The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Quote:
I am lax on worming my hens. When I read something on here about worming it makes me stop and say when did I worm them last? I have never (knock on wood) seen worms in my hens. But they have a large area to roam, spend a lot of their day in the compost pile (Its shaded for them and full of goodies) and are currently molting. I actually gave them some cayenne pepper in yogurt last week. They love the yogurt. Otherwise all is well at critter casa. Honestly my hens are my easiest animal I keep. Feed once a day, keep an eye on their water, grit & calcium & they are pretty content. I just need to set some traps for the fat, happy mice I have in the veggie garden. Seems the hens wont eat them lol

Weather is cooling down here again. I am hoping we don't have a repeat of last year. I made up supports for the roof this year so if we do get another 7ft of snow in 3 days the roof will hold up better.

I just wanted to stop in and say HI!

I miss everyone and I am about 5000 new messages behind.

I have reduced my flock down to under 10 adults for now. I do have a good 20 chicks growing out.

I hope everyone is doing well..I sure miss this group.

Hugs to all!!

Vicki

Hi Delisha !!! We miss you as well

 

[speney]

Hi I'm new here and I just started to read this thread I have alot to catch up on but I am learning so much.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@speney
Good to have you!

@armorfirelady
Sigh. I had almost forgotten winter. Definitely not looking forward to it.
I never moved the birds back from the barn to the hen shed this summer so they're already in their winter quarters. I had 2 hens in the shed that were causing problems for all the others but got along quite well over there with each other only. They just went to a new home, but it's so late that I'm not going to put the others over there this year.

I only have 6 hens left to overwinter this year; 3 that are 3.5yo and 3 that are 1.5 yr. Meant to get more going earlier this spring and kept being just too busy.

I must say that I HATE not having the auto doors. They are on the shed but not on the barn. If I keep using the barn I need to figure out a way to put in an auto door. My work hours make it hard to get them out after the sun is up with the changing sun now. Can't open before I go as it's still too dark. I just don't like the idea of cutting a permanent opening in the barn :|

 

[lalaland]

@armorfirelady, thats one heck of a fish in your avatar ....what is it?

I'm still supervising the flock when they are out, but haven't lost anyone else for a couple of weeks now. Eggs are up a bit after molly's herbal worming stuff, so I'm glad I did it.

Waiting for everyone to finish molting so I can do a fresh load of hay in the coops, and clear out some of the accumulated clutter over the summer so they have maximum floor space for the winter. Love the hay smell.

Leahsmom, I have to open the coop doors now in the dark on workdays....and I'm dreading that time when its dark before I leave and dark before I get home, ....so only seeing the flock on the roost at night by headlamp. Yuck!

Here's to an easy winter!

 

[lalaland]

Hi I'm new here and I just started to read this thread I have alot to catch up on but I am learning so much.

Welcome! It's a great thread, friendly - don't hesitate to ask questions!

Is this your first flock? or are you just new to byc?

 

[speney]

We had chickens growing up and when I first moved into my house I got my own flock but unfortunately a dog got to them. I took a year off and started again with a new flock in may I started with four chicken and then chicken math hit and I am up to 13 plus 5 ducks. I have always raise them natural I have never had an issue with worms or mites thank God but I like to have back up plans so that if anything comes up I can fix it also I want the healthiest flock possible but also the most natural and chemical free because I have meat bird with my laying flock.

 

[lalaland]

yeah, chicken math is amazing. I'm down to 18 hens and 8 bobwhite quail. Never had quail before so I am learning....

I don't know why, but the last couple nights roosting time has been pure mayhem. Perhaps everyone is cranky as heck with molting. And they aren't used to being so confined (I've had a fox and another attack maybe hawk, and lost two in the past month or so, so they are on supervised outings).

 

[speney]

Im so jealous I have been wanting to get quail but I think I'm going to wait till next spring. We just had a pack of coyotes move into the hollow below me it happens every few years the seem to migrate from hollow to hollow so this year is my turn. So i understand the mayhem at night me doing a head count checking ever one one by one and they just don't seem to be impressed w my love and concern for them lol. It's been crazy here. Also I recently received four meat chickens from a farm that is well to put it nicely a little rough I had them quarantined for a few days and they were doing good so I introduced them to my girls it's not hard w my flock they are very excepting of new comers. But these meat chickens have never really been around people and a very skittish they are getting better and even let me pet them a little when they are eating and that's how I noticed there butts (qu the dun dun dun music lol) they look horrible I was wondering if any one could help w a diagnosis. I couldn't see any bugs but it worries me I have always had extremely healthy flocks so this is new to me.

 

[armorfirelady]

@armorfirelady, thats one heck of a fish in your avatar ....what is it?

Here's to an easy winter!

It is a tiger muskie. 44 inches and about 30 pounds. It needed to be 54 inches to keep. But its a fish very few people catch & get in the boat so I was quite happy to have caught it

 

[Leahs Mom]

@speney

I "could" be gleet. BUT...

It could just be that they need to get used to what you are feeding them opposed to what they were getting before.

Is there a strong smell (not just a "poo" smell) associated with it at all?



Also - my recommendation on quarantine..... is to keep the new birds completely separate for at least 2 weeks (3 is better). Then take ONE of your birds and put them with the newcomers for 2 more weeks before putting them all together. That will usually allow adequate time for any disease to make itself known. Also, by only exposing one of your birds to the new ones, if anything shows up you only risk one of your birds rather than the whole flock.