The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[farmerfogg]

I know EXACTLY how you feel. We did this about a month ago - took me several days to get over the images in my head even though I knew I did the right thing and felt a sense of accomplishment AND fed my family. I think everyone should have to experience how difficult it is to take a life to eat your meat. I still get a little sad when I see their baby pics... they were all named as they were professionally sexed and supposed to be our pet layers - bad sexing gave us 5 roos to cull. My husband had to walk away for a few moments after the first 3 - it was getting to him, but he finished the job. It's good to know you did the right thing and you know that, if needed, you could do it again.

Watching culling videos on YouTube seemed so simple to cut the coratid artery. It was. NOT easy at all. My first attempt left him bleeding, not dead. In the end I was successful. But you are right, the images in my head are so vivid. My 15 year old daughter stood by my side each step of the way, bless her heart. And my 18 year old helped me, in the way of directing him towards the capture net. She went in the house before the cull happened. She knew it was not going to be easy, bless her heart. So she babysat or 6 new chicks for me. My hubby works the night shift, so he wasn't available to assist. I'm grateful for my neighbor who came over after the cull to assist us in the plucking and cavity cleaning. I learned so much today! And I'm proud of my accomplishment.

 

[countrygirl74]

We messed up on our first one as well - only cut his skin and thought we had it as he was bleeding, but realized he wasn't dying! I started to get very upset saying "He's suffering! We didn't get the artery!" So, I held his neck and my husband tried again. The next cut got the artery and I realized the difference in the amount of blood and the color. After we got it right, it went more quickly. The next few we got right but I'm not sure our knife was as sharp as we thought it was and we felt we needed to apply a lot more force - the videos made it look a lot easier than it really was. I feel your pain! After sharing my experience, I felt comforted by many others on this thread who also said they "botched" their first cull - it does take practice, and even with practice, it's not easy emotionally, for me anyway. I am amazed that you did it yourself!! I definitely glad that I had my husband to really do the difficult part. Once I knew they were gone, I was fine and didn't mind the plucking or processing. Just give it some time and it WILL get better - took me at least a week to not feel so pained by it.

 

[chickiemomy]

Quote: It's too funny - my brother was just talking about how to move his chicks to the beds he wanted/ keep them out of the ones he didn't - & was saying he needed some hamster habitat trails -- that's what this guy has done! -- looks like his chooks can run mazes!

 

[Leahs Mom]

About the electro net........we only have a dusting of snow and I got my new electro netting. But there tends to be standing water where I want to start it since the hoop coop is not done yet. But I would love to get the girls out in the grass and out of the mud. I've read it has problems when the ground is dry but what about when its wet?

I was thinking I could put down a pallet, sort of like a bridge for the hens, to walk over where the standing water is now with regular plastic fencing I have on each side and then attach the electronet fence to the posts the plastic fencing is tied to.
What do yo.u think?

The ground can be wet but you don't want the bottom wire of your net in standing water or it will ground out and the net won't retain the needed charge.

If you don't have a huge amount of water, you could take some of the litter from your coop - or get a little dirt from the garden - and fill the area with the standing water to build it up out of the water.

OR... yes, you could use your regular netting across that place just knowing that it won't be protected by the electric.

Right now I have regular chain-link fence on the front side of where my net is which means I don't have a fully electric enclosure. It attaches to a post next to the pole building and a post next to their hen house.

If you bring this photo up larger, you can see the net ending back there at the corner of the building



And on this end it is abainst the hen house.





For Farmerfogg

took me at least a week to not feel so pained by it.

Shows you have a good conscience.

 

[chickiemomy]

thought about you today Mumsy - I went to the Monroe Poultry show. Had a lot of fun looking at tons of different chickens - got some pics - It'll be a couple of days before I can see if I can upload a couple for you all - -busy day tomorrow. Homeowner Assc community road work & St Paddy's party for everyone at our house! - green beer & green pop of course - have green cookies to bake & made green popcorn tonight.

so - learned something at the poultry show today - thought I'd share my - hmm - outrage is a little strong - but - here goes.

looking at the chicks for sale & I see 3 of an uncommon breed that I've been looking for --- not silkies - raised by someone in my area (omitting the telling details here so as to not disparage someone who's not here to defend themselves). -- - one roo, two hens - or more likely pullets as they seemed a little small.

I watched them for awhile & the rooster was doing this head tick thing. It stood out so I looked for some time & saw that it would open its beak – I was waiting for a crow – but it just gaped. I didn’t see someone – or at least anyone that appeared to be the person who owned them. so I wandered around until I found a chicken person who wasn’t busy (she was selling poultry stuff & araucanas) – I told her I was new to chickens & what did it imply if a chicken was shaking its head. She said ‘if it’s a silkie… I said no a large fowl – she said then that indicates an upper respiratory infection, especially if they are gaping. Your instincts are right. NEVER buy a bird with those symptoms & NEVER buy a bird that is in the vicinity of one that is behaving in that manner. When you do buy to add to your own flock, quarantine them for at least 6 weeks to observe if they have anything. In fact when I take my birds home from a show I quarantine them for 6 weeks to make sure they haven’t picked anything up. And yes those of us who show, do end up with birds that have become infected at shows. In fact I have known people who have had their whole flock decimated by bringing home illnesses from shows, not quarantining their birds and having it spread to their entire flock”

So this person, who sells ‘show’ chickens, several breeds – brought a SICK chicken to a show – exposed other peoples birds to a sick bird & was trying to SELL it! It was in a pen right next to 4 really beautiful banty somethings that someone else had sold to someone –so they are now exposed to whatever that rooster has. I showed up at the beginning of the show – so not like they’d been there a week & it just came down with something. They had to have known – if I, a novice, could see something wasn’t right…

So tell me what I'm missing - why would the show people not kick this bird out? Let me say this was not an occasional tick - this was several times a minute, all the time that I watched. & the gaping was distressing to me to watch. I won't be going to this farm to buy birds - the araucana lady said - buy his fertile eggs & incubate - but his show chickens didn't look that impressive to me. I'd rather buy feed store chicks... The possibly sick roo was in the for sale area - not the show area, else I would think the judges who were wandering thru the show area would have seen it & done something???

It was just distressing - but I learned something today - & quarantine is burned into my brain. Chatted with Araucana lady for awhile about closed flocks, & etc - liked her & her advice. She's a BYC person too.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

Quote: X3!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pullet Surprise]

Oh and I really REALLY loved the Chicken Tunnel Man! That's filed away in the back of my brain for "someday in case I need it". Right now it's more like" how to keep them out of the garden completely." I must admit they have done a fine job on my front flower beds....I just need to clean up all the dirt they have kicked out on to the "lawn". I am so very happy with the lack of the normal weeds that take up so much of my time in the spring ... and the good girls did not dig up all the wild violet roots so there will be plenty for the wild bunnies and chickens to graze on. I don't think that the black-eyed-Susan seeds survived though. The oregano is doing great and here I used to get ticked off at it because it was so invasive...I did put chicken poo around a couple of my rose bushes...so far they are still alive and leafing out like crazy. We had our first really warm day yesterday, supposedly 79...so take heart all of you in the northern climes, spring is coming.

 

[delisha]

Some people refuse to recognize illness. They refuse to cull. They think it is more important to try to save an old or injured or sick bird. You can't control how people think or feel. I bet if you talked to the person who brought that sick bird, they would tell you, it was not sick. It was just something the bird does. How you raise you flock and how you bring in new birds is part of animal husbandry. You have to choose what type you want to be. Bringing home live birds is a risk to your whole flock, no matter if they are showing signs or not.

6 weeks is a good amount of time ..thank you for your story. I hope this will *teach* other to at least think about purchasing live birds and introducing them into there flock.

 

[delisha]

I love the garden tunnels. Thanks for the video!!

 

[jlynnet]

I made the drive last night and picked up my BCM eggs. They are in the bator now. The farm has some beautiful birds! I just might have to go back for another breed.