The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I agree. Not something I'd want in my flock either.

Meant to say how handsome Walter is! Wish I could have my own Walter.. lol

Thank you! I can't wait to see what his goslings look like

 

[delisha]

As a side note..i am immensely curious what that yolk looks like opened up..That girl has some internal issues going on. It looks like it has veins so what ever the growth is, that hen encapsulated it and it acted like an egg.

 

[arkansaschicks]

I thought it VERY strange,glad I'm not alone. She has always been a good layer and was laying great up until this weekend. I am going to see if she lays an egg in the next couple of days and what it looks like if she does.She is about 3 yrs old. Well I guess I will go open it up and get back with you.

 

[Bulldogma]

Look what the kiddos learned to do! (Must be watching mom.) 5.5 Weeks

They have their own canning jar waterer on the other side of the hen house and I never showed them that there was water in these cup waterers.
And...I DID find a way to keep these from freezing in the winter!

I'm going to do a blog post on winter use of the cup waterers when I get some time.

Those are some good looking chicks! Very cool! And looking forward to your waterer post!

 

[farmerfogg]

[COLOR=FF0000]WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO MARK A CHICKEN WITH SOMETHING I ALREADY HAVE LAYING AROUND? [/COLOR] Without bands, please...I don't have any.

The 2 BRs are pretty much twins and I can't consistently tell them apart.  One of them is seriously cranky and from as long as I can remember will just attack the others for no good reason at all...just because they exist.  I'd like to  mark her and really watch her for a few weeks but...

Right this minute she's looking like a nice bowl of soup to me.  Atilla Soup. 

Hate to lose the eggs, but I also hate watching her just stirring things up for no reason at all.  And now w/the babies, she's a possible threat.  We'll see... 

I have zip ties in multiple colors. I picked them up at the dollar tree to keep on hand. I received my flock from my friends brother. Two of my girls are white leghorn's, and they look identical, no distinguishing differences in their appearance. We named each of our birds and needed to know who each leghorn was. So we caught one of them, named her and I put a blue zip tie on her leg....making sure it could move up and down freely and would turn. That was my quick, easy and cheap solution.

 

[delisha]

I have zip ties and leg bands for identification when the NPIP lady comes. That is going to be a hoot. My chickens are not very friendly to many people.

 

[rowerjen]

Catching up - busy thread today.

Thank you Delisha & Mumsy- I will check out the website & I have no night shade plants & the rhodendrums (sp) are not near where their run will be.

I forgot who posted about the potatoes & tomatoes. I have heard that before. I know tomatoes are poisonous for dogs (the fruit to) and I figured that out after my puppy Lily decided she LOVES them....Needless to say there are higher fences around the garden. Thankfully the chickens didnt touch the stems of the tomatoes when they were allowed in the garden at the end of the year. More interested in all the creepy crawly bugs in the soil and the celery lol

Re the fruit being poisonous to dogs - mine would have been goners long ago. They get bits of tomato every day when they're in season and my tomato hound golden retriever made it to 15.5 years. Maybe if they ate a lot at once?

Have you guys watched the Super Bowl commercials? There are at least 3 about farming.

The Budweiser one made me tear up.

Glad I'm not the only one!

You'd be surprised at the positions they get themselves in....

My "not a golden" decided my chicks were her babies. Seeing them in this position used to make her frantic! I'd have to pull the chick out of the brooder for her inspection so she could verify that they were okay. See- even the dogs wonder sometimes.

Maybe paint her toenails....just a couple of them?

Chicken pedicure!

Kian, I am sorry to hear that.

This won't make you feel any better, but once, I decided I was going to build a tractor for my meat birds. I admired my handiwork, then when I moved the tractor to fresh grass.... I killed 4 birds that day that were too dumb to move with the tractor. Soon after I bought electric poultry netting. I have dogs and getting them trained, I have lost many.

I had 2 pigs this summer just waste away. I slept with 1 for about 2-3 hours trying to keep it warm... it passed by morning. The other one I shot with a .22..... 4 times....

I had a cat decided to sleep on my Suburban tire......

I wrote a long post in here about how I felt when I betrayed my girls headed to processing....

A friend lost 4 horses a month ago due to bad hay.....

In the end analysis, working with livestock, these things are going to happen.

Never lose the humanity in whatever it is you do.

A hug, a kiss and a prayer is sent to you via Loin message.

Lion - great message; Kian, so sorry. I've been very lucky with my dogs. One of them things the chicks are her babies. The other is just a big goober who doesn't realize how fragile they are. These things happen.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I use the colored leg bands, new color for each years chicks. So I have Black for first year, this year is getting green.

 

[arkansaschicks]

Ok when I flipped it over (1st pic) It had a big black colored blob. When I cut it open all the yolk went everywhere and the blob looks like a little fleshy something. My thought is a developing chick. I have never opened an egg before at 4- 5 days to see what it would look like. Could it have been a chick?

 

[Bulldogma]

kian - so sorry for your loss! It could happen to anyone.

We worked hard with our bulldog - she was known for jumping up and catching birds as they flew over her in her younger years. (Pretty impressive for a 70 lb. giant muscle.) Now she is to the point where she tries to nurse chicks if you give them to her - LOL. She frets when she hears them peeping.

Hang in there. It was an accident.