The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mumsy]

End of day 21 and not a peep or a pip. Bummer. Everything the same. 65% humidity, 100 degrees probe, 101 degrees air temp. Same old same old. *blet*
This is the first time in over 24 years I never had chicks from the process on day 21. The thing is, I honestly can say I wouldn't do anything different. The method for the incubator is sound. The results from the first eighteen days gave me 10 beautiful embryos. At lock down they were spot on. Day 20 something went haywire. I can only assume a surge and spike of some kind. It may have happened more than once. I'll never know.
I will let them keep going for another day or so unless it starts to smell. I have never had a chick hatch past day 22 that lived. Kind of hope I can clean this all up soon and chalk it up to history.

Haven't read all the posts today. Did see about del getting a Silkie and the other babies hatched today. Yay!

My new Genesis 1588 will arrive in a week or so. Time to look forward to something fun. Today was a dud.

 

[lalaland]

Mumsy, that is an absolute drag. I am so sorry, glad you get to have the new incubator.

 

[ocap]

So, went to the upscale feed store an hour south of me which practically has a chicken designer boutique! oh my - the things I saw! came home with a flock block (23 pounds and every single employee there offered to carry it out to my car, lol, and if i cared to buy their feed, I'm sure they would have fainted if I picked up the sacks). they were out of something called rooster booster no pick lotion - which has aloe in it, and cayenne (which shouldn't make them stop picking) and juniper oil. hmmm juniper oil - how different could that be from pine oil/pine tar? So I might try some pine tar as a deterrent.

Not sure how thick and tarry it will be - i know my local hardware store has it, so I will go into town and grab some in the am.

from trimming "juniper" bushes, I think the wood is more like cedar than pine, do not know about the sap/oil, definitely a different type of needle.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yay Delisha!!

My DH is out in the 37° garage building me a Terrier proof brooding box so we can get more chicks tomorrow!

Your hubby is the best too!!!

featherpicking

I just read something about featherpicking that I've never heard before. Thought I'd throw it out here for your consideration. I've never heard anyone mention this before.

The writer said that if there is not a good place to dust bathe that chickens will pick feathers to try to make suitable material to dust bathe in. Even if there's deep litter.

So...the question I have is

- Do you provide a dust bin indoors or covered that is always available (especially now that it's winter)
-If not, you may want to try it and see if it changes anything...then let us know!!!

 

[pigeonguy]

big problem: I just came back from the coop - hens were on the roost and I noticed that there has been some serious feather picking going on. History is that there were 6 hens (2 black orps and 4 wellsumers rescued from a guy's bedroom where they lived for their first year of life. The wellies had been badly feather picked on their backs and wings by one or more of the orps. I introduced them to, outside, well, life!

Molting went well, they have been looking gorgeous, and now today looking by flashlight, suddenly pathetic. There are two astrolorps that I believe are the culprits. Not entirely sure, but their feathers are perfect, and 3 of the 4 welsummers are showing signs of feather picking on their back, plus two very small ee mixed hens are also badly picked.

I'm sure there is adequate protein in their diet. Today, i left home in the dark and it doesn't look like they came out of the coop on their own. THe coop is too small to allow 13 hens lots of space - I"ve added all the layers of space and roosts to maximize room to get away, and opened up another area. to add more space.

I can't right now in the dead of winter add more space.

I don't want to cull the probable culprits - could be just one of them

ideas?

It is not just about protein but also what kind of protein. Chickens that feather pick in some cases are looking for a meat protein. No this is not always the case. So a try to stop method could be mixing in some meat protein by mixing a can of cheap cat or dog food thoroughly with there food. Every day once ain't gonna cut it. Make sure it is on every speck of food so that every chicken has to get some because chickens raised in a room or a run don't know what they need or how much of it. They only know what has been given to them.
On the cat and dog food read the can and make sure it has meat products or meat by-products in it some does not.

 

[Leahs Mom]

It is not just about protein but also what kind of protein. Chickens that feather pick in some cases are looking for a meat protein. No this is not always the case. So a try to stop method could be mixing in some meat protein by mixing a can of cheap cat or dog food thoroughly with there food. Every day once ain't gonna cut it. Make sure it is on every speck of food so that every chicken has to get some because chickens raised in a room or a run don't know what they need or how much of it. They only know what has been given to them.
On the cat and dog food read the can and make sure it has meat products or meat by-products in it some does not.

Thanks PG... great advice. Another way to get that protein is to just get some ground beef or venison (or whatever meat you have access to). Then you know it's all meat.

 

[delisha]

Good morning..
Mumsy..I am in the same boat..last night my bator spiked to over 80% humidity and 104. I have no idea why. I autopsied the Silkies this morning. Most would have died and would not of had a chance before the spike. The development of these eggs is really unusual. I assume my incubator did not hold temperature through the whole incubation period. Some of the embryos look to be the size of a 10 day old yet they are fully developed. Very immature.

These pictures are graphic



The top embryo on the right had piped and drowned. The rest also drowned. There was so much liquid in each egg. Even with the chick that hatched it still had clear liquid on the bottom of the egg. I dry hatched with out any water until day 18. I should have waited till they interior piped. My indoor humidity was way to high for Silkies. I will need to figure out a different way to.hatch more silkies. Perhaps a broody this spring. I am pretty sick about this whole experience. I am sure the rest of my eggs are kaput with all of the moisture after the Silkie hatched out.

 

[lalaland]

I just read something about featherpicking that I've never heard before. Thought I'd throw it out here for your consideration. I've never heard anyone mention this before.

The writer said that if there is not a good place to dust bathe that chickens will pick feathers to try to make suitable material to dust bathe in. Even if there's deep litter.

So...the question I have is

- Do you provide a dust bin indoors or covered that is always available (especially now that it's winter)
-If not, you may want to try it and see if it changes anything...then let us know!!!

that is an interesting idea - not thinking that is at play here for a couple of reasons:
1. yes, I do dl, and right now there are already a fair amount of feathers in it from molting
2. under the coop (think construction trailer, it is a good 3 feet off the ground) there is plenty of dustbathing spots. now, since I've been adding more leaves and hay and excess dl, I am not seeing as much bathing, but still there are two good dust bowls going.

and best yet
3. spent some time this morning clearing out space in the adjoining storage room to give them more space during bad weather, like the blizzard coming tomorrow, and had the chance to watch the hens. One of the little runty mixes who is white and gold and the only light colored hen, who has feather loss first from the owl attack but now from picking, was being harassed inside the coop by an ee, who I did not suspect! the ee took a feather off her back and promptly ate it. never mind that there are feathers all over already from the white mixed girl.

glad I didn't cull as I would never have culled the ee.

thanks for sharing the info, it is amazing what I learn.

 

[lalaland]

pigeon guy, that is a great idea. I didn't think of the meat protein - an right now I am feeding a mash that doesn't have animal protein in it. I'll start that right today. It sounds "right" to me.
will let you all know. In fact now that the egg machine switch got flipped back on, I have plenty of eggs and my egg customers aren't started back up yet, so I will scramble them some. I will also look for meat - been trying to stay awy from the feeds with the crap from the slaguhterhouses.

Trav, I will try the nustock because I do have that on hand and don't have the pine tar.

Leahsmom, the hamburger sounds like an easy method to try - thanks

and delish, thank you for sharing the pics. I am sorry you have had such a hard time with this hatch. It is downheartening, especially if such pros as you and mumsy run into these problems.

Another thing I discovered this morning is I have a broody black orp. her first time, and she is being pretty stubborn too. I can get eggs, (I don't have a rooster now) but I'm not wanting to deal with anything else right now.

thanks everyone, I love this thread!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Some Help Needed!

Went out to the hen house this morning and saw this on the landing roost in front of the nest boxes:





Looks like blood drops to me. There was also a little evidence on one end of the regular roost.

Now...because this looks like DROPS rather than something coming from the bottom of a foot, I thought there may be bleeding from the vent area. (Or at least bleeding from an area up higher than the feet where it could drop from.)

My husband and I went out and examined every chicken - even the 6 wk old chicks because they walk around on that roost all the time.

-All vents looked good.

-No evidence of lice or mites.

-1 RIR - the one that is laying eggs almost every day had some stuff that I assumed was pooh in the feathers below the vent but didn't seem abnormal. (Due to the dark red color of the feathers it's hard to see if there was blood there but the skin around it didn't show any stain.) I need to look at that again to see if it looks like dried blood but I don't think it was and there is no staining at all on her eggs. They're always squeeky clean. Not even a poop stain.


Looked at feet and legs. All good EXCEPT - one of the BRs. Here's what I found there:


Left Foot:
Bumblefoot? Swolen around the center.


Right Foot:
Very swollen/puffy. No dark spot in center.
This right leg looked like it had a little red mark part way up the leg. Didn't look serious but possibly where the blood drops came from (?)



Now...the Natural Chicken Keeping recommendation to deal w/ bumble foot is to soak in epsom salts, put on some NuStock for several days to see if it improves before doing anything more drastic.

BUT...IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!
If I bring her in to soak the feet, how will that affect her when I put her back outside in cold weather? Would y'all advise coming and going from those extreme indoor to outdoor temps?



OH...One more photo of my husband holding chickens so I can examine. Behold the Best Man in the World:






Still not sure I found the source of the blood drops.