The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Sally8]

The EXACT same thing happened to me. Except no door blew open.. just turkeys in the road, neighbours calling and people taking pictures... like we were harbouring some rare and exotic animal.

It's amazing how people see farm animals. I'm guessing that not many people raise turkeys. I only have the 1 pair and to be honest I don't see a big purpose other than eating. Once you make them such a pet, it's hard to eat. I've been trying to give them away. They are friendlier than a chicken, more inquisitive and eat a lot more.

I'm not against this at all. You all saw where I put Frontline on my mite infested hens, so....Other than it being an OT remedy, how is Kerosene or even Shaklee products natural? Please remember that I only asking not judging as I would also use if needed. Last summer was a bad summer here for worms. One of my INDOOR cats coughed up a fully intact tapeworm. It was amazing. Wish I had taken a picture. Then I saw poop full of roundworms in the yard from the chickens. Yuk Being raised on a farm, I'm thinking worms try to be farm animals too.

 

[Sally8]

MB

My chickens like to dust bathe under all ours. You can see hen sized holes all over. The other place they dust bathe in is my flower garden/pet cemetery. They have no clue. I'm almost afraid to post this but if a chicken dies and I'm unsure if we can eat it or not, we take it way up on the hill and throw it. Someone might as well enjoy it. But I had a Barred Rock that I truly loved and she is the only one that has been buried with our beloved pets.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote: Certainly didn't need to read that this morning...I am going to be spending many hours re-programing myself to being here longer than that.

 

[lalaland]

I'm almost afraid to post this but if a chicken dies and I'm unsure if we can eat it or not, we take it way up on the hill and throw it. Someone might as well enjoy it. But I had a Barred Rock that I truly loved and she is the only one that has been buried with our beloved pets.

Sally, I do the same thing - take it away down by the woods edge and toss. Always gone the next day. Thinking the same thing you are - something will make use of it. Now, with cats, I can't do that, so they are buried under the rugosas.

 

[Melabella]

That's the section it was in I was talking with my fiance on what they use it for in horses. You see it a lot in pictures. She thought it was for chafing, but she hasn't raised horses in years.

Reasons are many for using vetwrap with horses. A huge one is for something we refer to on the track as "rundowns", or competition bandages. Generally also only during racing, or high workout days. The faster a horse goes,or more intense the job asked of a horse, the occurrence of injury or hitting himself with his own hooves becomes great. Another very common occurance with high speed excersice in the horse is called "running down". It occurs more often with hind fetlocks, the horse actually rubs the hair off of the back of his joint, and then a mild or serious burn of the skin can occur against the racetrack surface. Hence the name of the bandages on track being called rundowns. The burn can be serious or severe. Some horses are prone to running down, or hitting themselves due to conformational build, or if a horse that has never run down in the past does run down, it's a sign of emerging soundness issues. Just because a horse wears these, it does not mean it is running with problems, lots of trainers use them as precautionary measure. Here is a picture of the great racemare Zenyatta with a pair of rundown bandages behind. She has tall rundowns on ...

and this horse is wearing short rundowns on his hind fetlocks. If you look closely, you can see the grass rub mark where the horse rubbed his ankle during his race. Most likely the grass was deep and soft as this picture is from England where it rains a lot, and soft turf conditions are commonplace. If this horse wasn't wearing rundowns, he may have burned his skin where that grass stain is on his rundown bandage.



Other uses for vetwrap are to hold bandages in place, and medications on wounds as in this photo of a horse with a foot needing bandaging. Clever addition of duct tape as well..

Since vetwrap is pricey, it tends to be used as only for race day, or when needed medically. For morning exercise works, there are several different material bandages that are used that can be washed and used again, where obviously vetwrap tends to only be used once.

And there is your racehorse/vetwrap lesson for the day...
Sorry Stoney...
MB

 

[delisha]

BDM-

I started with the same Cornish you have now..my Variety was white and not dark. Dark was not available in this area 35 years ago. I bred them to Road Island Reds and Other Cornish X's. I introduced Rock Varieties and Leg Horns. Not all my birds lay such large eggs. I am delighted that I have such large eggs from pullets. It is a sign that they will lay large eggs all the time. I have two more from the same breeding, but, they are much younger and will not start laying till March or so. The egg color is a really light tan color. The two younger ones are already larger than my other birds so I am a bit concerned about egg laying. If they are too big, they do not lay as well and I worry about heart health. This strain I have bred takes almost a year to mature, and they do not stop growing for a long time. I am hoping for eggs from you to bring in more of the Cornish into my line. I have been looking at them for a while. The blue/red's they are breeding now are beautiful.

 

[ocap]

Tell me about it! I had an adult woman walking through my garden, saw the broccoli and said, "I didn't know this grew!" What I want to know is where she did think it came from besides the grocery store...

i think your "I did not know this grew" lady probably votes

 

[armorfirelady]

BDM are tankers legs so big because of leg mites or is it just the breed that makes those legs so thick?

 

[off-grid hen]

Mumsy- would you be willing to try the ginger beer worm experiment? I forge which thread it was mentioned... But someone said they gave a syringe of ginger beer, and a pile of worms was excreted. I saw a photo too... Do you have ginger beer?

The reason I'm asking is because I will be taking a fecal sample to the vet in about a month when things start to thaw out a bit, and feel funny using kerosene if they do in fact have worms. Did you withhold eggs after using the kerosene?

 

[loanwizard]

Don't know where y'all got your numbers but you could always move...

Besides, who among us is average?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy