The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[chickiemomy]

all the chickie pics are soo cute - you all are hard on those of us with limited chicken coop space!! The swedish flower chicks - the colors on those is really something. But you really can't beat the silkies for expressions. Tell me - you all raise them so you have camera subjects, I know!! They are too funny. LIked the turkey, o I mean big chicken too. Can't leave anyone out.

o & I liked that green for the shed too - not too green,green - we paint all our outbuildings the same color scheme as our hose - light blue with almond/tan trim. Can't ever go wrong with barn red tho.

 

[Sally8]

This picture is just too cute! I absolutely love it. Thanks for sharing! sue

 

[Sally8]

Something happened at my house yesterday. I fed everyone yesterday, let them out, went to work. At 3pm I came home, Rosie, the turkey was off her eggs and out in the pen.......Sally, the Delaware, who has been unbelievably faithful about sitting on her eggs, was out in her run (2 separate). NO ONE WAS ON THEIR EGGS!!!!!! To imitate my 5yr old grandson, WHAT THE.... At bedtime, Sally roosted with her sister hens but Rosie went back to her nest. I had gathered up all the eggs and put them in the incubator but gave Rosie a few of her back. What could have happened? No tracks in the snow, no feather lying around or anybody missing, for that matter. It was crazy.

 

[off-grid hen]

Hello All! I have stopped trying to keep up with all the posts, as I am about 20 pages behind.

Is anyone who lives in really cold climate having trouble with deep litter? I used DL all summer and it was ok. We started freezing temps in November, so nothing broke down since then. Now I have 4 months of poop thawing and trying to break down all at once and the ammonia smell is really bad. I think I am going to have to scoop it all out today. If the DL had been thicker would it have been ok through the winter? It would have to be several feet thick to work here, I think. There have got to be people using DL in cold climates, just looking for some suggestions here... Also the same is happening in the run. 4 months of frozen poop all thawing at once and the smell is like a sewer. I am throwing some shavings on it today.

I also have not been able to ferment feed because it is just too cold for microbial action. I'm not going to do it in the house. At what temps could I start successfully fermenting feed without having it go too long and creating bad mold?

 

[off-grid hen]

Aoxa-thanks for letting my son name Lucy.

 

[armorfirelady]

Hello All! I have stopped trying to keep up with all the posts, as I am about 20 pages behind.

Is anyone who lives in really cold climate having trouble with deep litter? I used DL all summer and it was ok. We started freezing temps in November, so nothing broke down since then. Now I have 4 months of poop thawing and trying to break down all at once and the ammonia smell is really bad. I think I am going to have to scoop it all out today. If the DL had been thicker would it have been ok through the winter? It would have to be several feet thick to work here, I think. There have got to be people using DL in cold climates, just looking for some suggestions here... Also the same is happening in the run. 4 months of frozen poop all thawing at once and the smell is like a sewer. I am throwing some shavings on it today.

I also have not been able to ferment feed because it is just too cold for microbial action. I'm not going to do it in the house. At what temps could I start successfully fermenting feed without having it go too long and creating bad mold

I live in WNY and have been using DL since I got my chickens in August with no problems. I turn it once a week and add material to it twice a month. I also throw boss & corn in there once a week so the hens help turn it. Mine is still breaking down as long as I turn it. It gets wet on the edges from the snow and rain but still breaks down. I did have to remove some of the DL from the doll house coop since it was so high and had an odor. Its harder to turn in there since there is no room to get the pitch fork in there easily.

Before I turn it the DL is about a foot or 2 deep. After I turn it its about 3 feet deep. And then the hens spend the rest of the day tossing it more looking for goodies. The soil under the DL is not frozen and I make sure when I turn it I get the soil as well since it helps break the DL down. Heck I found an alive earthworm when I was turning the DL in December when we were having our deep freeze

I also have a lot of ventilation in the coop/enclosed run so that helps with moisture and keeping odors down.


Here is what the DL looks like in my enclosed run about a month ago

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa-thanks for letting my son name Lucy.

I didn't realize that was you!

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

You would not see anything relating to gender in the tail feather region yet. Not until 12-14 weeks.

Comb is so small..

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.

Poor thing! lol

 

[countrygirl74]

Hello All! I have stopped trying to keep up with all the posts, as I am about 20 pages behind.

Is anyone who lives in really cold climate having trouble with deep litter? I used DL all summer and it was ok. We started freezing temps in November, so nothing broke down since then. Now I have 4 months of poop thawing and trying to break down all at once and the ammonia smell is really bad. I think I am going to have to scoop it all out today. If the DL had been thicker would it have been ok through the winter? It would have to be several feet thick to work here, I think. There have got to be people using DL in cold climates, just looking for some suggestions here... Also the same is happening in the run. 4 months of frozen poop all thawing at once and the smell is like a sewer. I am throwing some shavings on it today.

I also have not been able to ferment feed because it is just too cold for microbial action. I'm not going to do it in the house. At what temps could I start successfully fermenting feed without having it go too long and creating bad mold?

I don't live in a cold climate necessarily but cold enough that we do hit single digits during the winter (occasionally down to 0), get snow, and my deep litter will freeze some. My deep litter is in the run, completely uncovered. I have never had any issues with the chicken side of the pen - no ammonia, etc. However, I have with the duck side since they are so messy and get the litter wet all the time. Once I went out there to stir it up and it was totally ammonia smelling. There were two things I noticed that changed - I had run out of mash and was just feeding them ordinary crumbles instead of their regular fermented feed mash AND it was unusually wet for a long time due to the weather. I did two things that worked like a charm... got them back on ff as soon as possible and made my own lacto-bacillus "tincture", put it in a spray bottle at 20:1 ratio and sprayed it all over the deep litter in the duck pen. Next day... NO ammonia smell and haven't had any since. I keep a batch in my fridge so it's ready to use again if needed. I will be interested to see how it helps keep the smell down in the heat of the summer....

 

[Leahs Mom]

OGH - When it thawed here the first time earlier in Jan., I took out about half the litter...or maybe 3/4 since it was pretty deep. I do think that in the winter when they spend more time inside it is just going to get more concentrated. No problem...remove some and add some dry on the top. It will keep the benefits of the deep litter and get things more balanced again.

Mumsy will have some input there. I remember she divides hers regularly but I can't remember the interval. I was thinking every couple weeks maybe...but she doesn't take it ALL out. Just partial.

Once they get back outside for longer periods of time things will get back to normal again (and some ff does wonders!)

 

[Mumsy]

Well it happened to be right on mumsy's return from catdance's farm!! I have 4 pullets I hatched from her last spring.



And here is a shot of my black, Ninja, & splash, Pia....



Ok I'll stop filling up your timeline with my silkie girls now... I promise.....

Wow!!! I'm sure happy you posted pic's! They are stunning!
How many eggs did you start with and were the four pullets your final count of Catdance chicks?