The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[heartsizedfarm]

I appreciate all these great lists of useful herbs and plants you can grow for chickens. You know how when you plant a row there's always some seeds left over in the packet? (Why oh why did I not check the seed count when I bought this packet, I need 2,000 carrots like a hole in the head). Well I just toss all the leftover seeds into a water tank that has become a bit leaky and fill it with chicken bedding and a bit of topsoil on top. I figure the chickens can help themselves. I've even got some squash coming in here for the end of season.

 

[armorfirelady]

I've been wondering how the herb boxes are doing - are the chickens eating them? I know some seemed like they would be out of reach....but the lower ones?

And I loved the video - those broody clucking sounds are so universal!

thats it! I have rats again under the porch from the birdfeeders. Even though I spent hours and $ on utting hardware cloth around the porch as a skirt, and then three feet wide hardware cloth on the ground to form a barrier,....those buggers just dug longer tunnels. I'm going to try throwing tons of catnip under there and will start planting it - but I mow pretty close to the ground around the porch to try to deter them. I HATE RATS but am unwilling to give up the bird feeders.

I need to take an updated pic. The herbs are just starting to peak thru the wiring covering them. I have not seen anyone up on them but there has been chicken poop on them so I know someone was up there. Once it gets a little taller I plan on just setting one of the girls up there. Once they see whats up there I have no doubt they will be up there a lot more.

As for the feeders I agree with Aoxa put them where the chickens can clean up after the other birds. (I would of thought your freezing winters would of killed the rats off)

Quote:

Now that I have the two sisters helping mama, it is so funny to see them first thing in the cool morning - the babies are under all three hens peeking out everywhere. Nice co-parenting!

I am jealous of that setup. I wish I could get some communal parenting going on. What breed did you say they were ...are they the Welsumers/

You need to take some pics Lala of the coparenting

 

[LindaB220]

I live my life wholly immersed in guilty pleasures.


Bacon makes everything better.


Gravy makes everything better.


Chocolate covered bacon with gravy is better than you think it is.


If you put your leftover mac n cheese in a bread pan and fridge it overnight, in the morning you can slice it, lightly coat the slices with flour, and pan-fry it in butter. Then add bacon and gravy. Breakfast of champions! Best served with whatever stale open beer is left on the counter, but check for cigarette butts before you drink.


ETA I quit smoking and drinking years ago, but I'm not kidding about the fried mac n cheese. :-D

Oh my God, talk about a guilty pleasure. That mac and cheese sounds delightful. (I have a gson like your former roommate . Makes life interesting doesn't it?)

 

[hoosiercheetah]

(I have a gson like your former roommate . Makes life interesting doesn't it?)

That's an understatement. I had a lot of long conversations with Juanita. She believed that I was FBI, investigating her on behalf of the USA/Venusian Cooperative. But she said she wasn't mad about it. She would give me messages to take back to the resistance movement. I mailed them to her shrink.

 

[LindaB220]

That's an understatement. I had a lot of long conversations with Juanita. She believed that I was FBI, investigating her on behalf of the USA/Venusian Cooperative. But she said she wasn't mad about it. She would give me messages to take back to the resistance movement. I mailed them to her shrink.

Thank God mine is on the lower spectrum.

 

[subhanalah]

I've been wondering how the herb boxes are doing - are the chickens eating them?  I know some seemed like they would be out of reach....but the lower ones?

And  I loved the video - those broody clucking sounds are so universal!

[COLOR=EE82EE]thats it!  I have rats again under the porch from the birdfeeders.  Even though I spent hours and $ on utting hardware cloth around the porch as a skirt, and then three feet wide hardware cloth on the ground to form a barrier,....those buggers just dug longer tunnels.  I'm going to try throwing tons of catnip under there and will start planting it - but I mow pretty close to the ground around the porch to try to deter them.  I HATE RATS  but am unwilling to give up the bird feeders.[/COLOR]

sounds like you need some snake poop.

 

[lalaland]

I am jealous of that setup. I wish I could get some communal parenting going on. What breed did you say they were ...are they the Welsumers/

sulmtalers all of them

I spoke too soon on the Selfheal. Saw the goats eating it yesterday. It must grow very fast, because it is much taller than the grass.

People use it as well for inflammation. I'd use it if I knew how.

um, I thought goats eat everything!

sounds like you need some snake poop.

where oh where do you get snake poop from? also heard ferret droppings are good too. but same problem, from where?

and to you wisecrackers who say put the feeders with the chickens...then I couldn't see them unless I was out watching the chickens!

Fireflies are out!! hooray! best part of summer.

 

[armorfirelady]

I wonder if fur from other animals like dogs or cats would work to deter the rats? Maybe you could get snake poop from a local pet store?

 

[lalaland]

yah never know! (about snake poop and ferre droppings)

here's the 3 hens calling the babies to feed. I will try to get a pic of them all tucked in for the night with the babies up and under all 3 hens. You should have seen the hens when the babies went through a fence where the hens couldn't follow! All three hens scolding "come here RIGHT NOW".

 

[subhanalah]

Well, if you don't happen to just have snake poop dispensers lying around like I do, you could probably ask a pet store or a zoo. It works, it's how I control rodents in the rabbit house.