The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

One hollowed out green pumpkin. At least they didn't due
It to my ginouous pumpkin. They passed on all the orange ones also

 

[mlowen]

Kassaundra--nice new pic!

 

[Kassaundra]

I'm curious as to how a lack of minerals would only hurt Stella and not the rest of the flock? And I haven't changed their feed at all. Ok well I don't add the fish meal or alfalfa since they have been out in the yard getting plenty of greens and bug protein. Plus once a week or so they get meat & they have the flock block avail able. I would think it would affect them all?
And I'm wondering if it isn't something genetic and might be a side effect of her laying problems?
I put an ad on Craig's list and had a response in 2 days

I also put one up for wood chips and had a few replys. I'm hoping I can get them to drop them off since going to pick them up is out of the question for a couple weeks. Did something to my back while getting ready to come home from camping.

I sprayed down the inside of he coop today. Just to get the dust off their picture window and the sides. It gets really dry in there when we don't have rain for a few weeks. I sprayed it all down and got rid of the spider webs all over and in the roof vents. spider was not happy

added a few big arm fulls of weeds and grass clippings as well. Girls will have something to scratch through tomorrow if the rain comes and it's def cleaner in there now. I'm sure the DL will work some more now as well.

And I have a funny pic to share as well but have to do it off my phone. Babies are eating the pink tomatoes and just leaving the outside shell. They also hollowed out a green pumpkin. Guess who's going to get their wings trimmed when I find someone to help me after dark? Little stinkers

Just my 2 cents, if you are feeding a reasonably healthy food, all your birds are thriving w/ it except one, there is then something wrong w/ that one. To switch to a more expensive food / supplement / practice to "help" one unthrifty bird who can only add unthriftyness to your flock doesn't to me make sense.

 

[Kassaundra]

Kassaundra--nice new pic!

Thanks, it was taken today, I have been wanting to get a pic of the new natural hair since after 2 years almost all the old dye has grown out.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Yes I agree. Everyone else is fine except Stella. I was just curious on LMs thoughts on it since she is the nutrition guru

They get grains & flock block for all. And the chicks are even thriving on it. Little monsters are huge !!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Yes I agree. Everyone else is fine except Stella. I was just curious on LMs thoughts on it since she is the nutrition guru

They get grains & flock block for all. And the chicks are even thriving on it. Little monsters are huge !!!

The reason I was wondering about that is that you were saying the girls that you sold had really reduced or quit laying. So I was thinking that if they were off in their laying, and then this one was also not feeling well, it may be the mineral mix issue. Since different birds react different ways to needing more, all of the things you were describing may be related to needing that mineral mix to round out your feed.

If I remember correctly, you were mixing your own feed without adding any mineral mix so I was just wondering if they were showing the effects of that slowly over time.

As for the chicks looking good...they aren't at the age that their body is using a lot of extra resources to produce eggs.


So...that was my reason for thinking it could be a possibility. Would be a good experiment to get hold of the mineral mix and add it for the next several months and see if you see a difference in the birds.

 

[Shan30]

back after a long abscence from forums in general precipitated by real life... anyways. my flock has been bumming along healthily and happily, until last night... I have what seems to be an adult chicken with wry neck. Of course this is my daughters pet chicken.... Found her last night in the coop lying on her side with her neck twisted back against her back. I thought she was dead, but picked her up and she was breathing and somewhat active but couldn't straighten her neck. [COLOR=333333]So I brought her inside to see if I can care for her. She is absolutely Emaciated, but the rest of the flock is FINE. My two big cornish cross girls are probably overweight. She's a year old cream legbar. Everyone has been shut up for a week and a bit right now because i had a series of hawk attacks, so no forage, but getting weeds from the garden to scratch and pick at in the run, compost, and fed crumble/scratch mixed to about 16% protien. Soaked, not Fermented for now. My ferment bucket got nasty in the heat and I haven't restarted it yet. Last month I ran everyone a week of ground pumpkin seeds and cayenne pepper as a general preventative for worms. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]what it looks like most to me is wry neck, although I 've never encountered that in person. I'm giving her liquid polyvisol (w/out iron) in her water as well as un pasturized ACV, and plenty of soaked feed. she is eating and trying to pick around, but can't hold her head straight, and seems to find it tiring to try. She lies down every so often, and her head just pulls back against her back.I thawed some chopped heart and liver that I keep for chicks and gave it to her, but she hasn't eaten that, I don't know if she just can't peck it with her head twisted? she's eaten a fair amount of the soaked feed, and her crop feels full. I'm worried she can't drink well with her neck so floppy and strange so I've been giving her 4 drops of polyvisol by mouth 3x per day and also at the same time giving her water by dropper. She is idignant about being dropper fed, but swallows fine. She's even trying to perch on the little training roost I have thn the grow out pen, although her head either lies against her back, or hangs in front of her chest, sort of floppy and twisted. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Any thoughts? This is my daughter's really beloved pet and I'm worried sick because she would be devestated if we lost her.[/COLOR]

I also just had my first case of wry neck. Hers was twisting under her chest though. She was a silver laced polish and I believe this was a result of either a head injury caused by another bird pecking her or a vitamin deficiency. I separated her, added a poultry vitamin mix to her water, fed her chick feed moistened with the vitamin water and sunflower seeds (great source of both vitamin e and selenium). In about 3 days she was back to normal and has had no reoccurrence since. Hope your works out for you!

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Shan30
Great to hear that she recovered! Hoping the best for @BlueMouse

 

[BlueMouse]

she's eating and drinking, but not much improvement in her neck. She can hold it straight for a while, but it seems to take a lot of effort, and when she gets tired it just twists back around agian. I'm giving her lots of liver and egg, vitamin e and polyvisol w/out iron. I have brewers yeast and the nutridrench on order. Should be arriving Friday.

 

[armorfirelady]

@Leahs Mom
The 3 hens I sold have never been good layers since I got them. Even Lucy at 1 year old. I have several customers who would buy more eggs if girls laid better.

Of course the rest of the big girls are starting to molt now. It looks like a pillow exploded in the coop & yard