The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

They are all cuties. How old did you say they were? Thank you again for posting snow pictures. Sue

They range between 7 weeks (youngest) and 12 weeks (oldest) for the chicks. Margaret is a year old

 

[rrrmamma]

Love the black silkie. Are the barred ones naked necks? Are they a cross? I am just starting to think about breeding and am curious about these babies.

 

[armorfirelady]

Love the pics Aoxa they look so happy to have so much room

 

[aoxa]

Here is a video of them being introduced for those not on our facebook

 

[aoxa]

Love the black silkie. Are the barred ones naked necks? Are they a cross? I am just starting to think about breeding and am curious about these babies.

Their mother was a naked neck, their father a barred rock. They are not pure naked neck, but the gene is very dominant if one parent is pure for the gene. My hens were, my naked neck rooster was not. So he fathered two chicks of a silkie that are in these pictures, but the gene did not express with a naked neck.



This one is fathered by a naked neck not pure for the gene. Mother was a silkie.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well...I'm going to try re-writing the post. I was saying....

I'm enjoying reading about everyone's feed. And thank you, CM, for the peat moss primer!

I still have an old fashioned feed mill in our area that will make feed to order so what I feed probably isn't helpful unless you have that kind of place. I can specify what I don't want in it, the protein level and calcium level, and they formulate around that. I do middle of the road on protein (16%) and lower calcium so that everyone can eat it. Then I put out calcium carbonate free choice, and give extra meat protein (and especially for the babies to raise their protein level).

The feed does have fish meal in it. And I've asked the formulator to see if he can track down some quality meat meal for the next time I buy but he's not sure if he can find it or not.

I feel so blessed to have a real-life old fashioned feed store

 

[maggiemo]

Holy cute as a button chicks Aoxa!
I will be really interested to see how you like the wood floor in your shed. This is a picture of my coop. I have a 100X60 foot area all fenced in for daytime. At night they are locked up tight inside the coop and run area you see.
I wish I hadn't put in wood and could do deep litter. Maybe I can see how you manage yours and I'll like mine more? I have shavings like you do, and poop boards under the roosts. It is fine, and very clean. I just like the deep litter. I do have deep litter in the small run area. They can scratch and play in there when it is bad weather.
.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Peeps - I had never heard of Dakin's solution until this morning. Kathy (the chicken chick) sent me a pm about it. This is the recipe she sent:

1 tablespoon of Clorox bleach, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 gallon of distilled water, made fresh daily.

Is that how you make yours? Would you use it as a soak on an open wound (on a foot) or would you spray it on?

Quote:
You can follow the trend and spend the big bucks on Vetericyn, or be thrifty and make a batch of Dakin's Solution when you need it.

Vetericyn is basically just a ridiculously expensive version of Dakin's Solution, with other chemicals added to preserve it/stabilize it. I got suckered in by all the ads for it on the RFD channel and the threads upon threads on a few horse forums I frequent that were raving about it for it's effectiveness on horses, so I bought a spray bottle of the original Vetericyn wound & infection care and a spray bottle of the hydro gel... but a fresh batch of home-made Dakin's Solution works just as well for pennies on the dollar, IME (needs to be mixed fresh, otherwise the chlorine breaks down pretty quickly... but it's still more cost effective). I have not had to use either one on any of my poultry, but I've used a lot of both on my horses (and myself). The Vetericyn did not out-perform the Dakin's. Some argue that the chlorine in the Dakin's Solution damages tissues... but if it did do any damage, it wasn't substantial enough for me to notice.
Maybe others have had better experiences with it

 

[Sally8]

Well...I'm going to try re-writing the post. I was saying....

I'm enjoying reading about everyone's feed. And thank you, CM, for the peat moss primer!

I still have an old fashioned feed mill in our area that will make feed to order so what I feed probably isn't helpful unless you have that kind of place. I can specify what I don't want in it, the protein level and calcium level, and they formulate around that. I do middle of the road on protein (16%) and lower calcium so that everyone can eat it. Then I put out calcium carbonate free choice, and give extra meat protein (and especially for the babies to raise their protein level).

The feed does have fish meal in it. And I've asked the formulator to see if he can track down some quality meat meal for the next time I buy but he's not sure if he can find it or not.

I feel so blessed to have a real-life old fashioned feed store

You should. I basically have Tractor Supply and on 2 different purchases, I've had to return my layer feed due to mold. 40 - 50 lbs of it. I can travel 40 miles....

 

[Leahs Mom]

Holy cute as a button chicks Aoxa!
I will be really interested to see how you like the wood floor in your shed. This is a picture of my coop. I have a 100X60 foot area all fenced in for daytime. At night they are locked up tight inside the coop and run area you see.
I wish I hadn't put in wood and could do deep litter. Maybe I can see how you manage yours and I'll like mine more? I have shavings like you do, and poop boards under the roosts. It is fine, and very clean. I just like the deep litter. I do have deep litter in the small run area. They can scratch and play in there when it is bad weather.
.

I ended up putting down vinyl on the floor in mine and do the litter right over it. My thought was that I didn't want to rot out the wood and that it would be easy to work with. (Got a piece of sheet vinyl at Menards really inexpensive).

After having it I'm really glad I put it down and I would do it again.