The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[jlynnet]

Be sure to check at your local Menards, Lowes, hardware, TSC, or farm store for these.  Sometimes they're less expensive but even if not, you don't have to pay shipping, of course!

I've had trouble using the therma-cube. We've had 2 of them fail. When they work, they're great!

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote: This is real good info, I would like to add a method that has worked with my rooster. He has never attacked me, if he does it will be his last(zero tolerance). But if I find him showing aggressive behavior(wing flaps, neck flares, head lowering) I walk over and pick him up and carry him around until he lowers his head to a relaxed position. If he runs from me I will WALK after him until I catch him and pin him to the ground and hold him there until he stops struggling and continue to hold him there for a little longer. He has learned not to show any behaviors toward me now, he does not like being put in his place in front of the hens.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Good to know. I purchased one but I haven't had the opportunity to use it. My heated dog bowl and the bird bath heater both have their own built-in thermostats so I haven't needed to use it yet. If I ended up getting one of those heaters like Jeff is using I'd use it with that for sure. I guess I'd just have to monitor it in the beginning to be sure it's behaving.

 

[delisha]

I just use the old cheap metal circles with heat tape on the inside. I set my waters on top of it. The tape is secured and will not fall off. It does not get hot enough to start a fire if I did use it in the coop..but I don't use it inside. I feed and water outside. I do have an emergency back up in the coop if we ever get so much snow I can't shovel out the feed station.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I just use the old cheap metal circles with heat tape on the inside. I set my waters on top of it. The tape is secured and will not fall off. It does not get hot enough to start a fire if I did use it in the coop..but I don't use it inside. I feed and water outside. I do have an emergency back up in the coop if we ever get so much snow I can't shovel out the feed station.

Pictures, please.

I've never actually seen heat tape (guess I should google). Since I want to make these water cups work better in the winter I want to see all kinds of ideas!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I ended up using a traditional jar waterer for the babies setting on the heater I made from the dog bowl base and cookie tin lid. That way it was more accessible for the little ones. You can see it behind mom in this photo. It's keeping the water open at all times with no problem.

Here's a link to the post that shows how I made that heater base...made it that way so it was flat for the babies.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...keeping-thread-ots-welcome/1040#post_10111024

(In the post you see the small container cup-waterer I was using. I used that until hatch. I'll train the babies to the cups when they're bigger.

 

[stonykill]

nice pic Leahs

Thought I'd pass this tidbit along. On the former OT thread pretty much every time a bare back hen was brought up, OT's said cull the hen. Well I had 1 coop with 2 of 4 hens in there...both of the bareback hens were White Leghorns. I also had a off again...on again egg eating problem in this coop. So anyway .......

.......... Thanksgiving week I put their rooster in freezer camp, and put a larger rooster in his place. Egg eating stopped immediately and has not restarted. The hens are fully feathered now and have been for at least a month. Beautiful healthy feathers. The previous 6 months they hardly had any feathers. A simple rooster swap fixed the problem and my fantastic laying hens still are alive laying and not in the freezer.

. Simple point being just because you raised chickens for 20 to 40 years does not mean you are always right

. I suspected the rooster was the problem and in this case I was correct. Food for thought..............

 

[Leahs Mom]

 

[off-grid hen]

I had a hen with a bare patch for about 6 months. I repeatedly checked for lice and mites and find nothing. I never found anyone pecking at her. I tried blue kote (what a mess) and pick no more lotion from rooster booster. Nothing worked. Then I tried nustock. I applied it 3 times and the patch didn't seem to go away immediately. I thought I'd just leave it be to see if I could eventually see some other symptoms/cause. She was laying fine and had no other issues that i could see. But amount 2 weeks later, I saw some little pin feathers. She had started to grow the feathers back and then went into molt. The bare patch hasn't come back. I don't know if the nustock did it, but I don't know how fast you see pins after application. I only have 2 roosters. It could be that the other 12 pullets came into lay and she wasn't mounted as much by the roosters, but I am not so sure about that. The other favorites of the boys (more actively mated than her) never had that issue. It's one of those little mysteries, guess.

I have a question about sphagnum peat moss. Have any of you used it in your dust bath areas? Everything here has been covered in snow for 2 weeks. I only had a shovel full of wood ashes from the outdoor boiler (it's really effeicient!). I mixed it with about 1/3 of a brick of the peat moss I had in the garden shed. The girls loved it, so I'm sure it's fine, just checking bc I've ever used it before.

Happy new year everyone! Also-I see another off-gridder here now. Welcome!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I am using peat moss in a dust bin mixed w/some sand, regular dirt, and ashes.

Whenever I put it in the box back in the summer, the kiddos just went nuts over it and loved it. But I quit using it after awhile because I read something cautioning using it for several reasons. I was disappointed because I saw how much they loved that stuff.

Then Mumsy brought it up again here not too long ago and I decided to start using it again. Again..those kiddos LOVE that stuff.

I had originally read about using it in Harvy Ussery's book and here is a post about his dust box. If you look down toward the end of the post you'll see he uses the peat moss: http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Dustbox.html

I have a question about sphagnum peat moss. Have any of you used it in your dust bath areas? Everything here has been covered in snow for 2 weeks. I only had a shovel full of wood ashes from the outdoor boiler (it's really effeicient!). I mixed it with about 1/3 of a brick of the peat moss I had in the garden shed. The girls loved it, so I'm sure it's fine, just checking bc I've ever used it before.