The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[RedRidge]

Strangest place you have ever found an egg??

When I was gathering eggs last evening I found one in the water dish. It is one of those big heated dog water bowls we keep in the hen house to make sure
they have water even when the water bucket outside is froze.
So, I am gathering eggs and then I start to fill the water bowl. There it is a good 2 inches deep in water setting at the bottom of the bowl. I realize this bowl
has about a 5 inch side but I never imagined I would find an egg in it. My girls are laying for the first time I'm thinking the nut hasn't figured out what the straw
is for even though three other girls use it to lay eggs.
Hubby and I got a good laugh about this however, I'm not sure my chicken has her head screwed on right

I have to know the strangest place you have ever found an egg laid by one of your chickens???????

This weekend... AS the judge picked her up to judge her. Yep... bad timing. Dropped an egg right there as she was being pulled out of the cage. I thought she was much nicer than the other pullet I entered at the nationals, but the other one took BOV since egg laying does NOT correspond well to being showy. Gee... you'd think she'd get extra marks for being productive. Lol

 

[sunflower4you]

Looks like mites to me but then I've only had them personally once and helped a friend get rid of them on hers.

Some of our birds legs looked bad and some looked fine. I think they spread slowly and I noticed that they see worse on the feathered legged birds for some reason.

Nustock (or my homemade version of it) worked best and for Intermittent follow up treatments I just sprayed all their legs with Pam while they were roosting haha!

Only the best stuff ever! Well second to chocolate of course.

http://www.nustock.com/

I personally mix a lot of sulphur powder with a bit of pine tar and enough olive oil to moisten it to a consistency like lotion. I'm not very precise with it but I'm sure others could give you the exact ratio. Olive oil is just my choice as well some people use mineral oil, coconut oil etc.

Thanks for the info! I would like to try the Nustock. The website says to treat every 3 days for horses and dogs, but I saw on here someone said to treat daily on chicken legs/feet.

Is it too strong to apply daily?
Should I do every 3 days and monitor the condition?
How long does it usually take to see improvement in the leg scales?
One last question...can Nustock only be purchased online?

 

[hoosiercheetah]

How old is she?

About a year and a half according to the guy I bought her from.

 

[ronott1]

About a year and a half according to the guy I bought her from.

Unless you hate her, she will be productive for 2 more years or so after molting.

All chickens stop at that point but quickly pick back up laying after the molt. It takes more resources to get a new pullet laying so it is better on an economics basis to wait until the hens are older to process them. 3 to 4 years old for breeds like orps is a better age.

Golden comets and other sex links between 2 and three years old.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Unless you hate her, she will be productive for 2 more years or so after molting.

Hate is a strong word, but my decision to eat her is not because she's stopped laying for the winter.

 

[ronott1]

Hate is a strong word, but my decision to eat her is not because she's stopped laying for the winter.

 

[Lacy Blues]

So, I officially have my first moulting hen. She stopped laying, oh, a month ago or so when we had the first good cold snap. The last week or two she hasn't been as active, but not a big enough change to concern me. Yesterday I picked her up and looked through her feathers and sure enough, she's got patches of new pins here and there.

The other thing is she seem really light when I picked her up. She's a Black English Orp, and my biggest hen. Do chickens loose muscle mass when they moult?

The reason I'm concerned is I was planning on eating that hen this week or next. So the real question is, can one eat a moulting chicken? Should I wait and try to fatten her up again first? Or is my perception of her weight loss all just missing feathers and psyching myself out?

When my girls molt, they eat a LOT LESS than normal. I try extra hard to make their food look yummy so that they will eat. It always amazes me that every year when it starts getting cold, they start cutting back on their intake. Drives me nuts! It's not that I want them to eat me out of house and home but rather, I want them to be able to stay warm and strong and this cut back when it gets cold makes me think they're going to be cold and stressed and that problems will arise from this.

Eating less will of course make them lose weight but I've never checked it... I am busy trying to get them to eat.

 

[CherMoz]

Strangest place you have ever found an egg??

When I was gathering eggs last evening I found one in the water dish. It is one of those big heated dog water bowls we keep in the hen house to make sure
they have water even when the water bucket outside is froze.
So, I am gathering eggs and then I start to fill the water bowl. There it is a good 2 inches deep in water setting at the bottom of the bowl. I realize this bowl
has about a 5 inch side but I never imagined I would find an egg in it. My girls are laying for the first time I'm thinking the nut hasn't figured out what the straw
is for even though three other girls use it to lay eggs.
Hubby and I got a good laugh about this however, I'm not sure my chicken has her head screwed on right

I have to know the strangest place you have ever found an egg laid by one of your chickens???????

On a rock! I walked right by it - I was carrying fresh water to the chickens. My DH saw it and thought I put it there to be funny. There were no cracks in it...

 

[armorfirelady]

Is it too strong to apply daily?
Should I do every 3 days and monitor the condition?
How long does it usually take to see improvement in the leg scales?
One last question...can Nustock only be purchased online?

I have used it daily on the hens when I thought it might have leg mites. They had no adverse effects. Depending on how infested they are depends on how long it will take to clear up. And yes it can be purchased online

When my girls molt, they eat a LOT LESS than normal. I try extra hard to make their food look yummy so that they will eat. It always amazes me that every year when it starts getting cold, they start cutting back on their intake. Drives me nuts! It's not that I want them to eat me out of house and home but rather, I want them to be able to stay warm and strong and this cut back when it gets cold makes me think they're going to be cold and stressed and that problems will arise from this.

Eating less will of course make them lose weight but I've never checked it... I am busy trying to get them to eat.

I noticed that mine were eating less as well. I have been giving them extra meat protein the last couple weeks to see if it helps. They def enjoy the meat more than the FF. It seems in the case of Edie, who is the latest to molt, that her pin feathers came in quicker with the extra meat protein than the old girls who were just getting FF until we got the winter storm a couple weeks ago. That is when I started to give them more meat. And I have suet available to them all the time as well. While they all will eat the suet it was the ones molting I saw eating more of it.

 

[sunflower4you]

I have used it daily on the hens when I thought it might have leg mites. They had no adverse effects. Depending on how infested they are depends on how long it will take to clear up. And yes it can be purchased online

Ordered some Nu-stock on amazon as they seemed to have the best price/shipping. Thankfully my two girls that need it are the two that let me handle them the most easily!