The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[cywiar merch]

I read that chickens cannot tolerate milk. Is this true?

 

[aaggjg]

Ok so I will never understand chickens! Popcorn went broody a few days ago and of course decided to sit on favorite nest box. She is at the lower end of the pecking order but is a fierce protector of her nest & chicks. So in order to anticipate laying time drama I moved her to #4 nesting box. Never used .... Ever. She stayed and I figured great!! Well I pushed her out of box this morning to drink & eat (she's not sitting on eggs) and now Tank is in popcorns box!!! And Caesar is lined up yelling that it is her turn. Well #1 favorite box is empty!! I just made them an outside Rubbermaid tote box .... But so far no takers. Silly silly chickens ....

 

[Sally8]

Ok so I will never understand chickens! Popcorn went broody a few days ago and of course decided to sit on favorite nest box. She is at the lower end of the pecking order but is a fierce protector of her nest & chicks. So in order to anticipate laying time drama I moved her to #4 nesting box. Never used .... Ever. She stayed and I figured great!! Well I pushed her out of box this morning to drink & eat (she's not sitting on eggs) and now Tank is in popcorns box!!! And Caesar is lined up yelling that it is her turn. Well #1 favorite box is empty!! I just made them an outside Rubbermaid tote box .... But so far no takers. Silly silly chickens ....

It took almost 2 months before mine would use the Rubbermaid tote. Then it was their favorite for a long time.

 

[rrrmamma]

I had a parrot that unknown to us had been chewing a lead curtain weight in the curtain on the windowsill he loved to sit on. He had seizures, lost weight, little appetite. I took him to our avian vet and he was diagnosed with lead poisoning. The vet did chelation therapy with him and he survived and thrived. I can't remember just how he was treated as this was 20+ years ago. Might try it with the roo if you think he has been exposed,

 

[Mumsy]

So I bought a home lead kit. I couldn't afford the $30 one today. This one cost me $13. I can use it maybe for six tests.



I put the rinsed gizzard, heart, liver, gall bladder, kidneys, spleen, and tiny cluster of 'not eggs' into my old beater blender. Can I just say YUCK! and DOUBLE

There must be a better method of doing that.
I followed the directions for testing soil since the store didn't have the water testing kit.


I put one teaspoon of the organ sample into a plastic container and mixed two teaspoons of White wine vinegar with it. It must sit over night at room temperature. Tomorrow morning I will use the eye dropper with the kit and remove one teaspoon of liquid and dropper it onto a dry test pad. There was enough sample material left for another test so I sealed and froze it.




Lead is non biodegradable. It can be in dust particles invisible to the human eye. It can be in old plumbing pipes or the soil of old playgrounds built before unleaded gasoline. It can be in anything and everywhere. I am nauseated now and must go lay down and listen to soothing music.

 

[aaggjg]

Ok I thought suet didn't go bad?!! I just went to mix up some Johnny cakes and there is black fuzz growing all over mine!! I guess I should toss it it was so hard to find here .... Oh well.

 

[Mumsy]

Ok I thought suet didn't go bad?!! I just went to mix up some Johnny cakes and there is black fuzz growing all over mine!! I guess I should toss it

it was so hard to find here .... Oh well.

Did you keep them in the refrigerator or freezer? That's where I store mine. Beacause they are home made with no preservatives, they must be kept cold or used.

Sorry aagg.

 

[lalaland]

I read that chickens cannot tolerate milk. Is this true?

nah, its not true. You can mix leftover milk in with your feed, or buttermilk, or yougurt, or cottage cheese, etc. I'm not saying you can raise chickens on nothing but milk, mind you, but milk is fine for chickens.

 

[Sally8]

Ok I thought suet didn't go bad?!! I just went to mix up some Johnny cakes and there is black fuzz growing all over mine!! I guess I should toss it it was so hard to find here .... Oh well.

I remember on the other thread a discussion on whether suet would go bad. I always freeze mine too. I can rarely get it here unless I know someone butchering a cow.

Did anyone watch "how is it made" (I'm home I'll)? They did a segment on eggs. They said:

Chickens start laying at 19 weeks
Have 15 hours of light
Have a measured amount of food that moves along in front of them 3x daily
Watered like a guinea pig (my interpretation)
(You only see the chickens head). The rest is in tiered galvanized cells. So very sad
Life over at 72 weeks as eggs are no longer consumable
The eggs they produced have a store life of 35 days.

The middle 2 lines are mine but the rest was in the documentation.

 

[aaggjg]

Did you keep them in the refrigerator or freezer? That's where I store mine. Beacause they are home made with no preservatives, they must be kept cold or used.

Sorry aagg.

I had it in my fridge!!! Some out of town guests hunted it down while visiting and I haven't had time to make the Johnny cakes until today