The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[PeepsCA]

I had an awwww moment today. One of my Silkie pullets laid her first egg. Tiny little oval shaped egg with a blood streak on it. The egg next to it is a Guinea egg, which are really small compared to some of the monsters everyone's layer girls are laying. My oldest Hens are a week over 6 months old. One of them had been making weird quiet high pitched drawn out repetitive clucking noises for the past couple weeks, now I know why.


My Silkie girls are separated from the boys right now tho, so the egg is not fertile. I was not sure who laid it, so I checked the pelvic bones on all of my Hens, (per info on this thread, Thanks Delisha) and it appears to be out of my White non-bearded Silkie Hen (since she's not bearded and has huge wattles I don't have any plans to breed her... but I kept her for the cute, fluff and broody factors). Silkies are my first chickens... I've been raising/breeding/hatching Guineas for years, but chickens and their egg laying habits and noises are all new to me.


Just thought I'd finally share something chicken related on this thread, lol.

 

[Bulldogma]

Peeps -
Congrats on your first chicken (Silkie) egg! And as far as chicken-related - you always have great stuff to contribute, so I don't think it would matter to any of us if you talked about guineas, chickens or emus - LOL. Your experience and willingness to share your knowledge make you a very valuable part of this thread!

 

[risenshine]

Natural means no hormones or antibiotics It can be labeled organic and still be genetically modified. Most all of our wheat, corn and soy are all GMO. You want no pesticide, no antibiotic, no GMO feed. It's very expensive and best to grow your own if you are able. Most wheat, corn and soy are GMO unless they are of the 100 year old varieties.This is the reason everyone is buying and storing Heirloom seeds. Plain and simple, it's a fight to live like a poor farmer use to live.

 

[PeepsCA]

For those of you who want lower humidity in your 1588s during incubation an easy way to lower it and keep it lowered is to cover part or half of the center trough with some kind of clear tape... it's the surface area of water exposed to the (circulated) air that creates/maintains humidity, not the depth or quantity.

 

[PeepsCA]

Peeps -
Congrats on your first chicken (Silkie) egg! And as far as chicken-related - you always have great stuff to contribute, so I don't think it would matter to any of us if you talked about guineas, chickens or emus - LOL. Your experience and willingness to share your knowledge make you a very valuable part of this thread!

Thanks BDM

I've gained a ton of knowledge from this thread, way more than I've been able to contribute, but I try to chime in whenever I can.

Love the transformation of your horse trailer coop... makes me want to go out and put a coat of paint on mine now, lol. Can't believe you got so much work done on it already, ALL BY YOURSELF, excellent job! Can't wait to see what you do with the inside. I might be turning mine into a broody coop, instead of using it as a keet brooder again this season, so I need some ideas.

 

[midnightroo]

Natural means no hormones or antibiotics  It can be labeled organic and still be genetically modified. Most all of our wheat, corn and soy are all GMO. You want no pesticide, no antibiotic, no GMO feed. It's very expensive and best to grow your own if you are able. Most wheat, corn and soy are GMO unless they are of the 100 year old varieties.This is the reason everyone is buying and storing Heirloom seeds. Plain and simple, it's a fight to live like a poor farmer use to live.

Not 100% but I don't think that things can be labeled organic and be gmo. Natural label doesn't means anything, but organic I thought couldn't be gmo.

 

[Ashdoes]

 We've decided on earthworms, instead of red worms, but they both eat kitchen scraps so there's no big change in the plans for them. Hubby wants to fish with them, and I want them for gardening and red worms aren't really for either of those.

I currently  have redworms but...

-Where do you get your earthworms?
-Where do you get info on earthworm keeping?  (I've only seen info on redworms)

http://usaworms.com/index.htm this website has a lot of helpful info and worms. I'll be ordering my worms in two weeks, after my bedding is prepared. So I can't vouch for their worms, yet.

 

[midnightroo]

Ok, did a quick google search and things have to be labeled 100% organic not to have any gmo. Here's a link a found in the quick search http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Genetically-Modified-Foods

 

[Ashdoes]

Delisha~From my reading, ducklings need more Niacin then chicks do, so if I can't find waterfowl feed, and have to give chick starter what do I add for Niacin? I've read my duck book twice now, but can't find the answer. Thanks for any tips.

The organ meats of many animals deliver a high amount of niacin. (Chicken livers, duck livers, beef, lamb) One egg gives you all the niacin a duck needs.. organ meats can be a popular choice and the one i prefer. I do feed back eggs sometimes when I have an abundance. Raw liver.

Thank you Delisha. Is that one egg just once, or an egg a day? I never buy liver, so it's not something that's just around, but I'll think about getting some specifically for the ducks. If I feed flock raiser to everyone, will the ducks still need that extra Niacin when they're grown? Lots of questions I know, but this is the only thing I've had trouble finding the answers for, although I see all kinds of stories about deformed duck feet and that the cause is the Niacin defficancy.

 

[Mumsy]

Mumsy, did you put an extra temp/hygrometer in the Genesis or used the one they supplied? I just bought my Genesis and hope to start hatching eggs soon.

Thanks,

Lisa

I use my best quality temp/hygrometer at egg level inside the Genesis. It has been reliable and accurate in the LG. Using it helped give me 100% hatch in the LG. It showed the digital one built into my Genesis to be off slightly. I'm going to keep using it because I trust it. The Genesis is really holding the temp and humidity steady. I finally figured out I only need to add one teaspoon of distilled water per day (dyed blue with food coloring so I can see it through the window) to hold it to 33%.