneath! I know I sound like such a silly newbie,, but I am so happy to have another one laying now! It is quite narrow, and quite small... here it is next to the other egg,, which looks the same every day! Do certain breeds lay certain colors? Or is it just individual. I know breeds like Marans and of course blue and green egg layers lay distinctive colors.. but from my two eggs, you can see there is quite a shade difference. Can someone tell from just looking at regular brown eggs?