The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[ki4got]

ok, call me lazy... I call me tired and sore. LOL

someone had posted a while back options for brining...

any chance you could pop the link for me please? I have a carcass in the fridge resting, formerly known as 'mean-***** red dorking rooster'. aka "monster"...

this was my first experience with plucking. all told didn't go bad, but I tweaked my (almost fully healed) right elbow again...*sigh*

Rules for Roosters! #1, don't spur the keeper. #2, don't spur the keeper after she's already levitated your butt 10 feet in the opposite direction you were just travelling. #3, if you insist on trying to kill the keeper, you're just going to make her mad and the last thing you see will be an upside down view of the world.

but I found out the turkey fryer still works! LOL it's only been sitting out in the scrap pile for about 4 years!

 

[delisha]

Response to all: I know that is the best way, and so does Delisha, but her husband on the other hand........ he is a softy! I'd be surprised if he doesn't try to sneak the pup in. Deli will have to be very diligent!! LOL

lol..

We just talked on the phone about this..we are picking the pup up on the 15th I think. We was grilling me about heat in the coop and bla bla bla. I said..Ok I will buy a bale of straw..lol

Quote: I off the heads too...what works for me is..I drop the chick in a paper bag and place a paper towel over the head and pop it off or cut it off. I never look at the chick. Thank goodness it does not happen often.

I have a question about ducks so here it is:

My next door neighbors have ducks, and when i let the chickens out they come over and eat all the mash for the chickens that i put in there!

so my mom keeps putting more in there because the chickens like to go in and out of the pen to eat there food.

you see the the neighbors just let there ducks go up and down the road and to my house

and at 6am in the morning they are quacking quacking and quacking!

So do you think it is right of me to to put those ducks in the goat pen so they don't eat the chickens food??

You can't lock up her ducks......you need to go talk to her. ..Bio Security alone should encourage her to keep them home. If she does not.... you need to explain that they will be duck soup...
feeding them would be my least worry..However..
If that is all you are worried about..bring her a food bill and tell her you expect her to bring bag a feed a few times a week if she does not pen them up.

Cleaning out some storage in the house and found about half a bag of chick starter that's almost a year old. Anyone know if it would be safe to feed to wild birds? It's completely dry just old. If not I will just throw it away.

naa feed the birds

Yesterday my dog was inside looking out the window at the wild bird feeders and acting extremely agitated. So I took a look and saw this little guy eating the BOSS that drops down from the feeders. Usually the juncos get it, but not when this one's around:
Then, a few minutes later, who should show up but three of my chickens! I waited to see what would happen, ready to intervene, but they just eyed each other, then each went to eating as much BOSS as they could find. Went on for about 15 min, and then the chickens strolled away.

They will sleep with your chickens and become buddies..they love chickens..and love eggs more..they are notorious egg thieves and will rob you blind...and snuggle very night with your chickens. They will have baby's with your chickens and move right on in.

The ones I've caught in my trap are pretty large. Judging from what I can figure from the photo about 2x as large.

looks like a young juvie to me too..old enough to breed though.

 

[Scott H]

Thankfully, possums are one thing I don't have to worry about........yet.

 

[armorfirelady]

So my Lucy likes to stand in the food bowl. I have caught her several times over the winter standing in it. Why? I have no clue. She has feathered feet so her feet shouldn't be so cold she needs to stand in the heated bowl. She is tall enough to reach the food standing on the ground.

As you can see she has frost bite on the tip of 2 toes. I saw it this evening after work. It's new. I haven't seen it on her feet before. The toes are warm to the touch & it doesn't seem to hurt her when I touch them. Sorry the pictures are poor. It's almost impossible to grab her during the day so I had to wait till she roosted.

I'm thinking I will just leave them be and watch her. I can't/won't bring her in the house. We still have temps in the teens & below coming up this week. I think bringing her into a warm house would cause her more harm.

Thoughts?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I think that if you bring her in the house you will need to keep her in the house until winter weather is over. She shouldn't be in and out with frostbite. In my observation it makes it worse. It's either one or the other.

I'm not sure what I'd do with feet. They are way different from combs and wattles.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I hope @aoxa will chime in. She had that rooster that got frostbite on the feet and they sounded like they were way worse than just the toes. Not sure if she did anything for him or not.

 

[Leahs Mom]

In the meantime...is there some way to fix the opening of your feed bowl so they can't stand in it?

 

[armorfirelady]

I think that if you bring her in the house you will need to keep her in the house until winter weather is over.  She shouldn't be in and out with frostbite.  In my observation it makes it worse.  It's either one or the other.

I'm not sure what I'd do with feet.  They are way different from combs and wattles.

I hope @aoxa
will chime in.  She had that rooster that got frostbite on the feet and they sounded like they were way worse than just the toes.  Not sure if she did anything for him or not.

In the meantime...is there some way to fix the opening of your feed bowl so they can't stand in it?

Yeah I figure it's better to leave her out. I was hoping to see what Aoxa did also. I plan on finding a bucket top that will fit in it with the middle cut out with wire over it so they can only get their beaks in. The only problem is the heated bowl is so deep and I don't fill it up to the top :/ Still trying to figure out what to do

 

[Leahs Mom]

I put that inverted pyrex container in the center of mine so they had to eat around the edges. It helps keep the wattles out too.

But mine isn't in the dog bowl. I had removed the heater base and have the feed in pie pans sitting on the heater bases that I covered w/the cookie tin lids. I tried a different way this year for a day but that's when Mister got frostbite on the wattles so I changed back to the removed bases. (See the photos and post here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...keeping-thread-ots-welcome/1040#post_10111024 ) When he got the FB on his wattles, I had returned the base to the dog bowl, filled the dog bowl with grit, put water in the grit to conduct the heat, then set the pie pan on top of the grit. The grit was not exposed except a bit around the edge. And I still had the pyrex in the center.

But that design allowed for his wattles to get in the bowl and immediate fb.

You can barely see the pyrex in this photo but it doesn't have the heater base under it here.


This is one of the heater bases under a waterer. (I actually quit using that waterer this winter as the water surface was too large and it froze more quickly on the surface than more shallow waterers) Anyhow, the pie pans sit on one of those bases.

 

[armorfirelady]

Hmmm an inverted bowl should work. She can stand on the bowl then rather than in the food. THANKS !!!!

Eta: I put an inverted coffee cup in the waterer to keep their wattles out of the water. Why I didn't think of same thing for food is beyond me lol