The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

Leah's Mom - PM me and let me know how you want your name to appear on your blog post? What a super write-up with the pictures and everything!!

I made this too. Leah's directions are very easy to follow and it's a cinch to make. ( Thanks Leah) I'm waiting to see what happens when the temp drops again. I have mine on a dog bowl heater.

I also have an automatic pvc feeder that I made. It holds enough feed for one week for 12 birds.

Great feeder, Gale!

Thank you Leahs Mom for giving me a heads up about this thread. I'm feeling more like getting back into the chatter.

My chicken coop was built in 1989 out of salvaged lumber and windows. I designed the dutch doors and the spider web rose trellis. It's not real pretty but even with some wear and tear after all these years, it still houses my little flock comfortably.

I'm no longer in the nursery buisness so the potted plants are long gone. I planted an old European rose shrub on the spider web trellis that covers that whole end of the barn. My hubby is an electrician and wired the inside and outside for me. I just now have a motion detector light outside the porch.
I don't have a lot of birds. Johnny and four girls and two Grey Silkies live out there. I free range them when the weather is decent.

I keep a heat lamp on for the Silkies when the temp dips and the weather is dirty. There are six pens set up double decked. Windows bring light in. I keep the twinkly lights on for me. I have a chair and table set up and I spend time with the chickens for my quiet solitude. Just because I want to.
Thanks for putting this thread together Bulldogma.

Mumsy - SO happy to see you here! Love your coop!

Subscribing

newbie, on page 4...LOL

Welcome!
Beautiful pictures, Maven! May I use that lovely RIR photo for the upcoming RIR blog post??

I'm a sixty year old OT and been raising chickens before many folks here on this forum were born. I learned about FF just a couple months ago and will never go back. I also like saving money on unwasted feed and my week old chicks are now eating it. Saving $ and healthy chickens is not a bad thing. This old girl was willing to learn a new way of raising chickens. My OT DH age 65 is a new believer because he is seeing the results. Up close and in the flesh. I got to say. He was a BIG skeptic until he started doing the math with the feed bill.

I'm saving bundles on feed... and my chickens love it. Our new Silkies aren't quite sold on it just yet, but I'm sure they will be soon.

 

[Maven]

Thank you Leahs Mom for giving me a heads up about this thread. I'm feeling more like getting back into the chatter.

My chicken coop was built in 1989 out of salvaged lumber and windows. I designed the dutch doors and the spider web rose trellis. It's not real pretty but even with some wear and tear after all these years, it still houses my little flock comfortably.



I'm no longer in the nursery buisness so the potted plants are long gone. I planted an old European rose shrub on the spider web trellis that covers that whole end of the barn. My hubby is an electrician and wired the inside and outside for me. I just now have a motion detector light outside the porch.
I don't have a lot of birds. Johnny and four girls and two Grey Silkies live out there. I free range them when the weather is decent.


I keep a heat lamp on for the Silkies when the temp dips and the weather is dirty. There are six pens set up double decked. Windows bring light in. I keep the twinkly lights on for me. I have a chair and table set up and I spend time with the chickens for my quiet solitude. Just because I want to.

Thanks for putting this thread together Bulldogma.

LOVE your coop and the lights, Mumsy! I'm no 'chicken diapering fool' - I treat my chickens like chickens - but I love a bit of whimsy in my coop.

It isn't for my chickens - it is for me. I also spend quite a bit of time in the coop, it is my 'happy place' in the rat race that life can be. And the Mr. and I are both retired - he goes to his shop, I go to my coop for that 'alone' time we both still need after working full time for so many years.

I'm a sixty year old OT and been raising chickens before many folks here on this forum were born. I learned about FF just a couple months ago and will never go back. I also like saving money on unwasted feed and my week old chicks are now eating it. Saving $ and healthy chickens is not a bad thing. This old girl was willing to learn a new way of raising chickens. My OT DH age 65 is a new believer because he is seeing the results. Up close and in the flesh. I got to say. He was a BIG skeptic until he started doing the math with the feed bill.

I'm 53, and I feel the same way - the money I am saving is ridiculous, and on a retired pension, every penny counts. I totally understand how many of the OTs couldn't/wouldn't do it - if you look at their operations, many of them were NOT simple backyard flocks. That makes a big difference too. And a lot of them had climate challenges as well. But I love the FF, and I love the money it saves. I'm retired, and the chickens are 'my thing' - what else have I got to do besides follow the Mr. around and nag him?

I'm an OT just not in the chicken world only a little over 3 yrs, but I have seen for myself how good ff for my flock, when some of my girls went through molt just recently they got their feathers back so much quicker than in the past. and I am deff not feeding as much since starting the ff and none scratched all over the yard either. It's only been since Oct that I have been feeding the ff looking forward to when laying season starts up to see how the girls lay when on it. right now i am only getting 5 eggs a day out of 14 hens.

 

[Maven]

Beautiful pictures, Maven! May I use that lovely RIR photo for the upcoming RIR blog post??

You are more than welcome to any pictures I ever post, you don't have to ever ask again

- but please do remember that she is a hatchery "RIR" and NOTHING like what a REAL RIR should look like according to the SOP.

But she is purdy, isn't she?

Gotta love that FF!

 

[delisha]

Does anyone care to share any homemade feeders or waterers?

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

I just can't imagine my chickens any healthier than they are.

I can't imagine the Sumatra eggs having bigger yolks than they do

. I can't imaging my wife....who puts up with a lot from my chickens put up with having 5 feed bins next to the woodstove

. I'm pretty happy spending $28 a week to feed all of these birds a week. And I just found a feed mill that when I'm in the area will save me another $4.50 a week.

If I had 75+ chooks to feed, and lived in as small a space as I do, I would have a hard time imagining making it, too (although, just as I say that, I envision the 13 gallon plastic garbage can in my laundry room I would use!!!). I never keep mine near a heat source. The bucket lives in a space just its size out in my unheated laundry room and I feed from it. The space to feed my 20 isn't extreme.
Still, I understand your reluctance. It is more work. No getting around it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If I had 75+ chooks to feed, and lived in as small a space as I do, I would have a hard time imagining making it, too (although, just as I say that, I envision the 13 gallon plastic garbage can in my laundry room I would use!!!). I never keep mine near a heat source. The bucket lives in a space just its size out in my unheated laundry room and I feed from it. The space to feed my 20 isn't extreme.
Still, I understand your reluctance. It is more work. No getting around it.

I keep mine in the hall way where it's cooler but still fermenting. I hope in the spring to do it in my feed room. But since I made the holes larger and it still isn't draining I will go to the one bucket method.

 

[stonykill]

If I had 75+ chooks to feed, and lived in as small a space as I do, I would have a hard time imagining making it, too (although, just as I say that, I envision the 13 gallon plastic garbage can in my laundry room I would use!!!). I never keep mine near a heat source. The bucket lives in a space just its size out in my unheated laundry room and I feed from it. The space to feed my 20 isn't extreme.
Still, I understand your reluctance. It is more work. No getting around it.

that is really the bottom line for me. I've seen the math done in dollar savings per year. Now adding time to my already usually busy day, ...... ehhh, not sure it's worth it. Now if my birds needed a boost, only had 20 birds , or suddenly days were 36 hours long with 24 hours of daylight I'd be all over it

Seriously though, I am thrilled it is working out so well for those of you that use it. Nothing like seeing happy healthy chickens, ducks and their keepers happy as well

 

[Maven]

If I had 75+ chooks to feed, and lived in as small a space as I do, I would have a hard time imagining making it, too (although, just as I say that, I envision the 13 gallon plastic garbage can in my laundry room I would use!!!). I never keep mine near a heat source. The bucket lives in a space just its size out in my unheated laundry room and I feed from it. The space to feed my 20 isn't extreme.
Still, I understand your reluctance. It is more work. No getting around it.

I have a flock of 30 right now and they free-range as well so really the FF I go through is minimal compared to some. I have an old mop bucket that I use - I'm a single bucket mixer. Half goes to the chooks each day, and then new feed gets mixed into the bottom half. It just keeps renewing itself from there. I've had my current bucket going since early August or so.

Eventually I plan to build a new coop with breeder and grow out pens and expand quite a bit - that is all in the future, but it will be done. I will probably do just as Kassandra does in the huge trash can set up then. It will be just like my mop bucket only bigger, much bigger.

She's had her same can going for ages with no problem. I think she was doing FF long before any of the OTs at all brought it up - she's good!

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Seriously though, I am thrilled it is working out so well for those of you that use it. Nothing like seeing happy healthy chickens, ducks and their keepers happy as well

This is just one of the things I appreciate so much about you, Stony. We don't have to do everything to same in order to share and learn.
Thank you for being here!

 

[delisha]

Got an update on my Partridge, delisha! It is good news so far! He said that she looked healthy to him except for the feathers that looked like something had been pecking at them. He said when she went into molt that these should look better?

I've not had one go into molt yet, so I'm not sure what to expect. He also took her into the backroom and did something with her. Something about "samples"? And said they would get back with me on the results in a couple of days. It was all free, so I was really surprised. He really wouldn't say too much else about her condition. Seemed kinda like he was not wanting to get my hopes up. Don't know. We'll see!

You made such a good decision to take her in. It is always best to know than guess.