The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I am going to have mine positioned so one end is facing south & one north. I also plan on using a clear tarp in the colder/shorter days to help them get as much light as they can.
And there will be wire along bottom that is an *L* shape so that part attached to base of coop and other part on the ground to deter digging predators. Then plant some growing vines on it to grow up the hoop coop for shade and food for hens

I thought the hoop coop was moveable, so I didn't think about the buried hardware cloth/wire.

 

[Bulldogma]

Which way do you have the open end facing? South? North?

I would face it south, because it looks dark in there. Would get a lot more light if facing south

Do you have a pop door, or do you just leave the big door open all day? Do hoop coops protect against digging predators?

Because we live in a warmer climate, we faced the open part North. The other reason for this it that we have a mountain range directly to our North and this means our wind comes from the SW, W or NW... but always from the West to some degree. We have not had any issue with the wind blowing in the open side this winter (thanks to those beautiful mountains!).

Our hoop coop has a 12" "apron" of welded wire all the way around to prevent predators from digging their way in. The coop is also in a very wide open area, so we don't get many predators as they don't come this far out of tree cover for fear of the owls in the area. That is one nice thing about fewer trees, I suppose.

 

[aoxa]

Because we live in a warmer climate, we faced the open part North. The other reason for this it that we have a mountain range directly to our North and this means our wind comes from the SW, W or NW... but always from the West to some degree. We have not had any issue with the wind blowing in the open side this winter (thanks to those beautiful mountains!).

Our hoop coop has a 12" "apron" of welded wire all the way around to prevent predators from digging their way in. The coop is also in a very wide open area, so we don't get many predators as they don't come this far out of tree cover for fear of the owls in the area. That is one nice thing about fewer trees, I suppose.A

Again, didn't even consider how hot you can get there. It rarely gets above 30 here. IE: 86F

It's too bad you couldn't have it facing south in the winter, and north in the summer. Too hard to move it I suppose.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Mine wont be moved. Its being placed so that they can use the electric netting during the spring/summer/fall in the side yard & then access the veggie garden they used all this winter as their winter retreat since it has pernament fence up year round already.

And the ends will be open cattle panels/hardware cloth all year except the south end which I will cover with the tarp during the winter to keep snow out. The north end wont get much, if any snow in & no winds. so plenty of ventilation!!

The hoop coop is replacing my doll house coop which I can hopefully sell after the spring and my new chicks are integrated into the flock. I have to wait on the new pullets until the hoop coop is done so the pullets can use the old doll house coop for quarantine till I know they didnt bring any surprises with them. *sigh*

I need more laying hens my eggs are selling faster than they are being hatched lol

 

[aaggjg]

So my good neurotic frizzle bantam Cochin sensed that I was talking about her being broody and promptly went broody. If only I wanted or needed more chickens!!! Popcorn was made to be a mama hen... Totally found her calling. Oh well hopefully she will snap out of it soon!! Tank who some of you might remember from the GB thread is thriving and finally returned to laying last week!!! She looks good but on closer inspection the red patched she had picked clean by her vent have not regrown feathers.... You'd never know if you didnt look closely as the surrounding down covers the skin. I nu-stocked her a few times during her recovery.... Here is a recent photo of her : I forgot how chalky her egg color is!!! I did notice that Caesar my GLW who was also mite infested is looking good & returned to laying! BUT her neck feathers looked strange so sure enough I inspected her and found mites again!!! I can not for the life of me find my Nu-stock I have to tear the house apart. It is the one thing misplaced from my chicken 1st aid kit. Ugh!!! I dusted Caesar with DE as I had it on hand and no wood ash .... I mixed in a little sulfur powder for good measure. I also sprayed the coop with orange guard and sprinkled DE & sulfur powder. I have a few hens who feel light even though they are on FF, ACV, cayenne, garlic etc etc. they also have messy bottoms. I'm not sure what is causing this. So I keep watching for clues. Maybe the mites but those birds are in a different coop and none of them appear to have mites. Hmmmmmm. I've noticed a funny thing with the hens sometimes.... They pickup branches etc etc and twist to try and place them on their backs. I figure they thinking they are piling up nest building materials that they will pack in like a mule to the desired nest??? Of course as soon as they take a step everything falls off. It is amusing to watch and I was wondering if you all notice this behavior too??

 

[lalaland]

ok, this is totally OT, but....I am picking up a new kitten tonight, and a companion kitty on Friday night. I havent had cats for about 6 months, after putting my last elderly cat to sleep last fall. I still miss her, but I am sooo excited. ALmost as good as new chicks

aggjjjig, love seeing the pic of Tank!

I've only seen that behavior (putting bits of grass and straw on their backs) in the nest box. Have been watching an eagle cam of an eagle on the nest, and she puts huge branches on her back while she is sitting on the next, and also constantly rearranges the branches in the nest.

 

[kian]

Kian,
At 4 weeks I have my chicks in the house off heat.You will feel better if you weaned them off.

Thank you Delisha We put a 60 watt bulb in there last night, so it was a big change from what was there before, but enough that they weren't freaking out. No mad chirps last night, and they're acting the same as usual today. I feel silly for not changing out the bulbs earlier anyway. (We have the lamp on top of the brooder. It's a dome light so the bulb is actually pretty far off the brooder itself).

 

[aaggjg]

Oh Aoxa I forgot to weigh in on the Marans discussion. I have 3: 1BCM, 1blue CM, 1splash. They were raised by my neurotic hen Popcorn and are almost a year old. The splash is the friendliest. The BCM is always looking at you with a cocked head like she is trying to size you up. My birds are confined but get to roam the garden a few hours each day. The Marans are always dying to get out. They goto every corner of the yard and sometimes are so focused on the good treats they have found that they won't come running when I shake the treat container. Pearl the splash will follow me around while I turn over stones for her.... Or even if I move something she knows bugs might be lurking. They are independent, smart and I'd say good layers of large beautiful eggs. My BCM lays a dark specked egg, the blue lays a dark egg that looks like it has a sunburst on one end! And the splash lays the lightest of the bunch.... They are a talkative bunch and love to scream & yell when they want the nest box or tell you they laid an egg!! And of course always alert to predators!!! Not great for my city backyard but for you?? I'd say they'd work well. I love the dark eggs!!! Now if I could just get them to be quiet!!!

 

[kian]

Okay - Time for the "Question of the Moment"

A:
List ONE thing that you have tried because of reading this thread (or one of the other 2: OT & ROAD) that you learned about or were encouraged to try that you're glad you did.

B:
What has been the result since you tried it? Are you glad you did it? Have the results been positive or negative?

Only one???? If ONLY one, then I'd say, without a doubt, it's the fermented feed. I saw a big change in them once I switched them over. I had someone who has raised chickens for 18 years compliment me on how big and healthy the cockerals were that I gave him (they had to be rehomed) and said he was amazed at how they looked (that was great for the old ego!). I've had the baby chicks on it since the day they came home (at 1 week) and they are big and they're feathering in nicely. I tell everyone who asks me about raising chickens that this is how I feed them. Of course they look at me like I'm nuts but I say, don't knock it until you've tried it.


Of course my family hates the smell. HATES the smell. I finally moved it into the garage to stop their whining!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa - Your reply wasn't too long. That's the kind of discussion I was hoping for.

Question for you on the ff. Since chicks are a "moving target" (meaning they grow and change so much in such a short period of time) it's really hard to determine if they would have grown the same in that last period of time on the ff vs. dry. So my question is this: On your adults, did you like the results you were getting w/ff? Did you feel they did better/worse/the same in the time you were using it vs. prior history on dry?


NOW A FEW "REASONINGS" ON SOAKED OR FF

I remember my mom saying something about wet feed that I've been contemplating. Now HER feed was dog food. They had a collie kennel when I was really young. They used to soak the food in water before feeding but she told me that the vet told them that the dogs would eat less since the VOLUME was higher. The vet's take on that was that they wouldn't be getting as much nutrition in that case.

Now my thought on that is that they were feeding processed dog kibble that had already been cooked to death in the manufacturing process so there prob. wasn't a whole lot of nutrition left in there in the first place and what was had been altered by heat.

Comparing that to the feed I use for my chickens: mine is just coarsely ground raw grains, fish meal, and some nutribalancer. In my case, it is RAW GROUND GRAINS that are being soaked rather than COOKED, HIGHLY PROCESSED GRAINS/GRAIN PRODUCTS that are used in dog food.

It has been proven that soaking raw grains makes the nutrients more bio-available partially by reducing phytic acid (phytates) and, therefore, increases the nutrients that can be absorbed by the body. HOWEVER, the cooked stuff that is used in packaged dog food is a whole different deal.

All of this to say -
Does it stand to reason that PROCESSED FEEDS (pellets, etc.) like you'd get in a bag on a shelf that have been heat processed would not result in the same nutritional benefits as a feed that has UNPROCESSED RAW GRAINS in it?