The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[jockeyeba]

For all you experienced Rooster peeps out there...

Today as I was doing what I do best,,, mucking stalls, I was listening to what sounded like another egg song from one of the girls.  I have gotten to know three different songs from three different pullets.  The others seem to go about laying an egg quietly without making much noise at all. 

Well, I thought I heard a loud, and I mean loud egg song, so I went out to the coop to see who might be laying.  It was Duke my rooster imititating the same exact song my barred Rock does.  She is very loud and animated as she is about to lay.  It has a distinct squawk at the end.. very strectched out.  Is this normal roo behaviour.  It's different than anything Ihave heard him do before.  It was hysterical!

I tried to get my phone out to video tape it, and of course, he stopped!

MB

I've seen my AG roo's hanging right beside a hen when she's laying & he'll make all kinds of noise :cd

 

[jendodd79]

Does she dust bathe outside in wet dirt?

They are 16 weeks old - to be honest, I haven't seen any of my girls dustbathe since they were chicks! It is insanely wet and damp right now, so that is a possibility. She's not muddy though, clean as a whistle!

 

[jendodd79]

Mine is like that too - I think with the coloration comes poor feather quality. I know breeders of self-blue cochins have the same kinds of issues.

That's really interesting! I'm going to have to ask the owner of the other pullet we raised if her girl has the same thing!

 

[chickencowranch]

Hi Angela,
I am using the pan that goes under a water heater. I have a few more hens than you, and it's about 32-34 inches around. I then put other piles on the ground so all of the others can eat, and no one gets chased too far away from chow. I have a guinea that is being housed with the hens, his choice, and he scarfs up the FF right along with the girls.

I feed my ff and water in small livestock rubber pans. I feed them 45 min before they go in for the night. If I plan to keep them cooped longer the next day, I'll feed put dry feed in a longer metal trough feeder.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

That's really interesting! I'm going to have to ask the owner of the other pullet we raised if her girl has the same thing!

Ok, I noticed with my youngest hen, that her feathers have been getting the same look after the rooster gets finished mating with her. She's the most recent one to reach sexual maturity, so she is getting the most action right now. Just a thought.

 

[Bulldogma]

That's really interesting! I'm going to have to ask the owner of the other pullet we raised if her girl has the same thing!

Look - a picture of 2 Lavender Orps (one just died but I still have the other) and the feathers are the same...



I still think it's weak feathers / breakage / poor feather quality with this particular color.

 

[midnightroo]

Hi everyone!

I have been lurking on my ipad and thought I would eventually get caught up, but I think it will take me years to read all the pages.

I am new to chicken keeping, started in August with three. Lost one to a hawk we think, got two more, and then lost one of the new ones to a hawk again probably, We have two hens and a rooster. I was told they were Americuanas?. Other than the losses things are going well. The rooster only started crowing alittle over a month ago and we haven't had any eggs yet. I think one pullet and the rooster are about 8 mths and one pullet I was told was laying or would be laying soon at the end of Sept. We think she went through a small molt because I finally noticed the pin feathers on her. They were purchased from someone locally. I love having chickens and my family enjoys chicken tv. I have started using homemade upacv and might start with ff in the spring. But they don't go through much so it might not be something I want to do until I get more chickens. Have started to grow some mealworms though. The jury is still out on how that is going.

A couple of questions:
1. You can see from the photo that the rooster has red feet. Is that normal or does he have scaly mites? His legs look good from what I can see.
2. The rooster also does a leg shake once in a while. Is this part of mating or something I should be concerned about?
3. Everyone seems concerned about diseases from outside chickens. Should I be worried about wild geese? We have them come very close to our chickens.

Here are some photos of our chicken family


Mystic

Midnight

Evening

Midnight's foot

 

[Leahs Mom]

In relation to the feeders for ff, I have been using glass casserole dishes as that's all I had on hand. I had the regular chicken feeders for dry feed but not sure those would work very well with ff... anybody have experience with those. they are the plastic feeders with the red tray on the bottom, also suitable for hanging. Also, how often do you clean your feeders when using ff??? I gave the first ff to my ducks this morning and they were less than impressed... waiting to see if they will eventually take a liking to it. Chickens seem fine.

I like using the pyrex/glass casserole dishes and rectangular pans. They are heavy enough that they can't move them around a lot - and no plastic or aluminum leaching into the feed.

In the winter I've been using the heated dog bowl with another bowl inserted inside it. That way I can take out the insert bowl and clean it out instead of taking unplugging the whole thing to clean. Sometimes I use a ceramic bowl inside it (lead free glaze) and sometime I use a stainless steel puppy pan. I probably clean those about once every 3-4 days if they need it.

In the summer I was just using the ceramic bowl. Also heavy enough that they can't move it around. I have also used the pyrex pans like you're talking about in the summer.

 

[atmaclean]

I feed my ff and water in small livestock rubber pans. I feed them 45 min before they go in for the night. If I plan to keep them cooped longer the next day, I'll feed put dry feed in a longer metal trough feeder.

Yes,we have those rubber feed pans. I think that is what I will use for my outside flock. It will hold more and I have several I can nab from the barn! Today, I hope to get the holes drilled in my 5 gallon buckets and get the FF going for them.

The babies inside are still going after the FF. I keep checking on them just to make sure. The youngest babies seem to always be working away at their bowl of food. I hope I am giving them the right amount. With babies, do you pretty much keep it in there all the time? I am just using little plastic bowls for them and put maybe 1/2 cup of FF in there in the morning. Or, do I need to just feed them as much as they will eat in 30 minutes a couple times a day???

 

[ShadowSwirl]

Great! I already add ACV but I will check out the Nu stock ointment.Thanks

Omega-3 feed will improve their natural immunity and you will get some of it back in the eggs for your own health. A little hulled flax seed in the feed should do.