The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Loving that!

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy congrats on your broody....I think

Leah- your chicks are so beautiful. I love how each chick has different markings. If I ever move and have more space I would love some SFH. Though I dont know how they would od with are winters lol

 

[aoxa]

Kiddos are 9 weeks old today!


White (ya think this is a "guy")

They are gorgeous! Also, you only have the one boy. I'm confident enough to say that

You took some great pictures too!

 

[delisha]

Beautiful pictures of your baby's LM..and BDM

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa - I was thinking that "black" is probably a boy...only because of the feathers I'm noticing around the tail.

 

[Bulldogma]

LM - I'm stealing all your SFH babies! They are so beautiful!! (And I'm an addict - LOL!)

Aoxa - bad hair day is that poor Silkie's middle name. She was bald on top when we got her due to rooster use, and as soon as she grew those feathers back, our bantam Cochin started breeding her and pulled out all the new ones! poor thing - she's just growing them out again now. Her feathers seem to come out easier than our black Silkie's feathers - she still has a full head of fuzz even though the roo is breeding her regularly.

 

[Leahs Mom]

So, Leigh...do you think black is "him" or "her"?

Bummer on the rooster and the silkie ! Why DO these ladies put up with that?

 

[Mumsy]

Wonderful..she went broody right on time for the Easter hatch along!! You need to enter for your RIR eggs.

I marked my calendar that the E hatch along starts on March 30? My Fogle eggs will be here next week and go in the incubator immediately. They are too valuable to take a chance with an unproven broody pullet. The next two weeks it's going to be musical incubators around here. Johnny eggs will come out of one bator and go under the broody. Genesis eggs go into lock down on March 10 for the Catdance. Then after they hatch the HRIR eggs get moved from the LG into the Genesis. Then I am expecting two week old Fogle chicks by airmail! *yikes!* There will hopefully be chicks popping out around here throughout March. No eggs getting set for April. I will be maxed out for chicks.

 

[Kacey's Krazee's]

It's been many many years since I've had that kind of behavior in my flock. They were hatchery birds and my runs and pens were too small for the number of birds I was keeping at the time.

I have never had four week old cockerel chicks fight like that. I have no idea why that would happen except maybe it's in the strain. You don't have the room to make more runs? This is a tough one. The only thing I can think of is your birds need room to free range and they may need meat in their diet. As in red raw meat.

How big is your property?

Sorry you are dealing with this. It must be very hard to wittness. I'm sure you will get more ideas from others soon to help you figure it out.

Mumsy, we have 12 acres, and do have room to put in more runs. I don't think they are being over crowded. They have all been in this coop together since October, and actually had to cull 2 of them recently due to internal egg issues. The chicks are in an enclosed coop, I have them in an 8x8x5 ft coop. It's hard to tell which one is the bad guy, or if it's more than one. Delisha has suggested that I mark the ones fighting, and it will help me watch their behavior. I have some tie wraps that I will take out and put them in their coop, so I am ready if it starts again. They did seem better today, or I missed the action.

KK - I wonder if your birds that are pecking each other to blood may need some meat protein. (Besides more room?)

You might try going down and getting some ground beef or venison and feed it to them raw to see if this helps.

LM, I did give them some raw meat yesterday, and some old cheese. Our freezer went out.. I caught it early, before it thawed, and put it into the larger freezer in the barn. I did finish thawing some wild pork backstrap, and gave it to them. I also added additional pellets into their FF, and fed that to them in their evening feeding. I am also doing the BOSS sprouts, and they get a colander full, every 3rd day. They were given that today. They seemed quieter today, so maybe both the raw meat, cheese, and the additonal protein from the pellets did help.

kk, about featherpicking - you know I have that rescue flock that came badly featherpicked - that was from boredom I think because the guy had raised them in the bedroom.

They started again after a spree of -30 weather when I kept them cooped up for a few days. I did make more room for them inside, got a feather block, added more activity foods, top dressed with meat grease, .....but I have been told it is a learned behavior and once learned will never go away.

Someone told me to cull the whole flock and start over

I did try something called rooster booster pick no more lotion on one hen. It worked. I don't like it - it is a) expensive, b)perfumey and I don't like to smell perfume on people let alone chickens, c) messy in the extreme, .....but.....it worked.

Also tried spritzing the hens with vinegar water, and I think that helped but it needed to be replaced about daily, and given the below zero weather and the fact that I was only seeing the hens in the dark because it was dark when I got up and left for work and dark outside when I got home, ...it was not a good solution for me at that time. I also felt skeptical about why it would work since they were getting acv in their water, but the spritzing solution is very strong so maybe the aroma?

I wouldn't want to spritz vinegar on open wounds either, though,

Keep us posted on what you try and what happens!

Lala, I have had issues off and on with my flock. I have only a couple left from my original flock, and one of them was a feather picker. She is a Buff Orpington, and seems to randomly walk around and start pecking on one of the others. No seeming reason for picking on the ones that she does. She picks on all of them. The only eggs I incubated, I had 10 of 18 hatch, and of that 10, 8 were roos. I gave away 6 of them, and was deciding which of them I wanted. During that time, the hens learned some dirty tricks from the boys... that is where I think the comb pecking and wing pinching came from. They didn't do that until those cockerals showed them.
I have used numerous ways to interfere with the feather picking in the past. Axle grease, vaseline, vicks vapo rub. I had the best results when I gave up the 16% feed, and found the 20%. Then when I switched to the FF, it seemed like a magic potion !. I don't have an exact measurement for the FF, and I think I backed off to much on it.

I have never had chicks draw blood..you might want to mark the fighters with a band, or marker and see if it is just one or two chicks causing the ruckus. Try covering one of the naughty ones in a milk crate for a day after a fight.(with food and water)

Delisha, I think you have a great idea with the bands. I am going to use some tie wraps on them. I am going to round them up tomorrow, and stash them in the coop, so I'll be ready when those bad boys start up again. I'm not sure which ones they were, but I do see some stink eye going on with the white rocks, so I am going to "on the ready" mark 'em and put them in a time out.

 

[Pozees]

Exactly my thinking! If she turns out to be a good brooder and mother hen, she will be very useful. I'll put all the rest of the test eggs under her and see how she does. It's going to get crazy here next week. My Fogle line HRIR eggs are coming and both my incubators are going.

Same here for Fogle eggs next week Can't wait! My 5 Catdance chicks still look great, three weeks old tomorrow and the few days after, feathering in and doing the "if I run fast enough I can fly!" game One thing I really like about them is when I'm checking on them they look right back at me with simple curiosity, rather than the "OMG OMG OMG there's a giant up there!" that some of my LF pullets do. Breeding for temperament is so important!