The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Jewelwing]

Quote:
Mine would be.... In THIS order...
1) Out on grass and rotated to new grass as frequently as possible... only in the coop at night year round. This one thing prevents SO many other problems... available sunshine, bugs, forage, dusting, and lack of boredom that could lead to other bad habits. You simply don't have to fight parasites, sanitation, or a balance diet with this one item.
2) LGDs to make #1 easily possible.
3) Animal protein supplements in the winter months when bugs are available.
4) Fermented grains when supplementing the good ole outdoors
5) Gravity feed all water whenever possible with nipples or nipple/cup combos. This means less water work, much cleaner water, and no frostbite.

Mine in no particular order would be

1. A coop need ventilation all year round, hot climates need full walls open, heat kills much quicker then cold.

2. Ferment food and grain year round, sprout grain in the winter when they do not have "live" food available. Suppliment w/ insects as much as possible.

3. Always ready, willing, and able to cull. An unthrifty bird breeds unthrifty offspring, even if your not breeding them, they still bring the flock down, imo.

4. A raised coop provides a cool shady spot in the summer and a snow free spot in the winter, a dry spot in the rain, basically doubles your coop space in bad weather.

5. In hot climates several pans of water through the summer help the chickens to cool themselves by standing in the water, makes a huge difference and involves almost none of your time.

6. Keep an open mind, but don't believe everything you read or hear.

7. K.I.S.S.

8. No matter how cute or adorable the next color or pattern or breed is, NEVER keep more then you have space for. Crowded chickens invite health trouble, and flock trouble, and personality trouble.

Sorry I went over 5 (but under 10) lol
I would add to the ones listed above:

1. deep litter

2. no medicated feed

3. for those of us who don't have grass during several months of the year, have the chickens out at least in a run on leaves, straw, wood chips, etc when it's too snowy for them to run around on bare (grassy) ground


Things that are also important to me (but may not be for everyone):

1. no plastic ever touches my chickens' food or water, if at all possible - I use glass

2. I don't wash my eggs, & I store them at room temp

3. organic feed as much as possible (they do get some veggie scraps that are not organic, because not all the veggies I buy are organic & I get free scraps from our local Subway - green pepper seeds are their favorite!)

 

[Sally8]

Took my camera out to take more snow pictures and of course had to add chicken pictures. My kids think I have more chicken pic than I do of them. For the first time this year I have frostbite of combs. He's my 3 yr old BCM, Wrinkles. I've done nothing but watch it. I also have a nearly year old roo that for some odd reason I'm keeping. His name is Paco. He's smallish so I have him in with the Silkie mix. I believe he truly knows how to give the stink eye. Last week I took my grand daughters to TS for feed and we came home with 6 EE chicks. UGH!! I didn't want to do much with chicks yet but, if I could only find some Buff Orpington eggs or chicks. 2 days ago our creek was frozen enough to walk on now we can hear it from the house.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I want to live there. I LOVE water.

 

[Jewelwing]

That looks an awful lot like our creek!

Different time of year, of course:



This is what it looked like a few weeks ago after we got rain that raised the creek and broke the ice, which then got lodged against and on our bridge (along with a dead tree) - my husband is wondering how he's going to get to work:



Here are some chunks of ice that got lodged in a tree after the storm:



Yesterday we got up to 72 and sunny! But it's been snowing all day today, and they say down to 16 tonight. What a fluctuation!

 

[Phoenixxx]

its always so interesting to see the way coops are built differently in different parts of the world.  Never have seen shelves like that in your coop.  Seems very practical!  

It is! Making use of all the vertical space was part of the plan and the birds LOVE it! It's like a jungle gym for them - and for me when the hay gets low and the top shelf becomes the favourite nest again! Theoretically, I can probably house up to 4 dozen (I have had as many as 32) in that 8' x 6' space easily because of all the places they can go. But that just wouldn't be practical, and involve a LOT more poo raking!

I decided early on to leave the floor dirt. Turned out to be a rather serendipitous decision; I did not know at the time that chickens bathe in dirt and I live in a wet climate. Having the dirt floor means they can have their baths no matter the weather! I periodically sprinkle it with DE and my mites/lice are kept to a minimum. My first flock were outright INFESTED, like, so bad that if you picked a chicken up they'd start crawling on your arms! (Beware buying "second-hand chickens!) After a few weeks of dusting the floor and their outdoor dust holes the bugs were practically gone

 

[Jewelwing]

It is! Making use of all the vertical space was part of the plan

and the birds LOVE it! It's like a jungle gym for them - and for me when the hay gets low and the top shelf becomes the favourite nest again! Theoretically, I can probably house up to 4 dozen (I have had as many as 32) in that 8' x 6' space easily because of all the places they can go. But that just wouldn't be practical, and involve a LOT more poo raking!

I decided early on to leave the floor dirt. Turned out to be a rather serendipitous decision; I did not know at the time that chickens bathe in dirt and I live in a wet climate. Having the dirt floor means they can have their baths no matter the weather! I periodically sprinkle it with DE and my mites/lice are kept to a minimum. My first flock were outright INFESTED, like, so bad that if you picked a chicken up they'd start crawling on your arms! (Beware buying "second-hand chickens!) After a few weeks of dusting the floor and their outdoor dust holes the bugs were practically gone

How often do you clean the poop off the dirt floor?

 

[Leahs Mom]

That looks an awful lot like our creek!

Different time of year, of course:



This is what it looked like a few weeks ago after we got rain that raised the creek and broke the ice, which then got lodged against and on our bridge (along with a dead tree) - my husband is wondering how he's going to get to work:



Here are some chunks of ice that got lodged in a tree after the storm:



Yesterday we got up to 72 and sunny! But it's been snowing all day today, and they say down to 16 tonight. What a fluctuation!

I want to live there, too.

It is! Making use of all the vertical space was part of the plan

and the birds LOVE it! It's like a jungle gym for them - and for me when the hay gets low and the top shelf becomes the favourite nest again! Theoretically, I can probably house up to 4 dozen (I have had as many as 32) in that 8' x 6' space easily because of all the places they can go. But that just wouldn't be practical, and involve a LOT more poo raking!

I decided early on to leave the floor dirt. Turned out to be a rather serendipitous decision; I did not know at the time that chickens bathe in dirt and I live in a wet climate. Having the dirt floor means they can have their baths no matter the weather! I periodically sprinkle it with DE and my mites/lice are kept to a minimum. My first flock were outright INFESTED, like, so bad that if you picked a chicken up they'd start crawling on your arms! (Beware buying "second-hand chickens!) After a few weeks of dusting the floor and their outdoor dust holes the bugs were practically gone

I'm out of ovations again and have to wait for another day for that. But definitely enjoying seeing all the coop variations and ideas

How do they get up to the top on your nest shelves?

 

[Phoenixxx]

How often do you clean the poop off the dirt floor?

Summertime every week or two or three (depends how many birds i have and how often they're getting out in the yard). Started dlm in october and didn't have to clean it out until 2 weeks ago. Doing the dlm I just rake everything to the back every couple days (poo, fallen hay from the nests), takes not even ten seconds. I do the nests as needed, so about every 3-4 weeks. Used nesting goes onto the floor under the roosts. Also, to make it super-easy to rake up the poo, I rake up leaves in the yard and toss them under the roosts. Of course, no leaves now, hence why I'm using hay

 

[Phoenixxx]

I want to live there, too.



I'm out of ovations again and have to wait for another day for that.  But definitely enjoying seeing all the coop variations and ideas

How do they get up to the top on your nest shelves?

Some fly, some cheat and use the roosts as a ladder and walk over

 

[Ms Jellybean]

It is! Making use of all the vertical space was part of the plan and the birds LOVE it! It's like a jungle gym for them - and for me when the hay gets low and the top shelf becomes the favourite nest again! Theoretically, I can probably house up to 4 dozen (I have had as many as 32) in that 8' x 6' space easily because of all the places they can go. But that just wouldn't be practical, and involve a LOT more poo raking!

I decided early on to leave the floor dirt. Turned out to be a rather serendipitous decision; I did not know at the time that chickens bathe in dirt and I live in a wet climate. Having the dirt floor means they can have their baths no matter the weather! I periodically sprinkle it with DE and my mites/lice are kept to a minimum. My first flock were outright INFESTED, like, so bad that if you picked a chicken up they'd start crawling on your arms! (Beware buying "second-hand chickens!) After a few weeks of dusting the floor and their outdoor dust holes the bugs were practically gone

Wood ash (chemical free) is good at preventing lice too. Mix it in with some sandy dirt.