The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Saerasx]

A few more pics from today





Go ahead touch my chicks, I double dog dare you!


The whole crew

This! this got me giggling!!

 

[armorfirelady]

Somehow I do not think I would dare to touch her chicks

I am curious how my broodies will be once the chicks hatch. They grumble when I get close or reach under them but thankfully the dont peck at me. Tho when Sofie gets off to eat & stretch she is def miserable. She chases everyone out of the coop and grabs feathers if someone gets to close to her. And boy is she vocal as she runs around. My Mom keeps saying she has henopause

 

[gevshiba]

update on the impacted crop:

SOLVED

I just went out to check on her before she had a chance to eat, and her crop is totally empty. It actually took me a minute to be sure I had the right bird in the dim light of my torch.

The lesson learned is, when isolating and withholding food for crop issues, also put the bird in a cage with no bedding or grit. Nothing but water for several days, then liquid food like raw egg and coconut oil - I'm convinced her crop had soured due to the blockage, and the c.o. helped kill the infection.

So there you have it, surgery has been avoided. Thank the Lord!

*happy dances*

Great timing! I was just about to post to ask if I should give water for the first 24 hours. I couldn't remember. I have a 5 week old poult who ate a bunch of shavings.
Glad to hear yours is doing well.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Great timing! I was just about to post to ask if I should give water for the first 24 hours. I couldn't remember. I have a 5 week old poult who ate a bunch of shavings.
Glad to hear yours is doing well.

You should always give water. Chickens can go a week or more, depending on the size and age, without food, but they need water constantly. From what I've ready, even a blocked crop will allow some water through, which is better than none.

Good luck with your bird, and God Bless.

 

[lalaland]

I'm thinking of starting a new blog: "chicken keeper mistakes". I have some doozeys and can add another one today.


Been noticing the three little legbar chicks, 2 & 3 weeks old, have been feather picking. First thought it was that chick instinct to peck, and I added more pecking targets.

I'm feeding a 18% flock grower mash, and.....top dressed with little pelleted crap that I was thinking was chick feed. The chicks really eat the pelleted stuff first - I was just trying to use it up. They also get greens, sod, dirt....once a week cod liver oil.....

Then this morning I got to thinking about protein, and had a forehead smacking moment! Thats not chick feed, it is pelleted layer feed leftover from an emergency feed fill buy. No wonder they are feather picking ! they are protein deprived!!!

As soon as I get home from work, they are getting some scrambled eggs. Who knew it could show up in 9 days? And it is only about half their diet. Hope the calcium doesn't do any permanent damage.

Lucky the other chicks with the mama's aren't getting any of that crap.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Somehow I do not think I would dare to touch her chicks    I am curious how my broodies will be once the chicks hatch. They grumble when I get close or reach under them but thankfully the dont peck at me. Tho when Sofie gets off to eat & stretch she is def miserable. She chases everyone out of the coop and grabs feathers if someone gets to close to her.  And boy is she vocal as she runs around.  My Mom keeps saying she has henopause 

Kassaundra Is she a naked neck or is that home bare broodies pluck their chest?

 

[Scott H]

Babies are growing up....







So nice when this started and there were no more chick roundups!

 

[Jewelwing]

It's been a while, so I'm sure I've missed a ton. I've been super busy this summer, and being on this thread is addicting so I've steered clear. But now I need some advice.

Of my eight hens, two of them have been broody for about 4 weeks. I have no roosters, but I would like to raise baby chicks under a broody hen next year, so I didn't want to totally discourage one of them from being a good broody mom. So I left the wooden egg under her and let her think she was doing all the right things. The other one is neurotic, so I took the wooden egg out from under her and kept taking her off the nest several times every day for a few weeks, hoping she'd just give it up.

But she outlasted me, and I finally gave up taking the neurotic one off her nest, and now I'm letting them both sit on empty nests. I had to put a plastic dog kennel in the coop, lined with nesting material, so the others would have a place to lay! I only had three nests to begin with, which was enough for eight laying hens, but one nest is just not enough for six. They do seem happy with two nests, though, and I usually get 4-6 eggs a day.

How long does this go on? I don't really have a feasible way to separate a broody hen to discourage her, and I don't want to dunk them under water - it seems so drastic, and after four weeks, I'm not sure it would work. I kind of thought that after 3-4 weeks of setting and no chicks, they would give up, especially with no eggs under them.

What should I do? Is it possible to just wait them out, and if so, how long will that take? If not, are they going to be broody until they die?

I kind of remember Scott having a broody hen for a long time, and I think she finally just stopped on her own. Is that right? That's what I was hoping would happen.

Also, I wonder if it's any coincidence that these two hens are at the bottom of the pecking order. Would raising chicks give them more standing in the flock? I've thought that maybe that's why they're doing it (not purposefully, of course, just that being low down might make their bodies more likely to go broody).

Suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[Jewelwing]

Babies are growing up....

Wow, so I guess I totally missed that you have chicks! Boy are they adorable!

 

[Scott H]

Quote:
Yep, there was no breaking her....she just quit on her own. We would pull her off the nest whenever we went by and take to the other hens and set her down. She finally went back to laying. About 6 weeks, if I remember right.

This year we just got her some eggs. She ended up with 3 Wyandottes and 2 Brahmas. She loves being a Mom.