The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Scott- I'm glad to see that my dog is not the only one who likes a pillow when she naps

Went out to the coop to check on the girls & noticed Lucy had blood on her foot again. The feathers on her feet broke off again at the pin part of the feather. I pulled them out again & sprayed with blue kote. Her frost bite on her 2 toes don't look any worse. Def not as swollen as the other day. It doesn't seem to bother here if I touch them.

I noticed the nail on that toe is really really long. Has anyone ever clipped a hens nails? Do they have cuticles lie, dogs & cats do? I'd like to trim off the end at least since its so long. Thoughts?

 

[Leahs Mom]

OK, I couldn't find my photo, but I found one on line:
and when I find them, they are completely flat, like the birds eat them or they get stepped on and squish out. And they're always in a weird spot...the 3 or 4 I've found are always just out in the run somewhere or on a roosting shelf. Never in a "nest" or "box".
I hadn't seen one in a long time and was wondering if they WERE from my birds...then the day before yesterday, there it was!

How old are your girls? On occasion you will get an egg like this from young layers or just as a fluke from an older girl.

If you are getting them regularly, I would suggest staking out to see which girl is having those eggs. It just may be that she has a reproductive issue and will need to be removed. Unless you are having a huge issue with the health of your flock, I'd guess it is just one that is laying them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Scott- I'm glad to see that my dog is not the only one who likes a pillow when she naps

Went out to the coop to check on the girls & noticed Lucy had blood on her foot again. The feathers on her feet broke off again at the pin part of the feather. I pulled them out again & sprayed with blue kote. Her frost bite on her 2 toes don't look any worse. Def not as swollen as the other day. It doesn't seem to bother here if I touch them.



I noticed the nail on that toe is really really long. Has anyone ever clipped a hens nails? Do they have cuticles lie, dogs & cats do? I'd like to trim off the end at least since its so long. Thoughts?

I've never clipped nails but I've read about how to do it. Want me to quot what I've read? (Yes, you have to be careful for the quick).

 

[armorfirelady]

Sure that would be great LM. thanks!! I'm guessing using either my cat or dog nails trimmers would be best since they are shaped like a hens. I just want to get tip off since it's broken in one spot on the side. I'm guessing the lack of scratching for winter might be the cause or it's a defective nail. It's not black like her others (& I misspoke it's not on the toe with frost bite it's the long toe next to it)

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Chicken Health for Dummies (My note: I avoid the stop bleed powder as it contains aluminum...which I always avoid if there's a safer way! Also might want to avoid the damp tea bag in this cold weather!)


Saw this article: http://www.grit.com/animals/how-to-trim-a-chickens-toenails.aspx with a drawing of the quick but it bothers me that it appears that the chicken they're using as a model looks like it has scaley leg mites.

 

[Kassaundra]

Hi everyone! New to this thread and new to chickens since 9/13. I was just reading over on the Colorado thread that a local DVM from Longmont was speaking at a Colorado Poultry Meeting and opined that organic layer feed is inadequate in calcium.

I'm a raw feeder to my 4 greyhounds since 1997 so I'm especially interested in the Cah ration which is so important in raw fed dogs.

Do you guys have any opinion on Nature Smart? According to the label, it contains a min. of 3.7% Ca, max of 4.0%.

The Layena label that I located on here said their Ca content is 3.25% to 4.25%.

Does that sound like a significant enough difference?

I've emailed the Nature Smart people and asked their opinion, too.

I've got 5 young hens and get laying numbers all over the map. Today I actually had an end-cracked egg (like a faint spider web); and day before yesterday I had one of those egg-shaped but now flat soft things that I've seen a few times over the past 6 months. I researched it and found "low calcium" can cause those. These hens were in a 27-bird coop but i always suspected it was one of these 5 as the owner of the 27 bird coop said she'd never seen one before. And here we got one this week; they've been here about a month.

So that's why I was wondering about Calcium content.

This part

 

[Leahs Mom]

Does anyone know this?

If you have a pullet in a flock of mating hens and rooster(s), does the rooster mating with the pullet lead to her laying eggs or does her laying eggs lead to him mating with her?

I have a theory but I don't know for sure.

 

[lalaland]

Scott- I'm glad to see that my dog is not the only one who likes a pillow when she naps

Went out to the coop to check on the girls & noticed Lucy had blood on her foot again. The feathers on her feet broke off again at the pin part of the feather. I pulled them out again & sprayed with blue kote. Her frost bite on her 2 toes don't look any worse. Def not as swollen as the other day. It doesn't seem to bother here if I touch them.



I noticed the nail on that toe is really really long. Has anyone ever clipped a hens nails? Do they have cuticles lie, dogs & cats do? I'd like to trim off the end at least since its so long. Thoughts?

thats so funny because I just came in from a round of nail clipping.

I use a garden pruner or a wire cutter, what ever is handy. The tool I use for the cats is too tiny to hold easily while grabbing a hen, and the hens nails are pretty solid. Its easy, hardest part is catching the chickens. Easiest to do in really really good light, so the nail is back lit with the sun or a light. Even with black nails you can get a sense of where the quick is. I've never gotten the quick, so no bleeding, but I am pretty cautious. I would rather clip nails frequently than deal with the bleeding.

I don't have much of a problem in the summer, but in the winter there isn't any hard stuff to scratch, so they tend to get too long.

Today, I noticed one hen has a spur that is growing too close to her leg, it has sort of curled into it. No idea how to cut it without hurting the leg. I've never cut spurs, have heard it is easy to do with a hot potato but that won't work with this because there isn't enough room. Can't believe I missed this!

 

[yawningreyhound]

This part

Ah. Long story. Caught in the colorado floods last Sept with highways washed out in all directions, leaving us stranded. our home is our main workplace so we stayed with about 60 others of the 1200 who evacuated for work and school from Pinewood Springs, our little community. While the neighbor was gone, I took over their huge coop then added in 7 more birds from a sheriff who also had to leave and when the roads were back, the sheriff didn't want his chickens back (the "chicken experiment is over" he said) so the people whose coop I cared for actually bought me a coop and I moved the remaining 5 of the 7 birds (fox and pond-drowning) to my coop.

Clear as mud?



m

 

[Kassaundra]

Does anyone know this?

If you have a pullet in a flock of mating hens and rooster(s), does the rooster mating with the pullet lead to her laying eggs or does her laying eggs lead to him mating with her?

I don't know an official answer to that, just comparing it to more familiar subject.
If a prepubescent girl becomes "active" her body will not make eggs or become pubescent until she would naturally have, no matter how "active" she is. I do not think a roo mating a pullet will make her body a hen until it is ready. but this is jmho