The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[stonykill]

Post pic's of your babies again soon ok?
I love love love raising chicks. Never get tired of the guessing game these little tykes put us through.
Everyone always says how hard it is to guess the sex of Silkies but that is easy peasy for me compared to guessing on strains that are unfamiliar. For instance...Look at the faces of my four Silkies. At five weeks they still look like three boys and one girl. I've thought so since the first three days they were hatched.







Mr. Wiggin. The alpha chick in the group.

While I know nothing about Silkies all I have been able to think of since reading this is Tim Conways character on Carol Burnett and him saying Miss Ha- wiggins

 

[Mumsy]

I do not know nothing about silkies and I certainly would be horrible at sexing. If i had to guess I would guess that the top two were girls.

HAH! Well...Little Miss Peggy sure is a girly girl. If Mr. Wiggin or any of those 'maybe' boys turned out to be girls, I would be over the moon happy! Two pair would be wonderful! I'm only keeping one of the males otherwise.

 

[Bulldogma]

Post pic's of your babies again soon ok?
I love love love raising chicks. Never get tired of the guessing game these little tykes put us through.
Everyone always says how hard it is to guess the sex of Silkies but that is easy peasy for me compared to guessing on strains that are unfamiliar. For instance...Look at the faces of my four Silkies. At five weeks they still look like three boys and one girl. I've thought so since the first three days they were hatched.
She is still looking female. Food coloring makes it easy for me to identify the Silkie chicks when looking in the window of the chick house.
Mr. Wiggin. The alpha chick in the group.
r. FuzzyCheepster is a bundle of energy. He challenges Mr. Wiggin constantly.
Mr. BigFoot was the largest chick to begin with but is now the smallest male. He is only boss over Miss Peggy and the three Bantam RIR chicks. Only the alpha chick Mr. Wiggin would stand for his portrait. The other two boys wanted to lay down and sleep. Hah!

Such cute chicks!! Keep those pictures coming!

While I know nothing about Silkies all I have been able to think of since reading this is Tim Conways character on Carol Burnett and him saying Miss Ha- wiggins

OMG - best show EVER!!

 

[Bulldogma]

Does anyone have photos (that you took) of an "average" case of splay-leg in a chick? I need photos for a thing I'm working on...

 

[Leahs Mom]

I was off all day yesterday and all day today until 3:00. It took me this long to catch up (that's 4 HOURS)

So...I'm going to reply to some pretty old posts. Please be patient and, Aoxa, I'll try not to do too many multi-posts in one

 

[Eggcessive]

Thanks Aoxa......I need to work on my breed acronyms


I have a question for those who use electric fencing. I am looking to get some in March to put around the new coop I am building. I would like it to be solar powered since its not convient or cheap to have to plug one in.

I have ample space so thinking of buying 3 so the hens have a large area to roam in. I cant free range because of living on a busy street and my 2 dogs & my neighbors dogs. I do try to let them roam when I am home to keep an eye on them tho & sometimes they feel the need for a field trip when I am at work

But anyways does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of fence I should get? how may amps? a good solar charger?

I assume with the heavy snows we get it wont be efficent during the winter which is ok cuz the coop will be moved back closer to the house & I have the fencing I have used this year.

Oh I forgot does anyone add netting to go over the top of the run? I am thinking if I added netting over the top it would either melt the plastec netting or electrify it

Thanks in advance!!
Jenn

Here is what I have found: I found that 2 companies sell poultry fencing (be sure not to buy sheep fencing since the openings are wider.) Kencove.com looks cheaper when you first look, but Premier1supplies.com is actually taller and longer for the best price. I have bought both the regular poultry net that is 165 ft. with posts every 12t, and then later I bought their poultryplus net that is 100 ft with posts every 6 ft. The fencing is 42 inches high, and the chickens do not fly over it usually because they can't jump up on it like a regular fence and then go over it. I found I liked the 165 ft. length better because it was lighter weight to carry when you are setting it up, a better value, and you can buy extra electric fence posts at TSC to keep the midparts from drooping. Do not ever use it without a power supply because we have nearly lost a yorkie, a bloodhound, and 3 dumb cats who kept trying to go through it until we got it turned on. They get stuck in it and wrapped it around them, and we actually had to cut part of it to get the yorkie's head out.

 

[Mumsy]

Such cute chicks!! Keep those pictures coming!
OMG - best show EVER!!

Thank you!

I so agree! That show still cracks me up. Hah!


I spent some time cropping head shots of the chicks. Look closely at the beak of each chick. Miss Peggy has the shortest beak of the four. She also has the softest eye.

I can only really see the difference in females and males when I study them. It's just one small clue that goes into the whole observation of behavior and every thing else.


Mr. Big Foot before I cleaned his dirty beak. Hawk like beak and big eyes.


Mr. Fuzzy Cheepster. When I put the chicks back in the pen this guy went right at Mr. Wiggin. Mr. Wiggin still came out as alpha. Can you see the big eyes and hawk beak now?


Mr. Wiggin. Staring the camera down. All three boy looking Silkies have a wider space where the comb will evenually grow in. Five week old chicks.

 

[delisha]

I see what you are talking about. It will help me to understand more about Silkies. I sure hope these eggs do well.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have the electrified poultry netting from Premier and would highly recommend it. I have 4 100' lengths, of their PoultryPlus netting. It's 4' high and has the double mount spikes. I am using a 115 VAC charger for it. Premier has and sells solar chargers if you want one of those. The electric draw of my charger is like a low watt bulb, so it is not really expensive to use. According to my fence charge tester, I'm getting 7000Vs out of it. I think I'm getting more than that, but the tester only reads to 7000Vs. I don't use anything over the top, because it covers a big area. But, my birds have the coop itself to get under, as well as a brushy area contained inside the fence. They have gotten pretty good at identifying airborne threats. And stray dogs, and the fox that I have around here are no longer a worry.
Jack

JackE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So glad to see you here!!!!

You KNOW I love your coop and thanks for the recommendation (in the past) to read about the Fresh Air Poultry Houses. It revolutionized how I think about winter housing and ventilation even though I don't have a woods style coop!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I wanted to give a couple links and info on the fencing.

-Premier sells 3 kinds of Electric Poultry netting and they come in various heights and lengths. You also have to choose between single spike fence posts and double spike fence posts on any of these fences.

-The regular Poultry Net comes in the longest length of 164 ft. It has the fewest posts and some folks feel that it sags more that they like. People that purchase this often use a lot of extra posts between to help the sag issue. Others don't card.

-The PoultryNet Plus has more posts, is a bit heavier because of the weight of the posts, and the longest length it comes in is 100 ft. Here is a link describing both the poultry net and PoulryNet PLUS: http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=30

-The link that someone posted earlier is for what is called PERMANET. This net is made for applications in which you don't move it much because it has even more posts and is way too cumbersone to be moving around very often due to the added weight. It also comes in 100 ft. as it's longest length. http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=93

-Purchase the nets that are specifically for poultry. They have smaller openings at the bottom to keep smaller birds inside. This being said, chicks can still slip through until they grow a bit. Even if you plan to use the nets for other animals, the poultry nets carry the same charge so they're interchangeable...except the the nets for other animals don't have the smaller openings at the bottom. No-brainer to get the poultry net for multi-purpose!

-Here is a link to the video showing how to put them up:
http://www.premier1supplies.com/videos/player.php?video=installing_electronet&size=large
http://www.premier1supplies.com/videos/player.php?video=ends_corners_gates&size=large

-They sell 3 types of Fence Energizers: Electric, Battery (need to be recharged using electric), solar.

-I highly recommend that you request their fencing catalog. They will send it out right away and it is FULL of information on ALL KINDS of fences, including the electric net, and will answer almost every question you ever had on the subject including things like which size solar charger you would need for different areas of the country/sun exposure, and length of fence. It's VERY INFORMATIVE. I learned a lot about all kinds of fences reading through it. It also talks about how long you can use them in what kinds of winter weather.

-If you call their customer service they can help you wade through what you would need energizer-wise for the amount of fence, where you are/sun exposure, etc.

*******************************

I got the green color so that it would blend in better and I got the PoultryNet Plus, 4 ft. high., DOUBLE SPIKE POSTS, with a solar charger. Also bought additional fence posts to have on hand for ends, corners and reinforcement.

Here's how I'm using it now...to help them get over to a little wooded area. See how the green blends in!






Here's the green net when I had it out in the summer.







ETA: I may try some of the regular poultrynet to see if I like it better weight-wise. I just saw Eggcessive said they use it and like it. I've read other folks that don't like such a long gap between the posts due to the sag. I like the idea that I'd get an extra 64 ft. so I may try one when I add to my netting length in the future.