The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

@curious chickee , congrats! first eggs are sooo exciting. is that a cream legbar egg?


@Leahs Mom I'm down to 20. earlier this spring I was getting between 12 and 19 eggs a day, averaging maybe 15, but now its closer to 8-15....seems to take the broodies a couple days, maybe a week to start up again. Add to that 3-4 days of being broody, and figure in a rotating group of maybe 5 hens....it hurts!


All of a sudden, the flock seems to have taken a dislike to the feed - its an egg mash from a local mill. I don't know whats up but their feed intake is way down. Tonight I just gave them straight scratch just to get something into them - no one had a full crop and there was food left. WIll pick something else up tomorrow. Think their breakfast will be eggs.

I know they are foraging, but I would expect to see some decent crops. They are all behaving normally, and went after that scratch like starving maniacs....so maybe something is off in the feed mix.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Every once in awhile the mill will get their items from a different place or a crop that has some kind of issue...those birds are usually smart enough to know something's up.

I wonder if there is a heavier mold content. It's been pretty wet all over the country and maybe some of the stored grain is having issues?

 

[curious chickee]

@curious chickee
 , congrats!  first eggs are sooo exciting.  is that a cream legbar egg?

 
[COLOR=005CB1]@Leahs Mom  I[/COLOR]'m down to 20.  earlier this spring I was getting between 12 and 19 eggs a day, averaging maybe 15, but now its closer to 8-15....seems to take the broodies a couple days, maybe a week to start up again.  Add to that 3-4 days of being broody, and figure in a rotating group of maybe 5 hens....it hurts!


All of a sudden, the flock seems to have taken a dislike to the feed - its an egg mash from a local mill.  I don't know whats up but their feed intake is way down.  Tonight I just gave them straight scratch just to get something into them - no one had a full crop and there was food left.  WIll pick something else up tomorrow.  Think their breakfast will be eggs.  

I know they are foraging, but I would expect to see some decent crops.  They are all behaving normally, and went after that scratch like starving maniacs....so maybe something is off in the feed mix.

It is an EE

 

[Leahs Mom]

Pretty exciting when that first egg comes. And even more exciting when it's a colored egg!

 

[slordaz]

Why? Is it because ducks are messy? They're kind of a pain in that regard, I'll admit. Mud everywhere...

raise em with chickens, I can't get mine to the pond, had to give them a pool inside the chickens stall. do have to change the straw or shavings on the floor more often due to the duck thinks the chickens are her babies and when they don't listen to her she decides to give them all a bath lol

 

[slordaz]

One of the hens is laying really fragile-shelled eggs. Apparently her instinct did not get the memo to gobble oyster shell & egg shells while we have "all flock" because of the young pullets. The pullets will be 13 weeks, tomorrow. If I offer both layer pellets and all flock, when's the soonest I can put the layer pellets back in their free feeder? (separate feeders--one layer, one all flock.)

I have to figure something different as my friend has 2 cornish crosses in flockof egg layers and then we got the 2 ducks, the cornish crosses they eat anything and everything and don't care if it's straight oyster shell or your shoe they will try anything

but don't stray to far from the stall, or paddock, the others free range problem is if I put oystershel out where they lounge around when taking a break the wild birds will eat it most likely

 

[HeritageGoose13]

raise em with chickens, I can't get mine to the pond, had to give them a pool inside the chickens stall. do have to change the straw or shavings on the floor more often due to the duck thinks the chickens are her babies and when they don't listen to her she decides to give them all a bath lol

And how do the chickens feel about this?

 

[Leahs Mom]

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I'm guessing they need therapy.

 

[Leahs Mom]

For us "Natural Chicken Keepers"....

Just read a really interesting article re using chickens in regenerative farming. I thought some of you would enjoy it so I'm going to post the link. The article is very encouraging. There is also a video which I haven't watched yet.


If you read through the article, he talks about using this kind of system on as small as 1/2 acre and on up.

Thought it was interesting that they mentioned 7" of rain and that their healthy paddocks took it all in.... A topic that is of interest to a lot of the US this year with the excessive rain a lot of us have experienced. But it starts looking at areas that weren't getting much rain at all.



Here are a few quotes...

Quote: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...n=20150719Z1&et_cid=DM80204&et_rid=1041955871

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Quote:



http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...n=20150719Z1&et_cid=DM80204&et_rid=1041955871

 

[Leahs Mom]

Here's the video that goes with the article...



The "short" one (39 minutes I think)

The full interview 1 Hour 5 Min.

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