The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[atmaclean]

my Maremma x Great Pyr is almost 12 months old. She is doing SO well right now. Coming when we call, sticking around, being around the birds without touching a feather on their bottom. She has one polish sleeping with her at night (he was being picked on whereever I put him - so he's going to be a dog chicken until breeding pens are worked out).

She is amazing. I see more Maremma in her than Pyr. She's a doll.. She was terrible until we had help from a trainer. There is just some behaviour I am not equipped to handle!

Same here! I had a Pyr in the past and loved her dearly, but I will have to say that our maremma is definitely more pro-active about watching the property We lost one rooster to Banjo trying to "play" with them (my fault for trusting him too soon), but now he clearly knows his job with them and is never rough around them. It took the chickens a LONG time to trust him after seeing him murder one of their flock

. Now they really don't pay any attention to him. He does not stay right near the coup as he also feels like he needs to guard our horses, the barn and the neighbor's house! The chickens are kind of protected by default, I guess. Our aussie stays at the house at night and keeps skunks and racoons away. Poor thing has been sprayed 3 times in the past 10 days, poor thing. We've set traps for the skunk but have just caught our own cats so far!
Angela

 

[armorfirelady]

BDM thanks for catching my name error....I am bad with names even when they are written down

I dont know if anyone saw this story on the home page of BYC but I wanted to share it. Seems like a great idea for those who have extra eggs to sell

http://www.LocalHens.com

 

[Arkansas81]

Ok, so after reading the post of not feeding layer to everyone in the flock if you have roosters in with the girls, which I ddnt know the roosters shouldnt have layer. So I should switch them back to grower and offer oyster freely? Will the roosters stay out of the oyster? My roos are such lil piggies. Yikes I hope they have no illness issues from eating layer,they are almost a year old, so its been about 4-5 months that they have been on it.

 

[stonykill]

Ok, so after reading the post of not feeding layer to everyone in the flock if you have roosters in with the girls, which I ddnt know the roosters shouldnt have layer. So I should switch them back to grower and offer oyster freely? Will the roosters stay out of the oyster? My roos are such lil piggies. Yikes I hope they have no illness issues from eating layer,they are almost a year old, so its been about 4-5 months that they have been on it.

I have 5 year old roosters who eat layer daily, every single day of their adult lives. They also dabble in eating egg shells with the girls. I'll have to look later for the post referenced and read it. Intrigued now.....

 

[aoxa]

Hey guys....

Can you have two roosters get along with 15-20 hens...could they all coexist while free ranging, but going into different coops at night?

I'd say 2 roosters could coexist fine with that many hens sleeping in the same coop as well. Especially if they grew up together.

 

[delisha]

Hey guys....

Can you have two roosters get along with 15-20 hens...could they all coexist while free ranging, but going into different coops at night?

Many have several cockerels/rooster together

I have an imported english cockerel and a silver pencel rock cock. They get along pretty good as long as they respect each others girls. I see more fighting between the egg layers and the english more than anything. They do not like him yet, he is to young and they are teaching manners.

 

[Bulldogma]

Hey guys....

Can you have two roosters get along with 15-20 hens...could they all coexist while free ranging, but going into different coops at night?

One of my friends keeps 4 - 5 roosters (Dorkings, Wyandotte, Cochin) all in the same coop with hens and then free ranges them all day. They seem to do OK but it also depends on the roosters, breeds and how many hens there are. Sounds like you have a pretty good rooster/hen ratio.

Let's see what others (with more experience) have to say on this - (<--- LOL - Aoxa and Delisha must have been writing at the same time I was. Listne to their advice.

 

[delisha]

Quote: Feed what you like to feed..just some birds do not tollerate the additional calcium well. I think it also has to do with climate, soils, and if you free range. Everyone is different, every environment is different. I do not feed layer with my flock that houses a cockerel. I have feed layer to hens who just lay. I have never fed layer to young birds. It can and does cause long term issues in some birds. You need to decide what is right for you and what works for you.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Aoxa - is yours the 1588? And do you have the circulating air fan?

Quote:

Better not take that hat off!!! It's too cold

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa - is yours the 1588? And do you have the circulating air fan?

Yes I have a 1588, and use it for hatching. I have a Sportsman Cabinet Incubator for the first 18 days. I will continuously use this to meet orders this spring. Already have close to 100 chicks ordered.

I didn't know you could get them without the fan, but yes it does have the fan. Has the turner too.