The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

@CuzChickens

I agree with lazy gardener. I wouldn't use molassis either as it can cause other problems as well.

Personally I'm a firm believer in fresh, clean water with nothing added.

Fermented feed is a great option, but for folks that don't want to ferment, I recommend using an avian probiotic in the feed. AviCulture II is the only one I've been able to find that doesn't grow the culture on a gmo substrate. The small container goes a long way. You don't have to use much.

Their website is not great...but the product is good.

http://www.avi-culture.com/page2.html

 

[mlowen]

The girls are finally starting back to laying and I had a small miracle on Saturday. I got an egg from my leghorn--her first since June 28! She's 4.

 

[armorfirelady]

I have 5 hens (lost one when the dogs got her because she was where she should not of been- we tried to save her by stitching her up but I am guessing infection got her)

My BR (4 yo) who hasn't laid since summer has started again finally & my youngest hens aka peepers (2yo) BCM mixes -have started up again. My oldest girls (5 yo) haven't started up yet. I am getting about a half dozen eggs a week sometimes a little more.

Mine get no heat or extra light. Are temps have been running from single digits to the 50s. Weird winter weather. I never did close up the north end of the coop. With the fluctuating temps there has been no need. I have even had to open up the side and remove hay bales on the warmest days.

And I agree about not giving molasses or garlic. When I had new chicks raised by broody Momma's they ate what she ate, fermented food. When I had lder chicks I fermented commercial chick feed for them & they were raised outside in the old hens runs & access to the veggie garden. I have 1 of those chicks left still, my BR.

 

[JanetMarie]

Just had a thought about mom and chicks sharing food. I don't ferment the food, but it is high quality home-made organic. Last summer after a mom hatched her chicks, there was one that started getting behind the others in the few first days of life.

It became apparent that this chick was going to die, and I thought it was very unusual, because the chicks here just don't get ill like that. I took out the hatchet and ended the chicks life, and I saw right away what was wrong:

large of pieces of grain that could not pass from the crop. There were so many large pieces of grain, that the chick must have gorged on. It was a busy time, and I absent-mindedly did not take the adult chicken feeder out of the mom and chick area.

The chick food is adult food ground fine in the Vita-mix, and then for mom I put some adult size food on the same plate. I have always done it that way for mom and chicks, with no problems. For now on there will be no adult food for mom on the plate, and me remembering to remove the adult feeder from the chick and mom area.

 

[Molpet]

Just had a thought about mom and chicks sharing food. I don't ferment the food, but it is high quality home-made organic. Last summer after a mom hatched her chicks, there was one that started getting behind the others in the few first days of life.

It became apparent that this chick was going to die, and I thought it was very unusual, because the chicks here just don't get ill like that. I took out the hatchet and ended the chicks life, and I saw right away what was wrong:

large of pieces of grain that could not pass from the crop. There were so many large pieces of grain, that the chick must have gorged on. It was a busy time, and I absent-mindedly did not take the adult chicken feeder out of the mom and chick area.

The chick food is adult food ground fine in the Vita-mix, and then for mom I put some adult size food on the same plate. I have always done it that way for mom and chicks, with no problems. For now on there will be no adult food for mom on the plate, and me remembering to remove the adult feeder from the chick and mom area.

sorry about the chick
I ferment a grower cracked grain mix from the co op for all... the pieces are much softer when fermented..

 

[Leahs Mom]

@JanetMarie
Thank you for posting that. It is a good thing for folks to consider who make their own food.

I do the same thing - grind the same feed finer for the chicks (and even use a vita-mix

).

Even when I ferment, it is softer, but I still grind it finer.

When I have chicks without a broody, that works fine because they don't have access to the adult bowls. But when I have chicks mixing with the rest of the flock, everyone has to put up with finer ground feed until the kiddos are older.

 

[h2oratt]

@CuzChickens


I agree with lazy gardener.  I wouldn't use molassis either as it can cause other problems as well.

Personally I'm a firm believer in fresh, clean water with nothing added.

Fermented feed is a great option, but for folks that don't want to ferment, I recommend using an avian probiotic in the feed.  AviCulture II is the only one I've been able to find that doesn't grow the culture on a gmo substrate.  The small container goes a long way.  You don't have to use much.

Their website is not great...but the product is good.

http://www.avi-culture.com/page2.html

It seems very expensive. Isn't there another probiotic that is more cost effective?

 

[JanetMarie]

There are less expensive avian probiotics that can be purchased at feed stores in the chicken section, but of course are GMO based.

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote:

There are less expensive avian probiotics that can be purchased at feed stores in the chicken section, but of course are GMO based.

Unless you intend to keep your flock on non GMO diet for ever, and unless you yourself are eating non GMO, which means that you are buying only organic, and not buying any processed foods, and never eating out at restaurants... I wonder why GMO would be an issue in a probiotic culture. The easiest and cheapest way to get probiotics into your flock is to give them access to soil, and ferment their feed.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I don't ferment my feed, I don't add vinegar or really anything else to my birds diet. Ration, scratch and occasional scraps and scrambled eggs. They are always free range and augment their diets during the warmer months and get hay during the winter for some greens, my birds always have lots of room, and are for the most part a very healthy flock of birds. My numbers range between 50-100. I currently have 84 chickens in two separate flocks, my bantam flock, and everyone else in my large pole shed, which includes some bantam roosters.

I think living a more natural existence, which keeps stress lower, is more important than anything I can add to their diet. Each chicken has a choice of what it's going to do each day, and can choose which flock mates they want to hang out with. There are plenty of feeding and watering stations so everyone can eat in peace.

Fermented feeds scare me from our days of putting up silage, there's a fine line between fermented and moldy, so I prefer not to get involved with it.

I do believe contact with the soil is important for birds to get microbes that are important for health.

On the other end I don't do worming or antibiotics ever. Unwell birds either recover within a certain amount of time or they get culled. I do occasionally pull out the poultry dust, but even than there always seems to be an underlying problem with any bird that has too many parasites. The only exception is a broody hen who doesn't always dust bath enough.

So this is my version of natural chicken keeping. Since this thread has been a bit slow lately I though I would share, as well as ask everyone else who follows this, what they think natural chicken keeping is for their flock, and what you do and what you believe in.

I've also been curious as to what everyone else has been up to during this long winter. Here my roosters are already fighting, it is about a month early so I'm hoping it means an early spring for us here in the frozen Midwest.

I am looking forward to chicks, and hatching, but it will be a few months for me yet as I like to raise my brooded chicks when it's warm enough to get them out on the grass in the first week, so usually late May or early June here.