The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Quote: I had not but I have copied the recipe to make it. I need to figure out where to buy bees wax tho. I am guessing the local health food store may have it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I got a hunk at the farmer's market from the bee keeper.

I have made only 1 salve but I didn't use olive oil. Used coconut oil/bees wax base. I like that better than the olive oil for various reasons.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Yes. I most likely will. I currently have him penned separately but they can all see each other which I do think makes a difference in behavior than if he was where they couldn't see him at all.

 

[armorfirelady]

I got a hunk at the farmer's market from the bee keeper.

I have made only 1 salve but I didn't use olive oil.  Used coconut oil/bees wax base.  I like that better than the olive oil for various reasons.

Tonight I made a hand scrub for after gardening, I never where gloves so my hands never seem to get clean with regular soap. It seems to work well & didn't dry them out. It's made with coconut oil and I think that helps. Tomorrow I'm hoping to make the plantain poultice, I found bees wax beads at the health store to use. I'm going to look online for the bar type & check with a friend who's father has bees

 

[Leahs Mom]

Tonight I made a hand scrub for after gardening, I never where gloves so my hands never seem to get clean with regular soap. It seems to work well & didn't dry them out. It's made with coconut oil and I think that helps.

Recipe, please!

 

[armorfirelady]

Recipe, please!

http://www.nwedible.com/2014/02/dirt-busting-sugar-hand-scrub-for-gardeners.html

 

[lalaland]

off topic sort of! I can't get out to the chickens this morning because of world war xxxx in my house. I have two rescue cats who have lived here in harmony for about 15 months. both about 18 months old. THey spend much of their time on the screened porch.

Last night there was a ruckus and lucy came flying after mia in full attack mode. I think lucy got startled and is now in a fear agression pattern - its awful. she is so scared you can smell the fear, and she has been growling and fighting since 9 pm last night.

Mia just ignores her growling and when lucy attacks, mia runs. they run faster than me, so I can't see if there are actual physical encounters.

Kept lucy locked in bedroom with me, she was restless. In the morning, I got mia to play with her paws under the door and when I opened the door a crack, they sniffed and mia licked lucy's head. all ok for 5 minutes until mia came into the room from another direction, and lucy again decided she was an intruder and attacked.

this is awful. googled it and seems in most cases you have to rehome a cat. you can try keeping in visual contact, just like chickens, with barrier separating, and after WEEKS try physical contact.

It is less than 24 hours and I'm a wreck. Lucy is crying in the wire cage (chicken cage!!) and wants out. I've never heard of this and i'm miserable. lucy is miserable, she was so scared with mia that she peed and pooped while running after her.

 

[subhanalah]

off topic sort of!  I can't get out to the chickens this morning because of world war xxxx in my house.  I have two rescue cats who have lived here in harmony for about 15 months.   both about 18 months old.  THey spend much of their time on the screened porch.

Last night there was a ruckus and lucy came flying after mia in full attack mode.  I think lucy got startled and is now in a fear agression pattern - its awful.  she is so scared you can smell the fear, and she has been growling and fighting since 9 pm last night.  

Mia just ignores her growling and when lucy attacks, mia runs.  they run faster than me, so I can't see if there are actual physical encounters.  

Kept lucy locked in bedroom with me, she was restless.  In the morning, I got mia to play with her paws under the door and when I opened the door a crack, they sniffed and mia licked lucy's head.  all ok for 5 minutes until mia came into the room from another direction, and lucy again decided she was an intruder and attacked.

this is awful.  googled it and seems in most cases you have to rehome a cat.  you can try keeping in visual contact, just like chickens, with barrier separating, and after WEEKS try physical contact.

It is less than 24 hours and I'm a wreck.  Lucy is crying in the wire cage (chicken cage!!)  and wants out.  I've never heard of this and i'm miserable.  lucy is miserable, she was so scared with mia that she peed and pooped while running after her.  

you should watch "my cat from hell" there's an environmental issue causing this behavior, and it doesn't have to be like this.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

off topic sort of! I can't get out to the chickens this morning because of world war xxxx in my house. I have two rescue cats who have lived here in harmony for about 15 months. both about 18 months old. THey spend much of their time on the screened porch.

Last night there was a ruckus and lucy came flying after mia in full attack mode. I think lucy got startled and is now in a fear agression pattern - its awful. she is so scared you can smell the fear, and she has been growling and fighting since 9 pm last night.

Mia just ignores her growling and when lucy attacks, mia runs. they run faster than me, so I can't see if there are actual physical encounters.

Kept lucy locked in bedroom with me, she was restless. In the morning, I got mia to play with her paws under the door and when I opened the door a crack, they sniffed and mia licked lucy's head. all ok for 5 minutes until mia came into the room from another direction, and lucy again decided she was an intruder and attacked.

this is awful. googled it and seems in most cases you have to rehome a cat. you can try keeping in visual contact, just like chickens, with barrier separating, and after WEEKS try physical contact.

It is less than 24 hours and I'm a wreck. Lucy is crying in the wire cage (chicken cage!!) and wants out. I've never heard of this and i'm miserable. lucy is miserable, she was so scared with mia that she peed and pooped while running after her.

Try sedating the crazy one with Benadryl (diphenhydramine) for a few days. There was a time when my dog was having "freak-out" episodes where he'd seem to see ghosts... would look at a spot in the room and then crawl, quaking, under the furniture to hide and wouldn't come out. The vet could find nothing wrong, said he could put him on Prozac; OR we could try Benadryl when he had an "episode". The Benadryl was much cheaper, could be administered only as needed, and worked great. The "spells" lasted for a few months and disappeared as mysteriously as they came, and eight years later Ben is a healthy 14 year old with no issues.

 

[gevshiba]

I've tried a search, but I'm not having much luck, so I'm asking here. I processed 7 RIR hens today that were given to me by a friend. The hens were 2 years old and, if laying at all, were laying soft shell eggs. I've had them about 5-6 weeks and they've been free ranging the entire time. I did/do have some chicks/poults in the barn with them, but the babies are in a grow out pen in a closed stall and the hens were in and out of the barn, not the stall until about the last week (only poults in the stall during this time) when they figured out how to get in. Wings were clipped,. so no flying.

Anyway, 2 of the hens had a yellow fluid filling the body cavity. There were free floating bits of fat in the fluid. The fat looked almost curdled. The liver looked fine, heart normal but not firm like in other birds I've processed. The intestines had small nodules all over the outside, about the size of the head of a pin. They covered almost everything. There were undeveloped eggs, but all very small. Some were a clear, green tinged color, which I hadn't noticed in the other hens. The other hens had many eggs of different sizes. All 7 hens acted normal. Although, I did see one hen "breed" another the other day. I thought that was a bit strange. All the hens were eating, running around and being chickens. Any thoughts on what this might be? These chickens were for dog food, but I wasn't comfortable feeding those 2 to my dogs. Maybe if it was cooked, but not raw, so I tossed them. One other hen had nodules on her intestines, but no fluid or curdled looking fat. Thanks!