The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Quote: Yes..when you open it there will be a pool of blood by the heart

 

[loanwizard]

Stony, my dead birds go to the hogs.... I guess in my world it is good enough for them. Might be wrong, but I have done a lot of wrong in my life, this is just minor. I have also been castigated for tossing old food with a little mold out to the chickens/hogs......

OK.... We've discussed everything else, how about how you catch chickens? I was praised for being quick..... I thank you, but I don't necessarily think I am fast, just that when I am catching Rangers, I am usually running late to get to the processors farm, although why I worry about that is beyond me as we usually talk for literally hours after we unload.

1st thing I do is grab my loincloth..... Ooops, wrong conversation..... I have seen those broomstick with a hooked wire things and have wandered if they would be faster or slower than by hand.

I first shut off the electric. Then I get in with them and sternly announce that I am going to get them, it is just a matter of time and the ones I get first are promised better seating. Hey, I'm a car salesman. I usually get the fat ones by the feeder first because.... well because they remind me of kids sitting around playing video games eating chips and would rather reward the ones running around getting exercise.

The technical part of catching them in full daylight is to move withe a purpose and to shoo a certain group to a certain area. We will use fence corners as an example. I can only carry about 8 at a time but when they are moving I am aiming at 2- 4, most often 3 per trip to the trailer. I shoo them to where it is less likely they get away then as I slow down, my hand shoots out grabbing for legs. You have to be quick, sure, and purposeful. The grab doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to control one foot, you can add the other one as you are carrying. I think the reason a lot of people may be a little slower, through observance of the kids is they are deathly afraid those fat birds are going to peck them and hurt them. After catching nearly 1000 birds, I have never had one peck me and draw blood or even cause pain. That said, I am a fisherman and regularly put my hands in the mouth of catfish up to 70 lbs, and when they clamp down, they CAN hurt. Some of these fish crush clamshells to eat. I have also noodled or handfished, so the fear of that is gone. Besides, as I stated before I am usually behind and that makes me irritable which stifles the emotions and feelings of pain, sadness melancholy.... It is a job that needs to be done quickly and efficiently.

I think the fear of the pecker causes people to hesitate, which slows them and they miss the bird.

How do YOU catch your birds?

Shawn
aka Loanwizard/Lionwizard/Loinwizard

 

[stonykill]

Yes..when you open it there will be a pool of blood by the heart

thanks. Gotta clean out the area to do this and get to it

 

[delisha]

I call the birds and reach down and pick them up. I do this often, because, I examine my birds often. Some more than others. I have a harder time with catching cockerels. I never chase my birds. If I want them somewhere I just go there and call, they all come. They are trained from early on to come when called. Sometimes I leave for the day and if predators have been spotted recently, they get locked up when I leave. My birds are weird and nosy too. If they are in the woods and I go into the barn to clean.. they come running home to bother me.

 

[aoxa]

no visible wounds. Aoxa my thought is if I won't eat him I won't feed him to my animals. Not good enough for me, not good enough for them. Pretty certain I'm just going to incinerate him. Don't want to take chances.

Well I'd think the same thing if there was a disease he died from, but a heart attack.. I would not waste him

well my wife is no help. "whatever you think" was the response.

Sounds just like my fiance. lol

If you could take pictures of the internal organs after they are all out (after hands washed of course) we sure would like to see what a heart attack looks like.

 

[aoxa]

I call the birds and reach down and pick them up. I do this often, because, I examine my birds often. Some more than others. I have a harder time with catching cockerels. I never chase my birds. If I want them somewhere I just go there and call, they all come. They are trained from early on to come when called. Sometimes I leave for the day and if predators have been spotted recently, they get locked up when I leave. My birds are weird and nosy too. If they are in the woods and I go into the barn to clean.. they come running home to bother me.

My girls are easy to catch, my boys.. not so much.

I try to steer them into the barn and catch them there.

An old man I am friends with who started my whole obsession (he's 79 - so if you are that age, I'm sorry for calling you old!) and he uses a net. It's like a big fishing net. He can catch them no problem.

 

[ocap]

Everything known and not known can be found here.

 

[delisha]

I do have a net for the ducks..They hate to be handled. I can herd them into a box better then pick them up. They are really strong. 20 lbs of flapping wings is a bit much for my strength. My fingers into the wing is a big stretch for my small hands. I can get the young ones and hens, but, that drake can practical pick me up off the ground.

 

[aoxa]

I do have a net for the ducks..They hate to be handled. I can herd them into a box better then pick them up. They are really strong. 20 lbs of flapping wings is a bit much for my strength. My fingers into the wing is a big stretch for my small hands. I can get the young ones and hens, but, that drake can practical pick me up off the ground.

I love how easy ducks are to herd around. I could easily get all 12 calls in the barn at night where the chickens would scatter.

I'm an early bed time person. I don't sleep early, but I like to be chilling out before it gets dark in the summer... my teenagers (the chickens) would take forever to go to bed. I constantly had to lure them in. Everyone always talks about their ducks staying up late. Never my ducks. They are early birds like me My geese also like to stay up late, but they are so easy to get in that it doesn't bother me.

As soon as any of my Pennies see me - doesn't matter how dark it is outside - they leave that barn and try to greet me. I have a hard time collecting eggs without them trying to eat me. They think I'm made of treats.

All I do is bring our compost bucket down (this silver bucket that sits on our counter and all scraps get put in there) and they are after me. hehee.

It's cute.. I must say.. but they do see my fingers as an extension of that bucket.



You can just see them talking about me in this picture. And you can see their slight raised scales. I re-checked last night and they look so much better.
They still have a lot of colour in their legs, so I know I caught it at the right time.

Is there different strains of scaly mites? A few of you had a lot of trouble. I know I didn't.

 

[armorfirelady]

I call the birds and reach down and pick them up. I do this often, because, I examine my birds often. Some more than others. I have a harder time with catching cockerels. I never chase my birds. If I want them somewhere I just go there and call, they all come. They are trained from early on to come when called. Sometimes I leave for the day and if predators have been spotted recently, they get locked up when I leave. My birds are weird and nosy too. If they are in the woods and I go into the barn to clean.. they come running home to bother me.

Here's a visual I am sure many will get a chuckle out of:
Its 62 degrees yesterday evening about 5 pm. I have a class and need to lock the hens up before I leave.....I grab a sand pail and put some cracked corn in it. As I round the corner of the garage I start shaking the pail and 3 hens come running towards me squawking away.They always come running when they see me since it usually means food.
I get 3 in and go to chase the 4th in....while in the process of that the other 3 of course came out of the run. This went on for about 10 minutes.

I finally gave up, told the girls they best hope no one comes to visit after dark till I got home & walked away. I guess they decided they were not going in early since the weather was so nice and must of known today it would be in the 20s with high winds.

I can just imagine what my neighbors thought as they watched me run around the enclosed run trying to get them locked in. *sigh*

(And yes they were all roosted for the night when I got home and all was well.) I cant wait till I get my new coop built and the new automatic pop door so I will no longer have to worry about closing them in for the night