The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[hellbender]

Just an opinion about vaccinating chickens.....Vacc. them ALL or NONE.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Agreed

 

[mrsruzek]

It turns out the hens I got are vaccinated. I guess I should've done more research before diving in! What are some of the cons of vaccinating chickens, other than it weakening their immune system? I found some unvaccinated chickens, is it a terrible idea to bring them into the flock, even if I keep them separated for a while to build up their gut flora to my backyard environment? Do the vaccinated chickens have any impact on the eggs they lay? Basically, is there going to be any crud in the eggs we eat from the vaccination? Similar to antibiotics I guess...?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

From here on out pick a way to go and go that way, vaccinations are suppose to be a quick way to build immunity, the problem comes from vaccinated chicken having or carrying some form of the virus and it could overwhelm unvaccinated birds, at least that's my perception.
The eggs shouldn't be affected.

 

[slordaz]

no clue sorry, ours we got as fuzzballs and raised we raised them, and come to think about it not sure even though they were 2 days old if they vaccinated them before shipping to the cal ranch. I know they haven't had any medication or vaccines since we got them.

 

[slordaz]

oh lookie what we got today, heres hoping the others hatch as can't see inside the dark shells, only leghorn hen/BR rooster egg that made it, the others in there with her are straight barred rock

 

[CherMoz]

Love those new babies!

 

[slordaz]

she is only one that hatched, but she is a lot cuter now dried off

 

[armorfirelady]

So far my extreme molter gets on the roost and has never even tried to sleep anywhere else. I keep thinking I'm going to go out there and find a dead hen under the roost that has gotten too cold in the night.

This year it's been no lower than about 33 f, but last year it dipped into the teens while she was in that condition so I brought her inside to a dog crate. Then I had to re-acclimate once she had enough feathering. Luckily there was a break in the temps and it wasn't going from inside to the teens....

My girls are all in different stages of molt. The worse 2 have bare patches. We have gotten below freezing a couple night but I find they just snuggle closer to their roost mate. I have been giving extra raw meat. They are so staggered in their molt that I have not gotten any eggs in almost 2 weeks. I never remeber that happening before. They are also not eating as much of their FF. I guess the meat is filling them up or they are finding enough things to eat in the compost pile and the veggie garden

Quote: for mite deterence
I use wood ash as a natural mite & lice deterrent. My hens had them once when I forget to fill the wood ash container. So I hand dusted them for 5 days then made sure to keep their dust bath full. Have never had a problem again.

 

[Leahs Mom]

No eggs here either. And, frustratingly, my birds have never huddled together to keep warm on their roosts. I can't imagine why not, but they space themselves pretty far apart and even in the coldest part of winter, they don't seem to change that behavior.