The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Eggcessive]

Haha Check out the T-Shirt my fiance just ordered for me.

Love the shirt. I like the color, too because it hides those embarrassing chicken stains when I pick up my feathered-feet girls!

 

[delisha]

BDM..I am glad you took day of pictures..Just wate for about a month and watch what that roo looks like on FF. He is going to fill out so nice. Tanks legs are going to look so much better too. It looks like they were raised on bulk of corn feed. Looking forward to see them fill out more.

 

[Melabella]

BDM,

It's time again for a lesson for me, and others on how to shrink the pictures. I forgot to cut and paste it to my file of things that are valuable.

thanks,
MB

 

[loanwizard]

Something I use a lot of for the floor of the coop, composting, a little of everything is leaves. I was over at my mom and dads and my sisters, as they are neighbors, and dad was burning leaves. While being enveloped in smoke and watching mom and dad choke, gag, cough then stir it a little more.... it hit me.

Deep litter is like the forest floor. You have dirt, grubs, snails, insects, rotted leaves, moisture, rotted leaves.... did I mention rotted leaves?

I am a fisherman and kept worms for bait. They liked bedding but it was expensive. They liked newspaper, in fact ate the print, but it was tedious to cut into strips. I really liked leaves because it stayed damp but drained well, it fed the worms.... in other words it was good stuff.

PLUS..... I had just gone to an auction and bought a chipper shredder for 40 bux..... Manly thing it is.....

So, I brought the chipper and chopped 23 bags of leaves. Lasted 2 months. Chickens, rabbits, all loved it. Next year I will canvas the town and steal trash bags with leaves from the curb, or go to the woods. With 11,000 acres behind me I bet I can get all the leaves I want, and they are FREE!

 

[Eggcessive]

BDM, Tanker's legs look about as stout as some of Al's cornish pictures (on the OT thread.) Good name for her.

 

[kian]

OK I've been bouncing in my seat waiting to get online since yesterday because.......



WE GOT OUR FIRST EGG!!!


And it was from Sunny *and* she laid it in the nest box *and* we ended up eating it because my 5 year old accidently cracked it *and* the yolk was a nice deep orangey yellow *and* it was delicious! *AND* she laid another one today! WHOOOOO!!!! I was nearly giddy I was so excited. And I almost didn't want to eat it because I was so amazed it was actually there. Like, wow, I did this right and my chickens aren't broken and we're going to really have eggs. She laid her second one in the same box as yesterday, but she spent a lot of time today in another one. This one today was still warm when we scooped it up. My little guy was so surprised when he saw it. I was the same way yesterday, even though I checked every day, to actually see one surprised me. I'm a dork



Sunny



The first egg. It was pretty heavy for a smallish egg.

When I cracked it open, it looked for all the world like it had the fertile bullseye in the yolk. There was definitely a little dent or something but that would be completely impossible as we have no roosters, The cockerals we did have we rehomed at the end of December and there was nothing going on in that department anyway. Any idea what it was? I haven't opened the second egg yet.

 

[kian]

Aoxa that is a really cool shirt! Where did she get it, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[Bulldogma]

Sorry for the multi-quite... just catching up - -

BDM, It's time again for a lesson for me, and others on how to shrink the pictures. I forgot to cut and paste it to my file of things that are valuable.
thanks,
MB

right click on the picture and hit "Unlink." Then left click it - the boarder will be highlighted - just grab one of the corner boxes and drag it to the size you want.

OK I've been bouncing in my seat waiting to get online since yesterday because.......

WE GOT OUR FIRST EGG!!!

Congratulations!!!!

 

[kian]

Thank you!

 

[aoxa]

La la..what do you do in the coop after you put stuff on the legs?

Curious why no one just uses vaseline. Works great for mites, and is much much cheaper.

Though I've never tried Nu Stock. I have a few layers who got scaly legs from their mother (she brooded them) I noticed Marge & Jagger had leg mites in September. Now they are gone, but her kids have a mild case of them. I have slathered them up with vaseline and the scales are already falling off and looking smooth again. Just seems like a much simple way to do it.

Though if anyone wants to send me a tube of Nustock I will try it. Can't afford $50 for a tube of it though. It's $25 online + 25 shipping and handling. Not to mention duties and customs. *sigh*

Something I use a lot of for the floor of the coop, composting, a little of everything is leaves. I was over at my mom and dads and my sisters, as they are neighbors, and dad was burning leaves. While being enveloped in smoke and watching mom and dad choke, gag, cough then stir it a little more.... it hit me.

Deep litter is like the forest floor. You have dirt, grubs, snails, insects, rotted leaves, moisture, rotted leaves.... did I mention rotted leaves?

I am a fisherman and kept worms for bait. They liked bedding but it was expensive. They liked newspaper, in fact ate the print, but it was tedious to cut into strips. I really liked leaves because it stayed damp but drained well, it fed the worms.... in other words it was good stuff.

PLUS..... I had just gone to an auction and bought a chipper shredder for 40 bux..... Manly thing it is.....

So, I brought the chipper and chopped 23 bags of leaves. Lasted 2 months. Chickens, rabbits, all loved it. Next year I will canvas the town and steal trash bags with leaves from the curb, or go to the woods. With 11,000 acres behind me I bet I can get all the leaves I want, and they are FREE!

I planned to do this. My father in law ended up dumping them before I got a chance. My lawn mower has one of those mulchers. I could have just dumped it as I did the lawn. Oh well! Next year for sure.

OK I've been bouncing in my seat waiting to get online since yesterday because.......



WE GOT OUR FIRST EGG!!!


And it was from Sunny *and* she laid it in the nest box *and* we ended up eating it because my 5 year old accidently cracked it *and* the yolk was a nice deep orangey yellow *and* it was delicious! *AND* she laid another one today! WHOOOOO!!!! I was nearly giddy I was so excited. And I almost didn't want to eat it because I was so amazed it was actually there. Like, wow, I did this right and my chickens aren't broken and we're going to really have eggs. She laid her second one in the same box as yesterday, but she spent a lot of time today in another one. This one today was still warm when we scooped it up. My little guy was so surprised when he saw it. I was the same way yesterday, even though I checked every day, to actually see one surprised me. I'm a dork



Sunny



The first egg. It was pretty heavy for a smallish egg.

When I cracked it open, it looked for all the world like it had the fertile bullseye in the yolk. There was definitely a little dent or something but that would be completely impossible as we have no roosters, The cockerals we did have we rehomed at the end of December and there was nothing going on in that department anyway. Any idea what it was? I haven't opened the second egg yet.

I'm sorry.. I just have to say this:

I WAS RIGHT!

Who guessed someone else? Was it you Delisha? hahah

Congrats! Very exciting!

Aoxa that is a really cool shirt! Where did she get it, if you don't mind my asking?

Amazon! Google "Proud to be a farmer tshirt" and you'll find it.