The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

So with my moms help the
Little peepers got their flight feathers trimmed tonight. They were not impressed. Is it bad that my Mom & I laughed as they tried to roost after? My mom was all set to get them a ladder
Baby grey is growing like a weed. He has not learned his gentlemen manners yet tho. They got calf liver yesterday and he stole a piece out of his siblings mouth. As long as he stays quiet he can stay

One thing I did notice is Stella's flight feathers haven't grown in since last spring. She's molting sort of but I guess those haven't yet

 

[Leahs Mom]

AFL...

Have you seen the collars they put on roos to quiet the crow? I don't think they hurt them...just don't let them get enough oomph to do a huge crow... Still crow quietly....

http://nocrowroostercollars.com/

http://nocrowroostercollars.com/pages/faqs

 

[Leahs Mom]

Disclaimer.... I can't vouch for them and I have no idea yet if they actually hurt them in any way. So...you'll have to take a look and judge for yourself. I don't even know if I'd use on or not since I haven't researched any. Just wanted to put it out there.

 

[armorfirelady]

Disclaimer.... I can't vouch for them and I have no idea yet if they actually hurt them in any way.  So...you'll have to take a look and judge for yourself.  I don't even know if I'd use on or not since I haven't researched any.  Just wanted to put it out there.

Thanks! I'll have to look at them. I'd love to have someone nearby to canonize him. But maybe a collar would work lol. He is a very pretty boy and still quiet at 15 weeks and I'm ok with it

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
I think you mean caponize? (Unless you were wanting to make him a saint. In that case, canonizing can be done by the local Catholic church

 

[Lacy Blues]

So with my moms help the
Little peepers got their flight feathers trimmed tonight. They were not impressed. Is it bad that my Mom & I laughed as they tried to roost after? My mom was all set to get them a ladder

Baby grey is growing like a weed. He has not learned his gentlemen manners yet tho. They got calf liver yesterday and he stole a piece out of his siblings mouth. As long as he stays quiet he can stay

One thing I did notice is Stella's flight feathers haven't grown in since last spring. She's molting sort of but I guess those haven't yet

They generally molt their body feathers first. Then they will molt the tail and then the wings. At least that's the order mine do it in.

Disclaimer.... I can't vouch for them and I have no idea yet if they actually hurt them in any way. So...you'll have to take a look and judge for yourself. I don't even know if I'd use on or not since I haven't researched any. Just wanted to put it out there.

I know someone who put one on one of his cockerels that just crowed all the time... LOL! He said that he didn't put it on tight at all and when he let the poor thing go, he stood around with his beak on the ground!

So he took it off.

Apparently it takes some training time and you tighten it very gradually so they don't think they're being strangled.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I hit the "quote" button for the meat meal but it didn't show...

I used to buy meat/bone meal from an organic fertilizer company. The only other thing that was in these pellets was a little bit of molasses, just to hold them together. You might try doing a search for local organic companies. The price was very reasonable. I "used to do it" because I could never remember to keep ordering... now, I'd have to pay shipping and that just isn't gonna happen.

That's an interesting idea! Do you remember where you got yours from?

 

[lazy gardener]

Don't think it would make a good roadside hedge b/c you harvest basically the whole plant a couple of times a year, if kept harvested it won't get much over knee high and just as it does you'll be cutting in down again. Also on the roadside it might get more pollutants then you would like to feed to your chickens, or use medicinally.

You raise a good point. But we live on a dead end road... very little traffic, in fact, I've been known to tell my children to go play in the road! Also, at this point, I'm not looking for pretty, just functional. The 4 plants that I put "by the road" are about 30' from the edge of the road.

AFL...

Have you seen the collars they put on roos to quiet the crow? I don't think they hurt them...just don't let them get enough oomph to do a huge crow... Still crow quietly....

http://nocrowroostercollars.com/

http://nocrowroostercollars.com/pages/faqs

Disclaimer.... I can't vouch for them and I have no idea yet if they actually hurt them in any way. So...you'll have to take a look and judge for yourself. I don't even know if I'd use on or not since I haven't researched any. Just wanted to put it out there.

I know the ?'s about the rooster collars weren't directed to me, but I feel the need to respond. I had been following the threads for a while, and it seems that when folks had the collars tight enough to do the job, they were causing a lot of stress, difficulty swallowing food, and several folks found their roosters dead. I don't remember if they were using MPC collars, or ones they had made themselves. I've come to the conclusion, for myself, that if my rooster is too noisy, I'll either trade him in for a quieter model (not likely to happen) or eat him.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lazy gardner

I'd probably come to the same conclusion if I read much about them. I watched the video at that site that I linked and when the guy tried to crow, it sounded like he was choking at the end. Made me think it probably wasn't such a good idea.

 

[Lacy Blues]

That's an interesting idea! Do you remember where you got yours from?

I used to order it from a place around Fresno, CA when I lived in northern California. I ordered it through an agriculture supply place that sold stuff by the truck load. The OMRI company was one of their suppliers so I got it shipped somewhat local for free and only had to remember to order and then go pick it up.

I'll see if I can do a quick search and maybe find the company. If they ship to anywhere in Indiana, I'll include whatever I find.