The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[galefrances]

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????

Birds in the wild are out in the elements all the time and they survive nicely. I think we all tend to worry too much when it comes to our chickens, it's natural, but they really do fine the natural way. That's why they have the feathers, right And they'll keep each other warm too by roosting close to one another. The only thing I would mention is that if your chickens are accustomed to a heated coop, then I would gradually reduce the heat until their bodies can re-regulate themselves to the outside temp. I have 2 Sicilian Buttercup chickens. They are not meant to be raised in the very cold and I live in Western NY where the temps can get very frigid. I was so worried that I'd find them dead from hypothermia that I was about to rehome them. But I kept a close watch on them and I can tell you that they have done so well. Once the frigid temps came the one thing I noticed first was they stopped roosting on the lower roost and joined the other birds up on top. They kind of wedged themselves in the middle to keep warm. They are flourishing now. So I wouldn't worry about yours turning into popsicles at all. Make sure though that no drafts are blowing on them.

 

[Chickentalk]

What is FF? DL?

 

[delisha]

What is FF? DL?

It is very hard to read code..I am sorry.
FF stands for Fermented Feed
DL stands for Deep Litter
DH or DW stands for Darling husband and Darling wife
All the other aconims are for the birds breed.

Welcome to the thread!

 

[Melabella]

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[Sally8]

What is FF? DL?

I absolutely love when someone new pops on and asks those questions! Welcome.
FF is fermented feed and can be made with your layer mash/crumbles/pellets and grains (so much other can be used as well) . It would well be worth your time to start at the beginning of this thread and read through. Your chickens will thrive and your eggs will be amazing.
DL Is deep litter in the chicken coop and can be achieved by using many layers of a bedding on the floor of your coop. Mine is 6-10 in deep at this time and is made from store bought bales of pine flakes with dry leaves mixed in. Because you won't be cleaning the coop out very often, bad bugs move in but good bugs moves in as we'll and you develop a perfect environment for the chickens. The theory is that it will keep the coop warm. I like the fact that I only clean the coop out 2x a year. (I'm missing so much to help explain)The chickens help stir it up to keep things "cooking". A lot of controversy on both. I love both and will continue to use both. I couldn't explain well enough in this paragraph. Just take the time to skim through. Sue

 

[delisha]

SandBsmom

Your birds are going to be cold until they adjust. They are not going to turn into popcycles.

This is a true story I am going to tell..
A friend of mine loves loves her chickens..
She had a coop special build to match her house. It is beautiful. It has lights, heat, air.Of course since it is a duplicate of her house it does not have ventalation.It is insulated against all drafts.
I told her ..her coop is beautiful, but, it is for dolls and not chickens. She had ordered 25 chicks and they were so cute. They did quite well, and she did loose a few to this or that and wintered 11 pullets her first winter. This winter she has 3.
I have tried to explain to her that she will be rotating chickens very quickly in her beautiful chicken house, and they will get sicker and sicker as the problems grow inside.

Try to think abbout how your body feels when you are out side in the cold working. Than you come in the house. You are so hot. Your body almost goes into shock and than after a while you get cold and chilled.

Chickens have a coat on for winter, you add heat and you are taking off there coat. You add heat and you also add condensation from bodys.No air flow to get rid of all the moisture from the poo and body moisture.Moisture and heat make what? Add poo and what else do you make? A petri dish filled with all kinds of bacteria and potential for diseases and upper respratory infections.

Get your coop dry..if you need to add the heat lamp.use a smaller bulb...than a smaller one..but keep the air flow going

 

[aoxa]

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!

Wow, Johnny looks fabulous!!

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.

Delisha, why don't you let her set? You can give her quite a few of the chicks you plan to hatch.

Did I mention silkies are broody perfect? 2 week old silkie chicks (mine anyway) go right under a willing hen and follow her around almost instantly. I gave day old red sex links to a couple hens, and it took them far too long to get used to a broody, and they were less than 2 days old!

I've even seen silkie chicks use bigger brood mates as a broody lol. They crawl right under them.

 

[aoxa]

It is very hard to read code..I am sorry.
FF stands for Fermented Feed
DL stands for Deep Litter
DH or DW stands for Darling husband and Darling wife
All the other aconims are for the birds breed.

Welcome to the thread!

Can BDM possibly edit the OP and show what these acronyms stand for?

It took me a while to get DH and DW. I like to guess them myself. I figured it out eventually

 

[aoxa]

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?

Ashdoes,

Don't feed them near the barn. They will have to leave.

 

[delisha]

I think Cochin and Bar Rock would make cute chicks. They might be better foragers. I think the Cochins are like my Orpingtons. They are great foragers, but, they do not go very far into the woods. I can always see them and that is OK with me. The rest of the group is invisable most of the day.

My RIR and Bar crosses do very well foraging. They have a lot of Cornish in the blood so they have a hard feed drive. As the weather gets better and better, cut back food,,,.If you are over feeding the desire for foraging in some breeds is non existant. They just hang out by the water cooler gossiping waiting till the head honcho drops off the next feed.

My eggs are still not here. I might give her some of the eggs. She is so young. She is a July hatch. Makes me a bit nervous.I might try a few. It is a good suggestion.