The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Well now that is an awesome idea! lol, we eat a paleo diet for the most part and have coconut oil all over the house including the bathroom and bedroom for skin and hair.
I never thought to give it/use it on my chickens!

Also, I think there might have been a confusion. I wasn't suggesting the use of Vaseline I was asking if it should be applied for a situation like this. I'm new to chickens and I look to all of your
great information to help me along with me girls and roos.

thank you for the coconut oil idea I will add it to their mash tomorrow and use it on my hen that is brooding some eggs. Her comb had been looking very dry. I'll put the Vaseline up.

Something that is supposed to work really well for scale mites is the VetRx. It is an essential oil blend in a corn oil base. You can get it at Tractor Supply.

As far as the coconut oil, I do give it to my birds to eat and use it on wounds. It is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial in nature both internally and externally. It's the only thing I'd feed if I were dealing with a thrush infection (sour crop) for a 3 day period... reportedly does the job in quick time if fasting everything but water and the coconut oil. In it's solid state the birds will gobble it right up almost as well as if it was raw meat.

I'm not sure if the coconut oil would be heavy enough to smother the mites and the mite eggs, however. I think you'd have to reapply it many times to get that effect as it's a somewhat "light" oil and it is assimilated into the skin (or scales in this instance) very quickly.

 

[RedRidge]

And the bad mommy award goes to... ME!

I did something I've never done before. And considering how anal I am, this slip up is an indication of what 40+ lambs born in 5 days will do to your brain...

I totally forgot to put a batch of hatching eggs in lockdown. :-0

And what's worse is, I didn't remember until day 21!

So... two dozen eggs, still in the turner (the top shelf of course), with no humidity increase.

I opened the bator and it was like popcorn - chicks everywhere! LOL. And they all hatched except one.

Guess I got very lucky. But boy do I feel bad those chicks spent a day riding the ferris wheel. Or in the case of a few who doesn't wear their seat belts, falling down the cracks to the bottom. :-/

Glad you got such great results, so nice that you got a break!   And are you kidding me?  You have lambs?  where are the pictures?   nothing sweeter than baby lambs, they are even better than baby chicks....



@ronott1
 , love the sound track on the video.  happy looking and sounding chicks!

 

[mlowen]

Sheri...gorgeous lambs!!

 

[lalaland]

Redridge, love the top pic with the dozen or more lambs. You can see a couple or definitely frolicing in the picture. Its a great reminder that spring might actually happen. Thank you for posting them.

more frozen eggs today....but it should warm up soon.

 

[Amberjem]

 

[potagergirl]

Hubby was shooting pics for me today. He shot this picture and though it looks like a mirror, it is not it is awesome timing of two different hens!

 

[jtn42248]

Hubby was shooting pics for me today. He shot this picture and though it looks like a mirror, it is not it is awesome timing of two different hens!

Too bad vaudeville is dead. Those girls could earn a nice living with that act.

 

[lalaland]

that is an incredible picture!!

 

[delisha]

Don't forget NuStock works great for leg mites!

 

[sunflower4you]

Don't forget NuStock works great for leg mites!

Thanks! I tried applying that 2 times, but it hasn't seemed to help much yet. Maybe more frequent application or maybe warmer weather!