The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

If you free range you can put more birds in your coop. If you have small birds you can put more than 6 in. If the 6 birds meet your needs you are perfect! With smaller coops and lack of free ranging, some birds get bored, and some get mean. Some breeds of chickens were not designed to be *locked up*. However some breeds do very well with confinement. If you are adding birds, just do some leg work and choose what is right for the birds and right for you and you will do just great if you add birds..or don't.

If you do..we need pictures!!!

 

[aoxa]

If you free range you can put more birds in your coop. If you have small birds you can put more than 6 in. If the 6 birds meet your needs you are perfect! With smaller coops and lack of free ranging, some birds get bored, and some get mean. Some breeds of chickens were not designed to be *locked up*. However some breeds do very well with confinement. If you are adding birds, just do some leg work and choose what is right for the birds and right for you and you will do just great if you add birds..or don't.

If you do..we need pictures!!!

Fully agree!!

Some birds do very well with less space. Only one I have that does is the silkies. They never fight, and make a huge silkie pile to sleep. Nice way to keep warm!

 

[camilleathome]

I just got horrible news yesterday and it had to be while I was sitting in a restaurant. I called the owner of the farm weve been trying to buy. For the longest time hes been avoiding my calls. I didnt want to pester so I would give him a call once a week or so. leave a message asking him to call me back or leave me a message as he wanted to talk details over the house. He would never call me back.I was out of minutes so I used my friends phone. turns out he was screening my calls as he awnsered when I called from her phone. He sold the house but was too much of a coward to have the heart to tell me. Im devestated. We were really looking forward to this farm. That and I had a message from the hospital saying they wanted me to come in and discuss my test results from my sleep apnea test. Im assuming that because they took the time to call me back it means I have it...

But you know how they say when one door closes another opens. Ive been told by an old friend that they are going to discuss things with their husband. They moved out west and have been trying to sell their farm for six years but everyone wants to buy the land with the two barns but not the house and she wants to sell the house(Their emotionally attached to it. its where they gave birth to their first two kids). It comes with a coop and two huge sheds(One is large enough for four horses so I could deffinetly have goats and a horse or two) and the other shed is huge too. The house has a grooming salon in it so if I take my grooming course like ive been wanting to I have a ready to start side business and the place is like two minutes walk from the beach where I used to go clam digging all the time. I could litterally go sit and listen to the waves anytime or go walk hand in hand at sunset with hubby on the beach. Or go HORSEBACK RIDING on the beach! And if I get this place she has a horse for me for free. Someone is trying to get rid of one of her old horses says hes not trustworthy for beginners to ride anymore so I could keep him as a pet or get a trainer to come over and work with him. She really doesent know WHY he cant be ridden anymore as its not health related and he used to be a SUPER sound horse. Im trying NOT to get my heart set on this place but the place is beautifull and I have a lot of happy memories from that place.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I just got horrible news yesterday and it had to be while I was sitting in a restaurant. I called the owner of the farm weve been trying to buy. For the longest time hes been avoiding my calls. I didnt want to pester so I would give him a call once a week or so. leave a message asking him to call me back or leave me a message as he wanted to talk details over the house. He would never call me back.I was out of minutes so I used my friends phone. turns out he was screening my calls as he awnsered when I called from her phone. He sold the house but was too much of a coward to have the heart to tell me. Im devestated. We were really looking forward to this farm. That and I had a message from the hospital saying they wanted me to come in and discuss my test results from my sleep apnea test. Im assuming that because they took the time to call me back it means I have it...

But you know how they say when one door closes another opens. Ive been told by an old friend that they are going to discuss things with their husband. They moved out west and have been trying to sell their farm for six years but everyone wants to buy the land with the two barns but not the house and she wants to sell the house(Their emotionally attached to it. its where they gave birth to their first two kids). It comes with a coop and two huge sheds(One is large enough for four horses so I could deffinetly have goats and a horse or two) and the other shed is huge too. The house has a grooming salon in it so if I take my grooming course like ive been wanting to I have a ready to start side business and the place is like two minutes walk from the beach where I used to go clam digging all the time. I could litterally go sit and listen to the waves anytime or go walk hand in hand at sunset with hubby on the beach. Or go HORSEBACK RIDING on the beach! And if I get this place she has a horse for me for free. Someone is trying to get rid of one of her old horses says hes trustworthy for beginners to ride anymore so I could keep him as a pet or get a trainer to come over and work with him. She really doesent know WHY he cant be ridden anymore as its not health related and he used to be a SUPER sound horse. Im trying NOT to get my heart set on this place but the place is beautifull and I have a lot of happy memories from that place.

Hope it all works out for ya'll.. sounds beautiful

 

[camilleathome]

Hope it all works out for ya'll.. sounds beautiful

I hope so too. I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Shes my old riding instructor and has always been great. I couldn't always afford riding lessons as I didn't have an allowance or a job and she would let me work for lessons. Ive always loved grooming the horses over riding them though I do love to ride lol. I went through really tough years as a teenager(Abuse, deaths in the family, Hormone issues OTHER than just teenage hormones etc etc). Sometimes I would just take the bus over to the barn for no other reason than just to groom the horses. And she trusted me enough to leave me alone in the barn with the horses to do my thing. I remember one time having a really hard day. I just couldn't cope anymore and I just started talking to my favorite horse delta as I brushed her and I started to cry and just put my arms around her neck and she just stood there while I let it all out. Animals are the best listeners. I firmly believe in using animals as therapy pets. If we get this house I plan on trying to track down where delta is. She was my horse and If I can find her current owner I want to let him or her know that if ever they sell her I want first shot. She was a Belgian quarter cross and the most amazing horse ever. We learned together as she used to be a trail horse. We had a close bond even my riding instructor pointed it out. I used to be able to get her to stop on a dime without using my hands and barely and lower body movement just by asking and she used to help me get up on her by bracing herself. With others she used to get rather limp to make it harder for them to get on lol! She had this bad habit or stopping dead stop then not moving for you and my instructor kept telling me that I needed to be firm with her and teach her that she couldn't win and keep pulling. but every time shed stop and I wouldn't be able to make her move so Natalie would have to intervene. One day she did it and Natalie wasn't there so I looked her square in the eye and told her. You are moving whether you like it or not. And I started to pull. And I swear she braced her legs back like a stubborn child and I kept pulling and pulling until finally she took one step forward then another and started to walk with me. And she NEVER gave me any issues after XD. I think I gained her respect somehow. God I miss that horse!

 

[lalaland]

Does anyone know how to make home made yogurt? It's gonna be expensive buying yogurt for my chickens so i thought maybe I could make it.

making it is very simple and cheaper than buying. Check your thrift stores for used makers, you can make it without but it is easier to do it with a maker. I use a one quart maker, some people like the ones with little cups. All it takes is milk, yougurt to start with - must have live cultures- and a way to keep the milk warm (thats the job of the yogurt maker), and a thermometer. Some people use their crockpot or a cooler filled with hot water! Best if you do a little google search so you can read about all the options and methods and choose what works for you. Takes 4-8 hours, best if you are home.

Try the frugal girl blog, she has a great easy method. I'ld past the link for you but the chromebook doesn't let me do that.
www.thefrugalgir.coom/2009/


once you make your own, you will never want to eat that fake stuff with the chemical tastes and sugar loads again.

 

[delisha]

lala..that is great you posted that. I do not make it homemade often. I don't have the warmer. Winter seems to be the time I do. I set it over the register. I am pretty lazy. Thanks for the tip about the crock pot..I do have one of those.

 

[stonykill]

I have been thinking a lot of doing this LaLa and like you said Google is full of ideas on how to do it. All part of my "return to self sufficiency" goal. 10 years ago we were really good at living frugal...real frugal. Working back towards that previous life and beyond

 

[holderh]

Camilla-I'm sorry. I hope it works out

Lala- thanks..yes I did a google search for making it in the crock pot. Wow its easy! Im gonna try it today.

I have been wanting a jersey cow for a long time. I am hoping this is the year i can get one. We process our own beef, have the chickens, seems like a milk cow is the next step.

 

[armorfirelady]

Beautiful day today. It was 50 degrees at 8 am so I headed out for some coop housekeeping. I removed 3 garbage cans full of DL from the doll house coop since it was so close to roosts. Since where the hens outside run is mostly mud and water from the thaw I dumped it there. In the spring I am going to plant pumpkins, watermelons & sunflowers there since the hens have eaten all the grass so the DL will help the earth for that.

Imagine my surprise when I found this while turning the DL in the enclosed run:

Now we have been in a deep freeze for months but the DL keeps the dirt underneath soft and it get turned into the DL. and this little guy is my proof the soil is good


And for my morning funny hen pick:

Apparently is was wood ash dust bath time. I don't have to manually dust them they do well on their own.

Hen pile up . I now have 2 gray hens......and with the breeze today every time they fluff all you see is ash flying in the air. They remind me of pig pen from the peanuts with their constant dust flying off them as they dig thru the leaves and DL