The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[tadpole98]

Does anyone have experience with Welsummers? Please comment - do you like them? Pros and Cons?

love them. They are kind, lay dark splotchy eggs. and they lay very well. No cons.

 

[zbraswell92]

Every thing that's a veggie or fruit we eat today is a GMO. If a rural farmer breeds to corns together because one is bug resistant and the other produces sweeter corn, the product is a GMO.
We've done it to dogs to produce dog breeds. We do it to chickens all the time to produce new breeds of them.

A GMO is not bad. Most people think of scientists in a lab breaking atoms to produce GMO's but they are not bad, they are just better producers.
The corn you get from the grocery store is a GMO, as well as all those different tomato breeds, like Big Boy.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Tadpole - Do you have Welsummers? Did you get them from the hatchery or from a breeder?

Zbra - you need to do a little research into what GMO is. It is not breeding or hybridization. Do a search and read-up on the subject. You'll be surprised at what you find.

 

[aoxa]

Tadpole - Do you have Welsummers? Did you get them from the hatchery or from a breeder?

Zbra - you need to do a little research into what GMO is. It is not breeding or hybridization. Do a search and read-up on the subject. You'll be surprised at what you find.

You can easily find out which veggies and fruit are GMO by the bar code.







Found some foreign foot prints in the freshly fallen snow. Any guesses? I thought deer, but google images tells me I am wrong. Do I need to worry about this animal?

 

[aoxa]

Tadpole - Do you have Welsummers? Did you get them from the hatchery or from a breeder?

Zbra - you need to do a little research into what GMO is. It is not breeding or hybridization. Do a search and read-up on the subject. You'll be surprised at what you find.

There is something just plain wrong about the grapple..




You can see it starts with an 8

 

[Adenium]

For those with nonroosting silkies.....ours initially pigpiled but when we put round dowels on the ladder they all eventually started roosting on the 2x4. some even hop up to the poop board directly now and all hop straight down in the morning.

 

[CoopChick719]

I wonder if this has as much as anything else to do with your Silkies deciding to roost? How high off the floor and how broad are your shelves?

For the time being, until I know for sure what gender mix I have in the 5 Silkie chicks I have, I want to build them their own enclosure out in the shed (if it ever gets finished) so I've been looking at all your great ideas and trying to decide exactly what I want to do. I was thinking I might put a 1x4 up just a few inches off the floor in case they wanted to roost. Whatever I build I want to make portable.

Last time I did chick check last night, the Silkies were leaping and flapping their wings and just having a ball, playing like little kids on a playground

You may be right about the shelves but all of them at one point have roosted on the lowest roost. My lower roost is about 12--14 inches from the floor. The upper roost is about 3 feet from the floor. Both are made of 2 x 4's turned on the 2" side but it's rough lumber so it's a full 2"s. The shelves are also rough lumber 1 x 12's screwed to the upper roost.

 

[CoopChick719]

From the looks of his messy crest, it may just be an accumulated layer of coop dust/dirt... or do they have wood ashes to dust bath in? (Fine dust gets in all the nooks and crannies, even on the birds). If you are feeding your flock FF it may be a coating of residual food too (my Silkies all wear their FF proudly). Does anyone else in your flock have anything similar going on with their combs?

I'd just take a warm, wet wash cloth and clean Marshall's comb and crest really well (or you could completely bathe him, but that's a bunch of extra work from start to finish until he's fully dried). After you get it cleaned up, if it looks normal and there are no areas that look sore or raw I wouldn't be too concerned.

If it's possibly a fungus then I'd try some NuStcock rubbed in every few days, the sulphur in it will help take care of the fungus.

Well, PeepsCA, the messy crest is my fault. I put some bagbalm on him thinking it might help the dryness. I really need to give him a bath but it is way too cold here right now for that. Warm wash cloth it is!! Ordering NuStock tonight. Now that I think about it a few of the cochins combs look a little dry too.

They do have a dustbin with wood ash & sand in it. But I think they are as someone else (aoxa possibly) on here put it "dustbath stupid". I showed everyone the bin...Nothing. So I put everyone in it...Nothing. Finally I put everyone in 1 at a time and dusted them myself! I haven't seen anyone in it since.

 

[CoopChick719]

About the dirty/dry comb on the Silkie roo. I keep a package of good quality thick baby wipes in my barn. Very easy to use them for quick clean ups on comb, faces, bums, or legs. It's also easy to make your own baby wipes. I use them if I want a closer look for small wounds or whatever. I tend to believe over bathing Silkies can contribute to dry flaky skin.

Thank you Mumsy!! Why didn't I think of that?!

I made my own baby wipes when the kids were little! I've never given him a bath. Thought I'd wait until it warms up some to do that.

 

[tadpole98]

Quote: at the store the other day they had bubble gum flavored apples and another flavors. Why not have an apple flavored apple/?! just wrong..

Tadpole - Do you have Welsummers? Did you get them from the hatchery or from a breeder?

Zbra - you need to do a little research into what GMO is. It is not breeding or hybridization. Do a search and read-up on the subject. You'll be surprised at what you find.

I have three welsummers and i got them from Heartland hatchery.