The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[manicfarmer]

I've always kept my roosters separate from my pullets because they can be so aggressive that they can cause quite a lot of stress as they try domineering everyone. This can delay the onset of laying too.

I would separate him until after your girls start laying.

To bad you don't have an older hen you can toss him in with. She would teach him some manners!

My plan is to keep one (or maybe two if they get along) roosters with this flock and the rest of the roos are going to be table birds. I went straight run with all my chicks to try and find the most compatible roosters with the hens in hopes that everyone can live in peace. I will definitely make sure I cull any roos that are bully's to the hens. I have 5 different breeds to choose from so I should be able to find a good cockerel or two that will be nice to the ladies, fingers crossed. I am a newbie to all this and am enjoying the learning process but hoping to not have to separate anyone unless things get extreme given that they are all young chicks and the same age.

I say that while I have a 3 week old english game chick in chicken jail right now. lol. Two days ago he decided he was going to rip the feathers from the rest of the flock members. He removed the back feathers from the backs of about 6 chicks. He is the runt of the litter as well, about half the size of all the others. I removed him and the rest that were pecking and isolated it down to him being the one culprit. Everyone else is happy now while he sits in chicken jail. Going to reintegrate him with his flock when I move them out in their chicken tractor next week in the pasture. Hopefully he will have learned his lesson.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: That kind of situation is pretty stressful for the rest of the flock...sometimes they continue it after they've had the taste of blood no matter what you do.

Sometimes that kind of behavior is fixed by giving them more animal-based protein. If they're outside they can pick up more as the weather is warming in the form of bugs, worms, mice, toads, etc. But if there's not enough out there, some RAW ground meat makes a good addition to their diet.

If you do let him back in with the rest of the flock, be sure to observe closely at first and remove him if he continues. It's worth not having a flock terrorized and cannibalized.

 

[manicfarmer]

That kind of situation is pretty stressful for the rest of the flock...sometimes they continue it after they've had the taste of blood no matter what you do.

Sometimes that kind of behavior is fixed by giving them more animal-based protein. If they're outside they can pick up more as the weather is warming in the form of bugs, worms, mice, toads, etc. But if there's not enough out there, some RAW ground meat makes a good addition to their diet.

If you do let him back in with the rest of the flock, be sure to observe closely at first and remove him if he continues. It's worth not having a flock terrorized and cannibalized.

I had this exact same issue with my first flock. The brooder was undersized for the # of chicks that were sent. I got 9 extra that I didn't order and I was on the cusp before that. A bloody chick showed up so I panicked and put it in a dog kennel. That was ok for a few days then another showed up. By the end of the week there was 9 chickens in a dog kennel for a large dog....not good. I rushed to get my first chicken tractor complete hoping to thrown them outside and everyone would hopefully correct itself. They were great for about 2 hours and then the pecking started again. So I started removing the chickens getting pecked until I had a thought, maybe I am removing the wrong chicken. So I put the wounded chicken back in the tractor and removed the pecker. Then one more pecker showed up and I removed him too. After removing those two the pecking subsided completely. Everyone was so happy to be out of the overcrowded brooder on fresh grass they had no desire to peck.

As for the other two, I threw them back in the brooder where they complained for the next week. They were not happy at all. They just ate, drank and complained. I was going to give them away because they were just warmer chicks sent from the hatchery (funny how the free chicks caused the havoc) but I gave them one last shot. I put them back in the tractor and neither of them pecked at another bird.

As for the OEGs, a few others were pecking at wounds after I found the culprit and removed him. I thought I had a real problem on my hands. I read somewhere (may have not been the best idea but it did work) to put automotive grease on the wound and the other chicks won't peck it. I had to do that to about 4 chicks but it did work. The peckers would peck and after a few tries realized that wasn't a good idea. I could have probably found something better than wheel grease had I had a little more time but I was inexperience and panicking because I had half the flock pecking at each other. It was going downhill quick. I have one in there that will peck at the tail feathers of others but I am still not sure he is being aggressive. He has yet to make a chick chirp or act irritated. I also try and keep plenty of fresh grass in there for them to eat. My other chicks could care less about grass at that age, these OEG love it more than their feed. That is keeping them occupied at the moment but I know I need to get that other tractor finished by the end of this coming weekend or things could start getting ugly in the brooder again. This flock of almost 50 babies is definitely keeping me on my toes.

 

[manicfarmer]

Are you able to capture her and take a look at her body to be sure there are no wounds, etc? Also feel her crop to see if it is large and soft/squishy.

I examined her body and she isn't wounded. Her crop is very large soft and squishy. I checked it against another bird of the same type and there was no comparison, her is very enlarged. Does this sounds like a yeast infection? If so should I segregate her and put her on a diet of yogurt, eggs and buttermilk with her feed? I was going to cull most of these Red Rangers in about 5-6 weeks anyhow. I was going to keep one or maybe two for layers but something tells me she won't make the cut.

 

[COChix]

First pip

One of our BO x EE

 

[Lacy Blues]

I almost lost a bird in one day from others picking it's tail feathers. No complaining at all. I think he went into shock with the whole thing and never did have a correct tail from that day on.

My opinion is that it won't do any good to try and keep the offender that is in jail. That breed is particularly aggressive anyway and I think you as well as your flock would be happier without him.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Sounds like a yeast infection. I just finished with one of my girls having it.

I gave her coconut oil to help her pass whatever was blocking. She had a two cup water cup, that I gave her 1 cup of water in. That's all she got for the morning. At night when I fed, I would give her a half cup more. I fed her regular feed, hard boiled eggs and a couple tablespoons of raw hamburger, low fat. I gave her about a tablespoon of yogurt once or twice as well. She was only separated during the day as I didn't want her to lose her place in the flock and we collect all the food and water every night anyway so there was no danger of her getting into either one.

She was over it in like 3 days. I felt her crop every morning before putting her back into her segregation. The last morning, her crop was finally empty but I separated her anyway for just that one more day. Now she seems fine.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Between the crop description and the photos you posted I'd say gleet too (yeast infection).

If these birds are meant to be short-term and you were planning on processing shortly anyhow, and you aren't trying to give them a long life... you may just choose to cull rather than go through working through a healing process.

But...if you want to work through a healing process...
The way that I've seen folks have the best luck with is similar to what LB is saying with a little bit of variation.

-Separate the bird so it can't get into the feed the others are getting.
-While separated, start them on a "semi-fast" for at least 3 days then see how things are going...the semi-fast looks like this:
-NO ACV.
-NO GRAIN-BASED FEED
-Free-feed coconut oil (in solid form). They love it and it is anti-fungal.
-Fresh water - all they want.
-Try giving raw meat; if it seems that the crop isn't handling it well, don't give meat until after the first 3 days.

After the first 3 days, add some raw meat. Then if it goes okay, around the 4th day you can try her on some regular, grain-based feed. If the crop/vent gleet comes back, revert to the coconut oil/water only. It may take more like 5 days.

During the whole time you could give some probiotics in the water if you get some (Avi Culture 2 is the only avian probiotic that is grown on a non-gmo substrate.)
Yogurt can be given but I personally advise only after the 3rd day.

For the external on her bottom, you can use some coconut oil on the vent area to help fight the fungus there. If you can get hold of some NuStock, it is anti-fungal and works very quickly to heal things down there...but it has a very strong smell. It is great at clearing topical fungal infection.

 

[lalaland]

ok, I'm mad as a wet hen!

I very carefully fenced off the garden last week. flock got in and rototilled the garlic patch. I figured I left an opening in the gate and fixed that. This morning I find they somehow got into it again yesterday and rototilled the surviving garlic.

keeping them locked in the run this morning. will spy on them this afternoon to see if I can figure out how they are getting in. at least the peas aren't up yet. or wait.....those little devils would have eaten them if they were....oh crap. bet I will have to replant peas.

 

[slordaz]

Maybe they need something from the garlic, you might try infusing a clove of garlic to 8 ounces of olive oil and putting some on their feed so they stay out of your garlic. you will need to shake it a couple of times a day for 3-7 days depending on how strong you want it.

Also an update chicks and duckling got FF yesterday for the first time and have decided they don't need treats now, as I added some from the treat block into the FF so it ended up being unmedicated starter/grower feed with a handful of the stuff broken up from the treat block. and they discovered bugs too lol.

They have been out in the coop now for 2 nights and loving it, they were more interested in the ladder we made for getting up to the laying boxes than the gym we made for em by tying a strong live willow branch up with string in a bucket lol. We had to add the heat lamp back in for nights due to we have been so cold up here but there is no way they would want back in the brooder pen. This Friday we are going to go pick up an older rooster and a couple of hens any ideas as these chicks are all docile, if RiR or Leghorn would be better to mix with them?

Here is some pictures we aren't quite done though, as got a busy next few days with finishing up on the run and planting fruit trees berry bushes and the vegetable starts we did. Then I will be making some wooden flats for growing beds just to see how long each one will take so I can gauge for them to have plenty of foraging inside the coop in the winter time. think those cheap sun shades for cars will work at night in the winter time to add an extra layer of protection during the winter, this was an existing building on the property that was just being used for storage and we did some modifications to it, so they got the good deal as their coop is insulated too. We leveled the bottom that was dirt by putting down 2 pallets then covering it with that heavy plastic looking cardboard as that will make it a lot easier to clean