The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Peeps -
Congrats on your first chicken (Silkie) egg! And as far as chicken-related - you always have great stuff to contribute, so I don't think it would matter to any of us if you talked about guineas, chickens or emus - LOL. Your experience and willingness to share your knowledge make you a very valuable part of this thread!

x2 Invaluable!

Congrats Peeps! First chicken eggs are exciting!!

Natural means no hormones or antibiotics It can be labeled organic and still be genetically modified. Most all of our wheat, corn and soy are all GMO. You want no pesticide, no antibiotic, no GMO feed. It's very expensive and best to grow your own if you are able. Most wheat, corn and soy are GMO unless they are of the 100 year old varieties.This is the reason everyone is buying and storing Heirloom seeds. Plain and simple, it's a fight to live like a poor farmer use to live.

There are legal ways for company's to get all around all sorts of labels.

For those of you who want lower humidity in your 1588s during incubation an easy way to lower it and keep it lowered is to cover part or half of the center trough with some kind of clear tape... it's the surface area of water exposed to the (circulated) air that creates/maintains humidity, not the depth or quantity.

Great info!

Quote: Thank you Delisha. Is that one egg just once, or an egg a day? I never buy liver, so it's not something that's just around, but I'll think about getting some specifically for the ducks. If I feed flock raiser to everyone, will the ducks still need that extra Niacin when they're grown? Lots of questions I know, but this is the only thing I've had trouble finding the answers for, although I see all kinds of stories about deformed duck feet and that the cause is the Niacin defficancy.
How many ducks? Are you going to let them free range? Will they have access to water ..like a pond or a pool?..I dump a bucket of minnows in the pool for the ducks one a month..takes care of every thing...even my entertainment.

 

[aoxa]

Would fermented feed cause my Easter Egger's feathers to fall out? Or could they be moulting at 22 weeks?

I noticed 2 days ago that their beards looked sparce, and then today it looks like their necks are bare! The only thing that seems to be missing is their fluffy beards?

Do you think that the other pullets could be picking their fermented feed beards out when they are in the coop at night?

So weird!

It happened a lot with my Ameraucans. They love picked. I was the only one at the show who had beardless Ameraucanas... I had already paid the entrance fee - and I was taking them lol.

They do it more often if confined.

 

[aoxa]

I'm going to be having the brown (read ugly brown) pole building re-painted in the next couple seasons. I wonder if I could do it in barn red and change out the doors to make it look more "barn-like". Add a cupola on top and maybe even an addition like the one at the side (right) to use for animals....

Hmmmm all this has me thinking. Are you able to ethically send me a scan of the final floor plan that shows elevations on this? I'd like to have someone take a look and see what an addition would cost. Then I could move the kiddos in there and use the current hen house for brooding, or whatnot.

Will do He's drawing it all up now and said he should have a better idea at cost and materials by Wednesday.

 

[countrygirl74]

I had an awwww moment today. One of my Silkie pullets laid her first egg. Tiny little oval shaped egg with a blood streak on it. The egg next to it is a Guinea egg, which are really small compared to some of the monsters everyone's layer girls are laying. My oldest Hens are a week over 6 months old. One of them had been making weird quiet high pitched drawn out repetitive clucking noises for the past couple weeks, now I know why.


My Silkie girls are separated from the boys right now tho, so the egg is not fertile. I was not sure who laid it, so I checked the pelvic bones on all of my Hens, (per info on this thread, Thanks Delisha) and it appears to be out of my White non-bearded Silkie Hen (since she's not bearded and has huge wattles I don't have any plans to breed her... but I kept her for the cute, fluff and broody factors). Silkies are my first chickens... I've been raising/breeding/hatching Guineas for years, but chickens and their egg laying habits and noises are all new to me.


Just thought I'd finally share something chicken related on this thread, lol.

Congrats! How old is your silkie? I have a white silkie hen and a whole bunch of other breeds that are all 18 weeks old now and I'm getting anxious for my first egg!!! One of my BR's is really red right now, so hopefully close??

Thanks Delisha for the info on the liver!!

 

[aoxa]

Congrats! How old is your silkie? I have a white silkie hen and a whole bunch of other breeds that are all 18 weeks old now and I'm getting anxious for my first egg!!! One of my BR's is really red right now, so hopefully close??

Thanks Delisha for the info on the liver!!

I would not hold out on that silkie laying for another 3-4 months

Peeps got really lucky! Most silkies lay between 7-10 months. Usually on the later spectrum... Never had one lay before 8 months.

 

[armorfirelady]

..I dump a bucket of minnows in the pool for the ducks one a month..takes care of every thing...even my entertainment.

I could just imagine the entertainment factor....if it was me I would have a chair in the shade & an ice cold drink and sit back and watch .....probably with a lot of laughs. Def sounds like a great stress reliever

 

[Ashdoes]

Delisha~
We'll have ten ducklings to start, I'm hoping to keep them all, but we're going to see how well we do with that number. They will be free ranged with the chickens, and only in the run if we're gone for extended periods. Hubby is looking into what we need for a pond, minnows sound like the way to go to make sure they have all they need nutrient wise.
having trouble quoting while using the mobile version of the site...trying to figure out how to not have every quote stacked in one reply. And the reply window is so tiny!
Anyways, thank you Delisha for answering all my questions.

 

[Mumsy]

Peeps, you are one of my fave posters. Your contribution to this thread is greatly appreciated by me.

Del, the liver tip is a great one. Thank you.

BDM, your trailer coop looks awesome! I couldn't believe that was the same one after you painted it.

Aoxa, the barn plans are drool worthy and though I only have one dutch door, it is my favorite feature of my old shabby barn. I leave the top half open lots of times just to hang over it and check out everybody inside without going in.

I don't have dogs any longer and didn't have anything to add to all that.

My 50 pounds of all purpose crumble ran out and I'm finally going to purchase a bag of GMO corn and soy free for the first time. Not going back to the other again.

My bantam RIR pullets like to sleep in a pile with my four Silkie chicks. I watched the former grooming the Silkies beards and muffs while they were in the pile and figured out finally why the Silkies were losing feathers there. They were pulling off the dried FF on the beards and muffs. I seperated them and now that has ended.

I love all the chick pictures everyone posts. I don't comment on all of them, but sure do enjoy looking at them all.

We had a huge wind storm here today. A large fir branch blew on top of the new hoop coop. The netted run was destroyed! The Hoop coop part made with hog panels held up great with no damage. No turkeys yet so no birds were in the run at risk. The husband will have to tear the run down and rebuild it. *gah!*

I will be gone for the weekend on a romantic getaway with my DH. Going to pick up my Catdance eggs and a White Silkie pair tomorrow that Karen has picked out and paired for me. She bathed them today! I'm so excited, I can hardly think straight! She gave me choices of cockerels and pullets from her show quality breeder pen. I chose a ten month old cockerel and a five month old pullet that will compliment him. I trust her judgement. Faced with choosing two birds out of a large flock and keeping birds straight in my head would be impossible. Picking up my chosen pair is like a blind date! I'll post pictures of my darlings as soon as possible upon returning.

 

[aoxa]

Peeps, you are one of my fave posters. Your contribution to this thread is greatly appreciated by me.

Del, the liver tip is a great one. Thank you.

BDM, your trailer coop looks awesome! I couldn't believe that was the same one after you painted it.

Aoxa, the barn plans are drool worthy and though I only have one dutch door, it is my favorite feature of my old shabby barn. I leave the top half open lots of times just to hang over it and check out everybody inside without going in.

I don't have dogs any longer and didn't have anything to add to all that.

My 50 pounds of all purpose crumble ran out and I'm finally going to purchase a bag of GMO corn and soy free for the first time. Not going back to the other again.

My bantam RIR pullets like to sleep in a pile with my four Silkie chicks. I watched the former grooming the Silkies beards and muffs while they were in the pile and figured out finally why the Silkies were losing feathers there. They were pulling off the dried FF on the beards and muffs. I seperated them and now that has ended.

I love all the chick pictures everyone posts. I don't comment on all of them, but sure do enjoy looking at them all.

We had a huge wind storm here today. A large fir branch blew on top of the new hoop coop. The netted run was destroyed! The Hoop coop part made with hog panels held up great with no damage. No turkeys yet so no birds were in the run at risk. The husband will have to tear the run down and rebuild it. *gah!*

I will be gone for the weekend on a romantic getaway with my DH. Going to pick up my Catdance eggs and a White Silkie pair tomorrow that Karen has picked out and paired for me. She bathed them today! I'm so excited, I can hardly think straight! She gave me choices of cockerels and pullets from her show quality breeder pen. I chose a ten month old cockerel and a five month old pullet that will compliment him. I trust her judgement. Faced with choosing two birds out of a large flock and keeping birds straight in my head would be impossible. Picking up my chosen pair is like a blind date! I'll post pictures of my darlings as soon as possible upon returning.

I'm excited for you!! Take pictures at her place as well if you can remember through all that excitement!!

Have fun!

 

[LoooAnnn]

Hi! I'm new here, new to all of this. We strive to live "natural" and I might be what you call 'crunchy' so I am glad to have found this thread! We have our first three chicks and they are about a month old now. I have always wanted to have chickens (well I would love a whole farm but we live in the city and my husband is NOT a country boy). We bought them for their eggs, being that REAL organic eggs are expensive and as a family of 5 who doesn't eat much meat we DO go through a lot of eggs. we also made the design though, with the idea of them as pets. I bought a small backyard coop from someone on CL and they delivered it today so now I have a bunch more questions! I'm interested in using the deep litter method and wondering if I can do this/need a litter method at all, in our small coop? I do plan to let our girls run free range in our fenced back yard most of the time and the enclosed area in this coop is very small and has a 'litter pan'. I was assuming I would just empty that and add it to our compost but it seems there are a lot of benefits to the DLM. This is a picture of our coop (used by the previous owners). We live in a very wet climate. Anything anyone could share with me regarding keeping our coop "naturally" I would appreciate.

My second question is OT. I REALLY would love to have a couple of silkies at some point but I've been told I would have to keep them separated from our current girls because of how much smaller they are and that they would get picked on. Is this true? If it is can I have a separate coop for them and let them out in the yard for the majority of the time, or would they still not get along?

Thanks in advance