The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Congrats on the first egg!! it is always so exciting.
I guessed the first pullet, not sure it was her or not


Knock on wood I have never had leg mites..mites yes and they are a bugger to get rid of

 

[aoxa]

Congrats on the first egg!! it is always so exciting.
I guessed the first pullet, not sure it was her or not


Knock on wood I have never had leg mites..mites yes and they are a bugger to get rid of

Leg mites are so much easier than regular red mites.

Slather them up and they are dead. The scales take a while to fall off, but vaseline smothers them.

The regular mites I experienced came from a show. My birds who don't dust themselves well were the only birds that had any. I believe we had the Northern Fowl Mite, as it lived on the host. Easy enough to kill, but they really make the bird feel like crap.

The wood ash really helps!

 

[pcappy2]

Whew!,, I finally caught up on all the posts. Appreciate all the info on killing and processing chickens. It may be difficult for some to read but it was a wealth of knowledge for someone who's never processed a chicken. Exactly why I enjoy this site so much, everything we have learned. Plus I enjoy the off topic humor too! I'm thinking of putting on ice skates to get down to the barn tonight,,everything is covered in ice.

 

[lalaland]

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

I feel like I've done everything over the 5 years that it has been a problem, but i am certainly open to suggestions. I've emptied the coop, white washed it, oiled the roosts, once i sprayed everything and drenched the cracks crevices walls floor ceiling etc with some kind of goat mite spray stuff (toxic, but tried anyway). I've used the dusting powder that comes from chrysantheums or something, its a pyre or perrhythum which ever is the less toxic one. I learned this fall about neem oil, and I am going to try that this spring when everything thaws and I empty the coop out for the spring. I have not yet used wd40 or clean or used motor oil on the roosts.

I once dipped everyone's legs in oil twice a day for 4 weeks straight, soaking each chicken for a half hour in epsom salt and scrubbing their legs and peeling off debris. thought I had it licked, for the next couple months did "preventive:" weekly oiling of the legs, and then went to monthly and then mite were back. I did try nustock, and am doing it monthly now.
The thing with these scaly mites is that you can't really tell if they are gone. Takes a long time to show up, and the raised scales dont really go away.

Anyone who has the magic bullet should chime in!

 

[lalaland]

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

Been there , done that, never worked! Also bag balm and other salves. I don't understand why it doesn't work as you are not the only one who has had it work! THe scales don't fall off, although if I soak the legs for 15 minutes or so in epsom salted water, I can slowly work a little of the debris off. too fast and it will bleed.

 

[lalaland]

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



WE GOT OUR FIRST EGG!!!

kian, if you are a dork, so am I. after all these years, I love the first eggs, and still get excited - as in today unexpectedly someone decided to start up again after the stopping for the -30 weather and the darkness. I sang all the way back to the house with the egg today.
So congrats, and enjoy.

 

[nxb161]

Welcome! I am fairly new to all this myself, but this is what I learned and what I do with my chickens...

Scratch - I give more in the winter as it is said to help put on a little more fat and in turn, keep the chickens warmer in cold weather. Not everyone agrees with this, but either way, it's extra feed and a special treat. I just toss scratch out into their run and let them "scratch" for it. It does not take the place of feed. Think of it as a "side dish" or "dessert".
Oyster Shell - my chickens are not quite laying age yet, but I already throw back crushed eggshells from organic eggs that we eat. I will probably be supplementing with some oyster shell if I notice their shells need a little help after they start laying in a couple months.
Granite - I can only offer "supervised" free-ranging, so because they don't get out of their run all the time, I do provide granite in a little dish. They will eat what they need. Sometimes I shovel in some rocky earth that is outside their run so they can pick the type and size of gravel they want right out of the dirt.
Feed - I fed crumbles until I switched to all-organic feed. The organic feed that I have access to for the best price is a "mash" - the only way I can explain it is it seems like a bag of chopped up weeds with little grains and dried peas in it. I ferment the mash and feed it to both my chickens and ducks. It is a "flock raiser" or "grower" feed. I buy it from www.azurestandard.com which is a co-op, and we happen to have a local drop here. I did the math and figured out it was the least expensive organic feed I could get in my area. It is only a couple dollars more than the Purina flock raiser crumbles. Too me, it was worth the couple bucks to go organic - it is also soy free.
I personally like the way this feed ferments much better than the crumbles, but that is just my opinion. Of course, you don't have to ferment it.
I also throw out veggies and leftovers whenever we have them.

Thanks for the info.

Oh , I think I found a local Mill that might have good priced organic feed, so I'm going to check that out.

 

[nxb161]

I gave my new DC flock their own dust bathing area today. They were rolling around in it before I even let go of it - LOL. I didn't see any mites on these birds, but there's plenty of wood ash in there anyway.








Tanker stood watch as the others rolled about like pigs - LOL!




"Aint nobody botherin' my flock while they're in the bath!"

I love the pics! Chickens are so goofy.

 

[delisha]

la la..take pictures of your leg..not yours personally..your chickens..please post them..I think it might be something else..You certainly have been doing more than you should have to do..I would be ready to pull my hair out. We might have to look for outside breeding sites too.

I knew someone who could not get rid of them and found a nice sand hill right by the coop where the little buggers were holed up, and another one who had them way on the bottom of his worm beds.

 

[nxb161]

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.

Congratz on the eggs. I can't wait to get some hens and have them laying! That's a good looking egg. Was it all clean or did you have to wash it off?