The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Quote: You are so wonderful! Thank you for making me feel better about my hard decision!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Just wanted to add how much disappointment it has been to have the OT’s (Al, Walt, Fred’s hens and Beekissed) disappear. They brought so much flair to BYC. The teaching methods they employed were so valuable, each in there own style. Sometimes had me laughing a good belly laugh, sometimes there were sad times and such a wealth of knowledge among them all! I gathered so much from all the things they shared and do hope they haven’t been permanently culled. Beekissed, I’ve since come to the conclusion, that her “kiss method”—keep it simple stupid really helped me to keep on the road to having chickens as I had all but decided to drop it after 2 ½ years, with the birds getting so ratty, loses to illness and then following her GB really opened my eyes and helped me to turn round my birds and help me to get back on the wagon. She taught me to look at my birds more critically and most of all she taught me what to look for to improve their health. My birds will be very grateful to her. She’d be downright impressed with the progress of my flocks, tho, I didn’t share a lot I was among those lurkers that just simply gleaned and learned all I could from her. She added more knowledge than chicken knowledge sometimes one had to read and read to find a useful nugget but then there it was. Her “porch” was a refreshing, hospitable and much needed approach to chickens. The knowledge she so willing shared was next to none, really knowledge that so many need on this forum. As I was noticing on her threads that got “frayed” she had changed her signature line: “Bee's preference in blog sites about chickens? Only those written and hosted by the true Bee, not those who would exploit the information”. This leads me to believe that she was having sort of problem leading up to her disappearance with how things were going. Hopefully after she has had time to evaluate how much she really contributed she will be back, along with her buddies(Al, Fred, Walt among others). I know old timers don’t like change, but this new thread has brought many of the GB along and so far seems to have picked up many new ones all interested in a natural way of keeping birds.

GB? The health of my birds really is paramount with me. I would like to learn how to look more critically at my birds and to recognize what issues they might have that I could do something about. Where might I find that information? I already do the ff and a few other things. Branching into sprouting and giving herbs. Hope I'm on the right track.

 

[seamsewnice]

Read the whole thread from start to finish "The road less travelled started by Beekissed. It's chalked full of all sorts of tidbits.

 

[delisha]

Thank you, delisha! I am trying everything for her. She is my best layer and we actually rescued her from being slaughtered. My husband's friend got her and some others from his Uncle's laying house that he was shutting down. So, we took her! And I have never regretted it! Her name is Digger (my youngest Son named her)lol! And she was my first chicken. We have had her about 8 months now and she is sooo funny! She will run around her area and it's is so funny! She "wobbles" from side to side when she does!

She is the white hen in the picture. She gets to be outside of the pen because my Roo likes to pick on her. But, I do let them out to socialize with each other when I'm outside doing things.

She look perfect! Nice weight! Good job! Keep her exactly that weight. You look like you free range her..wonderful! She will live much longer because of what you are doing.

 

[littlemissstang]

Yes, she free ranges. And so do my others most of the time. We try to let them free to roam as much as possible, which is most of the time! lol We have dogs, cats, and coyatoes running around, so we pen them up at night to keep everyone safe. We try to let them be as much of a "chicken" as we can! We like the natural ways also! Working on more "natual" ways and you are all helping us with all your wonderful information! I'm going to be making a compost pile closer to them so that they can have all the "good" scraps from the kitchen. Is there anything that you can not feed a chicken from your table? I have heard that citrus is something not to give them. And thank you for the kind words, delisha!

 

[Leahs Mom]

GB? The health of my birds really is paramount with me. I would like to learn how to look more critically at my birds and to recognize what issues they might have that I could do something about. Where might I find that information? I already do the ff and a few other things. Branching into sprouting and giving herbs. Hope I'm on the right track.

There is an easy, quick way to read through the whole gnarly bunch story (GB) without having to wade through all our socializing . It's here:

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/healing-gb.html

Hope that helps... then you can wade through all the rest on the "Road" thread!

 

[delisha]

Yes, she free ranges. And so do my others most of the time. We try to let them free to roam as much as possible, which is most of the time! lol We have dogs, cats, and coyatoes running around, so we pen them up at night to keep everyone safe. We try to let them be as much of a "chicken" as we can! We like the natural ways also! Working on more "natual" ways and you are all helping us with all your wonderful information! I'm going to be making a compost pile closer to them so that they can have all the "good" scraps from the kitchen. Is there anything that you can not feed a chicken from your table? I have heard that citrus is something not to give them. And thank you for the kind words, delisha!

Well..If you read all the stuff you are not suppost to feed them, they will starve. I feed them the same way my grandma did. After dinner, I scrap the plates and take it out with me on the bottom of my FF bucket. I have feed them every thing i have fed my family. Something they ate, somethings they did not. it all composted into the ground eventually. I never worried about it to be honest. I toss the citrus in the coop. It smells nice and the bugs hate it.

 

[delisha]

Yes, she free ranges. And so do my others most of the time. We try to let them free to roam as much as possible, which is most of the time! lol We have dogs, cats, and coyatoes running around, so we pen them up at night to keep everyone safe. We try to let them be as much of a "chicken" as we can! We like the natural ways also! Working on more "natual" ways and you are all helping us with all your wonderful information! I'm going to be making a compost pile closer to them so that they can have all the "good" scraps from the kitchen. Is there anything that you can not feed a chicken from your table? I have heard that citrus is something not to give them. And thank you for the kind words, delisha!

Quote:
Well the first thing you can do..is for you to take some pictures of your birds..and post them..we love pictures of birds..if you have issues with this bird or that bird..point it out..we have some pretty knowledgeable people in here that might be able to help ya out.

 

[delisha]

Hello seanssonice!

I am glad you loved Bee's advise. She sure is a wonderful person and we all hope she will return! She is sure missed! The other ole timers are around, they hang out at the heritage links. They sure give wonderful advise and are so much fun!

 

[NikkiMiChickie]

  lumber is pressure treated after it is planed.  As for sneezing etc..... could be a few things. A high concentration of saw dust in the shavings. That is bad especially for ducks. The lumber yard I speak of only does pine. But in my shop I add shavings from oak and birch often mixed in with the pine without issue. 

   As the yard what they mill or what they just milled. Whatever they just milled will be at the top of the pile. If they just planed cedar...move on. If they just milled pine buy some up!

Better late than never, but if you have a mill locally, give them a call before driving out. As the owner of a (now former) horse boarding facility, we used to own a dump truck just to go pick up sawdust Horses are sensitive to walnut and cherry, one only a problem w pregnant mares, and we avoided both. Our sawmill owner advised me to call ahead to see what they were cutting that day and to see whether they even had any dust to sell. At different times of the year and depending on sales, they are sometimes running low or out of dust completely. They have EPA guidelines to follow about how long they can keep that big pile o pine around thanks to some problematic insects and the fear of fire

[SIZE=14pt][COLOR=333333]Just wanted to add how much disappointment it has been to have the OT’s (Al, Walt, Fred’s hens and Beekissed) disappear.  They brought so much flair to BYC.  The teaching methods they employed were so valuable, each in there own style.  Sometimes had me laughing a good belly laugh, sometimes there were sad times and such a wealth of knowledge among them all!  I gathered so much from all the things they shared and do hope they haven’t been permanently culled.  Beekissed,  I’ve since come to the conclusion, that her “kiss method”—keep it simple stupid really helped me to keep on the road to having chickens as I had all but decided to  drop it after 2 ½  years, with the birds getting so ratty, loses to illness and then following her GB really opened my eyes and helped me to turn round my birds and help me to get back on the wagon.  She taught me to look at my birds more critically and most of all she taught me what to look for to improve their health.  My birds will be very grateful to her.  She’d be downright impressed with the progress of my flocks, tho, I didn’t share a lot I was among those lurkers that just simply gleaned and learned all I could from her.  She added more knowledge than chicken knowledge sometimes one had to read and read to find a useful nugget but then there it was.  Her “porch” was a refreshing, hospitable and much needed approach to chickens. The knowledge she so willing shared was next to none, really knowledge that so many need on this forum.  As I was noticing on her threads that got “frayed” she had changed her signature line:      “Bee's preference in blog sites about chickens? [/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=14pt][COLOR=333333]Only those written and hosted by the true Bee, not those who would exploit the information”.  This leads me to believe that she was having sort of problem leading up to her disappearance with how things were going.   Hopefully after she has had time to evaluate how much she really contributed she will be back, along with her buddies(Al, Fred, Walt among others).  I know old timers don’t like change, but this new thread has brought many of the GB along and so far seems to have picked up many new ones all interested in a natural way of keeping birds.   [/COLOR][/SIZE]

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