The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

I am the cruel one..
I feed in the morning if the food dish is empty. I only feed FF. I have a nice heat pan that I dump my FF on. I do feed my Broody hen two times a day reguardless if her bowl is empty. Man she is loosing weight fast. I hate that part. I have another one go broody on me. I am going to try to break her if the other hens don't get her off the nest. She is in the community nest, and my alpha hen is not going to like that at all.

 

[Ashdoes]

I also only feed once a day. I fill their feed trough once, and that's it. If they're still hungry they need to go out and find something to eat. Once spring is here and there's more to forage, I'll feed once in the late afternoon. I had stopped throwing scratch out, thinking they were getting too much, but ive been thinking I'd like them to have a little extra while it's so cold.
I had mentioned a while back that our Cochin girls are super lazy and mostly hang out in the barn. Hubby said we'll try shutting them out of the barn in the Spring and see if that changes their behavior. If not, even though they're beautiful, I'll have to find a new breed. I really wanted birds that wandered more, and the benefit of free ranging makes me want that even more.
So, what breed does well in the cold and free ranges really well? Our barred rock, and sex links are pretty great, but I'd like maybe one or two more breeds. Wondering if hatching some Cochin barred rock mixes would help with the Cochin laziness? Or if being broody raised, by a good forager, would help?

 

[pigeonguy]

I feed FF once in the morning and if that is gone and they look act hungry at night I give them some more that evening. If some of that is left in the morning I don't feed till afternoon. So I guess it depends on what they ask for.
When forage gets good after winter they will get fed in the evening once.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

A rare picture of all five on the roost at the same time. Johnny on the far right. Then Edith, Phoebe, Judy, and Janet. My DL is about eighteen inches deep under the 2"X2" roost. The pop door is sealed for the winter. This is the small sleeping pen. Door open 24/7 to the main barn isle. The main barn door is open from 7:30am until 5:30pm every day. They come and go at will.
The four pullets are Orpington crosses. I bought them two months ago at the WFF Spring Brisk show. The two buff girls are laying every day. Judy is looking closely at the nest boxes. She is also redding up. Johnny doesn't like the two blacks but he allows them to peck FF off his beak. This is the first time I've seen the two blacks on the roost. They have been lurking in the corners on the ground since I got them. They are just now being tolerated on the roost. Good news!

So good to see Johnny all settled in and looking good!!!

Looks like he's taken charge and enjoying it.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

sorry, double post, computer is acting up tonight...

 

[jockeyeba]

I started feeding ff about a month ago to my Wyandottes & WR's that are in a coop & big pen. My Bantams are in a big pen & coop & I just started them on ff a week ago, also throw the 2 pens scratch & they get tomatoes, apples & whatever's leftover from our meals everyday. We have American Games that are totally freeranged that get scratch thrown to them twice a day when they come back in the yard & I keep a feeder of layer crumbles out for them too. also started the 3 3 month old chicks on ff last week, they love it

 

[Melabella]

I started feeding ff about a month ago to my Wyandottes & WR's that are in a coop & big pen. My Bantams are in a big pen & coop & I just started them on ff a week ago, also throw the 2 pens scratch & they get tomatoes, apples & whatever's leftover from our meals everyday. We have American Games that are totally freeranged that get scratch thrown to them twice a day when they come back in the yard & I keep a feeder of layer crumbles out for them too.

also started the 3 3 month old chicks on ff last week, they love it

Hi jockeyeba,

Have you noticed any difference in yolk size after starting the FF, since you have just started. I just read that it takes 10 days to form a yolk, so your wyandottes and white rocks have been on it long enough. I have one girl who lays ENORMOUS yolks. I don't know who it is yet... wonder if I will ever be able to figure out who lays which egg.

night all!MB

 

[Mumsy]

So good to see Johnny all settled in and looking good!!!

Looks like he's taken charge and enjoying it.

Thanks! He is a good roo. I see I posted pullets came from the 'Spring' Brisk. I meant 'Winter'. *Ooops*

 

[jockeyeba]

I started feeding ff about a month ago to my Wyandottes

Hi jockeyeba, Have you noticed any difference in yolk size after starting the FF, since you have just started. I just read that it takes 10 days to form a yolk, so your wyandottes and white rocks have been on it long enough. I have one girl who lays ENORMOUS yolks. I don't know who it is yet... wonder if I will ever be able to figure out who lays which egg. night all! MB

No because the WR's were rescue hens & I had them on the ff before they straightened out enough to start laying again & my Wyandotte pullet just started laying her 1st egg New Years Eve day so she was already on it too. I'm so proud of my BLRW pullet, she's laid 13 eggs in the last 17 days

 

[SandBsmom]

Ok guys. I took all your advice about ventilating the coop and turning off the lamp. I tore out the eve covers on one whole side of the coop and covered them with just hardware cloth. I took off plexiglass on the top half of one of the windows and covered it with cloth. AND I unplugged the heat lamp. Hopefully that will clear the humidity out. It's so cold out there! Do you guys promise me chickens won't turn into Popsicles????