The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

LM: Good work! My hen is doing much better. I peeled back some of her dried scab and it;s all fresh skin underneath. She looks awesome. The one foot that was hurting her, I did a bit of work on it at the beginning of the week, and she has improved so much. She is getting lonely. I need to get her back outside! I'm a little worried about acclimation now though. Since she's been in the basement since I started treating her. She still can't walk 100%, one foot is a little sore. She had a really bad case of this though. Not anything mild.

I finished 4 breeding pens. Just need to make the doors for the other four and I am done! :D The Houdans are separated.

Great update on your hen's feet. Be sure to take pictures when you can so perhaps her road to recovery and what you did can be documented for others to reference.
Good for you on the breeding pens! Looking forward to pictures of those, too!

The one Silkie was smaller than the tip on my baby finger..very strange

I checked all the rest of my egg and most are toast, however I have some internal pips that still might make it. I will know by tomorrow. I am sure it is the combination of the incubator and the condition of the eggs/hen/time of year. I was hoping to show Silkies this year, but there is next year for silkies too. I have not order the incubator yet. I need a turner and the one Mumsy ordered does not have one...The DH said for me to save my money and just buy a professional one at the end of the year...not sure what I am going to do.

Thank you all for the empathy and sympathy for this disheartening hatch. It is a first for me in many thing. First fail in a hatch, first Silkies, first bantams. I have no idea why they were so tiny. I have never run across that before. At least it lets me know why I seen so much liquid in the eggs. Those eggs were 3/4 liquid. Those chicks were fully formed. Simply weird. I do not think I could have done anything to change the outcome. But I am not certain.
More hugs!

hugs.gif


If I lived closer, I'd come over and bring chocolate!
 
Cleaned out the deep litter today or my DH cleaned out the litter and I dumped the wheel barrel. In the coop it did not look like a lot but wow there was a lot. It had only been 5 months but the coop was getting full. My next coop will be built with lots of room for litter. My current one is kind of on the short side.
While we were out there each of the 3 roosters mated at least twice. So I know we have females, but we still are not getting eggs. Is it normal for the roosters to start mating with the females before they start laying or should I be looking for missing eggs? I have checked the run and the coop over and over for hidden eggs, that was a secondary reason for emptying the litter tonight. So far not a single egg.
 
LM: Good work! My hen is doing much better. I peeled back some of her dried scab and it;s all fresh skin underneath. She looks awesome. The one foot that was hurting her, I did a bit of work on it at the beginning of the week, and she has improved so much. She is getting lonely. I need to get her back outside! I'm a little worried about acclimation now though. Since she's been in the basement since I started treating her. She still can't walk 100%, one foot is a little sore. She had a really bad case of this though. Not anything mild.
Could you refresh my memory...I know you lanced the feet, but what did you put on them as far as healing medication?

I'm planning on removing the vetwrap daily at this point and putting on more NuStock on a daily basis. But if the NuStock doesn't work to draw out infection and/or shrink the swelling I'm wondering what I should try next. Hoping NOT to have to lance but will if totally necessary.



And someone asked if my girl was having problems walking. I didn't notice her having problems walking but I DID notice this:

For the last couple weeks she would stay in when the others went out. Didn't even come out for meat when they usually all go totally nuts when I bring meat out. I would give her some by herself so she got some. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn't acting herself and mentioned to husband that I thought I might have a "sick chicken" about 2 weeks ago. HOWEVER... I didn't examine her because immediately I noticed that she and her twin were having a pretty heavy molt and just assumed it was that. I wouldn't have found the feet for awhile except I saw that blood on the roost and examined every one of them this morning.

I was really glad to see HEALTHY VENTS and NO SIGNS OF LICE OR MITES at all.
 
There was a discussion earlier today about feather picking. I once had an issue in an over-crowded brooder box of pullets with a couple of feather pecking girls. A friend suggested using Vicks on them and the problem totally stopped immediately.
 
Cleaned out the deep litter today or my DH cleaned out the litter and I dumped the wheel barrel. In the coop it did not look like a lot but wow there was a lot. It had only been 5 months but the coop was getting full. My next coop will be built with lots of room for litter. My current one is kind of on the short side.
While we were out there each of the 3 roosters mated at least twice. So I know we have females, but we still are not getting eggs. Is it normal for the roosters to start mating with the females before they start laying or should I be looking for missing eggs? I have checked the run and the coop over and over for hidden eggs, that was a secondary reason for emptying the litter tonight. So far not a single egg.
How old?
Are they coming out of molt?
A rooster will mate with an old hen who has not layed for years. A cockerel will mate with a cat or a shoe
 
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Could you refresh my memory...I know you lanced the feet, but what did you put on them as far as healing medication?

I'm planning on removing the vetwrap daily at this point and putting on more NuStock on a daily basis. But if the NuStock doesn't work to draw out infection and/or shrink the swelling I'm wondering what I should try next. Hoping NOT to have to lance but will if totally necessary.



And someone asked if my girl was having problems walking. I didn't notice her having problems walking but I DID notice this:

For the last couple weeks she would stay in when the others went out. Didn't even come out for meat when they usually all go totally nuts when I bring meat out. I would give her some by herself so she got some. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn't acting herself and mentioned to husband that I thought I might have a "sick chicken" about 2 weeks ago. HOWEVER... I didn't examine her because immediately I noticed that she and her twin were having a pretty heavy molt and just assumed it was that. I wouldn't have found the feet for awhile except I saw that blood on the roost and examined every one of them this morning.

I was really glad to see HEALTHY VENTS and NO SIGNS OF LICE OR MITES at all.
I don't have nustock. I used Coconut Oil :)

Working GREAT! My fiance has started using it for her night time face routine. It has so many great effects on skin.

I will be taking some after photos tomorrow when I change her bandaids.
male, female, female, female
Total guess
That would have been my guess as well.
 

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