The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[pigeonguy]

Pigeonguy, the ear recipe you gave for my dogs ear is working. 2 treatments and has a 20-30% improvement. He still has old age hearing loss, but now when he is awake, he can hear me.

That is great glad to hear it.

An average horse produces beween 40-60lbs of manure a day. In winter when grass isn't available any more, you tend to feed a bit more hay, subsequently, a bit more poo!

I have 4

Skeptical, my 15 year old Thoroughbred.

Rosie, my daughter's pony

Molly, a 5 year old Haflinger

Levi, DH's SpottedSaddle/Tennessee walking horse.

Soooooooooo pretty

 

[pigeonguy]

back to the forco I mentioned before -- similar effect - pre-biotic -- there are those feeding this to dogs, cats, & labelled for horses -- I think we all can use improvement in digestion --

and I don't put ACV in water - I do mix a paste with some feed & glop it onto a dish - they slurp it up - so it doesn't HAVE to be in the water... Just ingested.

That just makes sense doesn't it. I wonder how many more of us there are that make sure the chickens actually utilize there UP/ACV

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yes.... They're both Hens...get eggs from both of them! When they were little I thought Big Red would turn out to be a he...but no.

Quote:

 

[lalaland]

What would you use for the base?

pie plates, or glass quiche pans - even glazed ceramic saucers from the thrift store. (I know, I know, lead).

 

[lalaland]

Grateful everyone took kind of a break last night as i woke up to ONLY 38 posts.

Having a january thaw, it rained all night and it is icier than heck . Am about to skate my way to the coop - not sure I I should let them out or not - to start with, being the coop is an old construction trailer, the ramp down to the ground is gonna be a bit scary. Guess they will fly if they need to, and all those feathers will cushion.

loving the pics and the WW3 tale.

 

[pcappy2]

To order a few day old baby chicks or not??? that is the question. Good Grief, you wouldn't think it would be such a decision!!
My coop is 10x10 with attached run,,,I have 6 now and not sure I should put more in there???? What do you guys think?

 

[stonykill]

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Or...Why did the chickens cross through the gate?


Okay....I opened the door between the 2 sides this afternoon to see what would happen when the oldsters wanted to get near the chicks.

WORLD WAR 3

For one thing, mom parks herself in a really crazy place in a corner right in front of 2 doors - 1 leading out of the hen house and the other leading into the other side.



So I open the door as you can see. The others venture over to see what's to eat and really aren't minding the chicks at all. But mom GOES BALLISTIC!

I call mom "little red" because her combs and wattle are small compared to "big red" whose are really quite large for a lady. Anyway...Big Red comes over and mom flies at her talons to front and a huge brawl ensues. I finally stick my foot between the 2...rest a min....then back at it. Separate them again and Big red goes outside.

Then comes a Barred Rock. Fight again. Barred rock puts up a fight but it ends more quickly and she goes outside. Then poor Charlie - the total underdog - comes over to check out the food. Mom goes after her but Charlie is not a fighter and she's out the door right away. Then Charlie's sister (these 2 are Hatchery Araucanas). BIG FIGHT...and Charlie's sister seems to want to really have it out but I give her "what for" and out she goes.

Now...mind you...I didn't interfere a lot... just enough to keep it from coming to bloodletting. I figure they need to learn what she'll tolerate and what she won't.

This is after the fray...in that crazy corner again and watching the others carefully. (And that's Charlie by the waterer.)




After the chicks are completely terrorized with a crazy mom doing things they've never seen before, she tries to get them to eat but everyone's kind-of dazed...she backs into the corner THAT I THINK MAKES SENSE FOR HER TO BE IN, and they all rally behind and under.


With the door still open...the others are keeping their distance, but 3 of them venture over to the kid's side while mom is in this far corner. They're completely ignoring mom and scratching around for food in the litter. There was some spelt and barley on the floor there. They finally wander away. I could see her visibly relaxing while she was watching the others on her side eating since she was in a "position of strength" in that corner...

Afterwards she got up and enticed the kiddos to eat and hang out. THEN WENT BACK TO THAT STUPID CORNER BY THE DOORS AGAIN!

I finally had to go in so I shut the doors between. Enough for 1 day. And...I kind-of chased them back to the corner that makes sense to see if she'll take up permanent residence there. We'll see.

sounds about right

. Wait until you have 2 broody's at once and they go at it like roosters

Beautiful birds. The pics are like looking at part of my flock. The reds of course, beautiful. And Charlie...I have a hen just like Charlie. Spitting image.

 

[Mumsy]

glass pie pan would work

Ummm...Yeah. In my picture of my pickle jar waterer, it's based on a glass pie pan. If you don't have one, they are pretty cheap at the second hand stores.
Going to get that dremel out today and see what we can do.

 

[delisha]

Thanks for posting the pictures Melabella.. beautiful family and horses

Love the story of the protective mother hen..those type of stories really help the novice prepare for what happens. Told very well.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Ummm...Yeah. In my picture of my pickle jar waterer, it's based on a glass pie pan. If you don't have one, they are pretty cheap at the second hand stores.
Going to get that dremel out today and see what we can do.

When you're grinding and drilling today, keep in mind the physics involved. The water will rise in the pie pan to the depth of your notch. If your notch is deeper than the pie pan is tall, all your water will drain out. I would leave yourself a pretty good margin. If the pie plate is 3/4" deep, I would make the notch just a little more than half an inch.

Glad I mentioned this.