The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Just for fun...here are a few of my current and/or former sfh. SFH are like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to get and they change as they grow. I really like that about them.

Former SFH...Queen Emma. (Black Based Mille Fleur)





Former roo "Mister" as an 8 mo old. (Crested Black Based Mille Fleur)




Current Girl. Black based. (I love primarily black with flowering)


Current girl - also black based.





Former Girl (re-homed and still well). EXCESSIVE CREST! This was a crest-to-crest breeding by mistake. Mister above was the father. He is crested.)



After "haircut".





Former Crested Blue. This is the mother of the Excessive crest girl.

 

[JanetMarie]

@Leahs Mom I LOVE your SFHs, and especially the crested ones. Thanks for sharing.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Just preference.

My birds have to be able to see above easily as they free-range. 

With SFH, if you have a crested-to-crested breeding you can end up with vaulted skull, excessive crest, and even death.  This kiddo doesn't have either excessive or vaulted skull so she shouldn't have a problem w/free-range.  I just don't want to take the chance that I would breed an excessive crest in the future.  I've had one before that I literally trimmed the crest back so she could see.  But she, and her mother, both had "skittish" personalities that made them "hawk-bait"...crest or no crest.  I guess this kiddo will be my chance to see if the personality is "normal" in the crested birds.

@oldhenlikesdogs

How many birds do you have totally?  How many are roos?

Goodness, time to spill the beans. I had to pull out my notebook. I have 3 large breed roosters currently, 2 buff Orpingtons one barnevelder. 32 various large breed hens, including some polish which get their crests trim and do some pretty aggressive free ranging. With my large breed flock there are 3 d'uccle roosters who mostly keep to themselves and two bantam cochins who are trying to be flock roosters. I also have two bantam cochins who are extras and are penned by themselves.

So my free ranging flocks have plenty of roosters to give the warning, never lost any to hawks, I had some coyote troubles a few years back, my husband finally was able to get a shot at it and it stopped. Two years ago something was going into my bantam coop and took two hens before I noticed, I believe a Fox, we closed the run door and it stopped. We have goats and donkeys in the same shed, so that helps somewhat.

In my bantam flock I have 4 bantam cochin roosters, and 10 hens.

I have 6 bantam chicks coming and two bantam eggs set to hatch.

I have 19 large breed chicks coming, two roosters included, and about 10 eggs set to hatch but I don't think most will hatch due to poor shipping.

I have 8 muscovy hens in need of a drake eventually.

I have 15 turkey, 5 toms, 10 hens, and some hatching eggs coming.

I went a little nuts this year, I don't know if I mentioned it here but I'm a cancer survivor, for now, and I'm fulfilling some desires, that get it done while I still can because you never know stuff. I do have room for all the chickens, but some turkey toms will have to become my husband's dinner at some point I think.

I once had a crested vault silkie, she was never right, the others pecked her skull as a chick and she became my special needs chicken, I was relieved when she passed, it was hard on her and me and now I'm afraid to get more silkies so I know what you are talking about, I would prefer not to deal with that either.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

@Leahs Mom
 I LOVE your SFHs, and especially the crested ones.  Thanks for sharing. 

x2, I like birds that are individualized.

 

[gevshiba]

How to tell Male from Female in 7-14 day old chicks....
Comments, Please. Has anyone ever noticed this in your hatches? I never knew to look before just heard about it this spring so now I'm going to have to pay attention. Wondering if this is true or just another "chick legend".

Here's 3 of my 12 Cinco de Mayo hatch, so about 12 days old. All Speckled Sussex. All of my blond chicks that I've hatched in the past have been males. Almost all of them have pretty good tails going. Same with the chipmunk chicks, which will be either sex. I have a couple with less tails in both color varieties, but I'd bet a lot that all the blonds are boys. So in my SS, I'd say no on the tail sexing.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@gevshiba
I was afraid it was "too good to be true".

@oldhenlikesdogs
Please tell me how you integrate in new chicks.

Also..with all those animals, how do you ever get to travel if you want to? Do you have an animal sitter?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

@gevshiba

I was afraid it was "too good to be true".

@oldhenlikesdogs

Please tell me how you integrate in new chicks.

Also..with all those animals, how do you ever get to travel if you want to? Do you have an animal sitter?

Well I don't travel currently, I find my 40 acres a self made paradise. I enjoy animals but people I'm okay without. I call myself a hermit, I get occasional visitors and most people know they need to come here if they want to see me. I have 5 dogs that I refuse to leave for more than a few hours. My husband does hunting trips with his brother. One day I might go on the road again, but for now I'm happy at home.

I integrated a bit different with my large fowl and bantams, I'll explain both.

When my large breed chicks are about 6-8 weeks and no longer require heat, I wait until May or June to get chicks so it's warmer, they get moved out to the large shed and are put into one of my two pens.


This one on the right, one of my nestboxes are in it. I move the chicks to that pen for about a week, everyone gets a good look at them, than I go out and let them come out. A bunch of hens run in to use the nestboxes, some chicks come out and mingle around, I keep watch to intervene if necessary. After about an hour or so I lock them back up, Chase the hens out and do it the next day. After a week the chicks are eager to get out and don't require my help anymore. They stick close, traveling in a group everywhere. After a few weeks they usually travel a little farther during their travels but are pretty good at staying hidden and hugging the walls, and not standing in the open. I lock them up at night for 2-3 months until I'm tired of it, after that they are free range.

My bantam start by going in the bantam run at around 2-4 weeks of age in a wire ring of fencing for about a week or two, than I start letting them out under supervision. I also will start putting them in the coop to become familiar with the inside of it. Eventually they stay inside the coop at night in their wire ring, being let out and rounded up each day. They eventually find their way out of the run to range a bit. At around 6 weeks I start leaving them out of the wire ring. They are integrated by then.

I have the luxury of having lots of room and being free range there's not a lot of aggression so integration goes almost too easy.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I guess my major problem, really, is that I'm at work all day and can't supervise. And I can't let the young ones out free-range initially while I'm gone.

Perhaps I'll have to let it start when I'm home in the afternoon for a few hours, then round them up and keep them inside while I'm at work since I don't have a run attached to the current housing.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@oldhenlikesdogs

It looks like your coop is inside a barn?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

@oldhenlikesdogs


It looks like your coop is inside a barn?

Excuse the snow, my large breeds live in the pole building on the left, with it divided into hay storage, chicken pens, goat area and donkey area, the chickens have access to everything but the hay storage. The bantam pen is in the barn on the right, back left corner, everything ranges in between the two.


Backside view, the doors are open all summer and the smaller door is open year round.


Some of my chickens range.


Another angle of my pens that never close.


Goat area.

It's a big tin shed that can be drafty in the winter and hot in the summer but it has been a joy to keep chickens in it. My birds get to do whatever they choose to do everyday. I hardly ever see health problems, and never any behavioral problems.