The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I am feeling kind of strange....

I went out and looked at the new girls..... egg production was up a bit.... even with the stress of a new place.....

Looked a little closer.... They are all beaked!

I don't know whether to be angry about helping to perpetuate the cycle, or be happy that the rest of their lives will be free range....

Skinny little things too...

When you said they had long nails and you thought they were caged birds, I wondered if they were de-beaked.

So sad for them... But the rest of their life with you will make up for their early days...

I just love red sex links. I will be getting more as soon as the barn is complete. They are awesome layers, and are very personable. Something about dozens of layers running to greet you after work that just warms your heart.

 

[Bulldogma]

I am feeling kind of strange....

I went out and looked at the new girls..... egg production was up a bit.... even with the stress of a new place.....

Looked a little closer.... They are all beaked!

I don't know whether to be angry about helping to perpetuate the cycle, or be happy that the rest of their lives will be free range....

Skinny little things too...

Awwww... poor girls. So happy they'll be living out the rest of their productive time free ranging and learning to eat bugs and grass! They must think they're in heaven!

When you said they had long nails and you thought they were caged birds, I wondered if they were de-beaked.

So sad for them... But the rest of their life with you will make up for their early days...

I just love red sex links. I will be getting more as soon as the barn is complete. They are awesome layers, and are very personable. Something about dozens of layers running to greet you after work that just warms your heart.

I have a few Production reds... They'll hop up onto my arm and I ask them, "Are you one of my pretty Pennies?" They look so proud to have such a meaningful name. All 3 of them! The Heritage RIR girl gets called "Penny" a lot too... wouldn't want her to feel left out.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
x2

I'm just about a year into this chicken thing and I let my flock free range. Lost my one cockerel early last fall. He was dumber than a box of rocks so no real surprise or loss there. To me the real test will be early spring when all the critters that live in the woods around my house start looking to feed their babies. We have fox, fishers, coyotes and so forth. My dogs are indoors when I'm not home but they're loud and vigilant, and they mark everything in range when I let them out. I'd hate to lose any of my birds but they're happiest when they're free to roam about my land, doing their chicken thing.

How many birds do you have?

 

[midnightroo]

Hi all,
Lots going on and I am just catching up. On Monday we picked up two golden laced Wyandotte and two barred rocks from the local feed store via Mt Healthy hatchery.

I thought I would post my experience with sand in the brooder. This is our first time raising chicks so we are reading and doing the best we can. The sand works well, but in my opinion it does have an odor if you don't clean the poop out often, multiple times a day. I have added some soil on top of the sand tonight from the garden and they have been happily scratching in the soil of hours. If I were going to do this often I would get something to clean the sand easier then a spoon, but hopefully, one of the hens will do the job of raising babies for me in the future. I wouldn't say the sand prevents pasty butt because we are cleaning some of their butts, but I don't know from experience how much is too much poop on the butt feathers. They did dust bath in the sand which a good to see and assume that chicks can't dust bath in shavings.

Chicken tv is great, but chick tv is hilarious. Love giving them some ground lamb and watching them all chase each other when one has a piece on her mouth even though there is more on the ground.

If anyone has any questions let me know. I will try to answer them the best I can from what I have seen. Might not get to answer til tomorrow night since we will be out of the house most of the day. Has anyone left their chicks for the day so young? I have read that you need to be right there all day, yet so far I don't see an issue with leaving them alone while we are out tomorrow.

Have a great evening!

Christine

 

[Leahs Mom]

A little advice needed. (Del, you may have something to say on this as I think you mentioned getting 6 week olds onto a roost twig)

Here's the deal.

-Four 12 week old chicks.
-Mom abandoned them at night for the first time this week. (And has actually been quite mean to them.)
-Due to the cold, they had still been sleeping on the floor under and as close to her as possible.
-Tonight is the second night they will be without mom.

Tonight the auto door closed too early so they were stuck outside for about 15 min. after it closed. Still a good amount of light (I need to adjust the closing time.)

When they went in, they ate some then were totally at a loss as to what to do w/themselves. They were wandering back and forth between their normal sleeping corner and the regular roost that the big girls are on. They have a little branch roost near their corner that I put in there on Wed. so it is new. They jump around on it during the day but prefer hanging out on the big girl roost (which is a flat 4" wide by about 1" tall board.

One of them tried to roost w/the big girls but got attacked. They all went over like they wanted to get on the roost w/the big girls but none of the others dared go up there.

They were making distress sounds. They had gone back over to their corner still making distress sounds when I left.


-Should I do anything to help them roost or just leave them to figure it out?
-I tried putting a couple of them on the little roost but they were clearly uncomfortable and got off.
-Should I try putting them on the adult roost after it's completely dark or will the big girls give 'em hell in the morning?

Thoughts?

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

A little advice needed. (Del, you may have something to say on this as I think you mentioned getting 6 week olds onto a roost twig)

Here's the deal.

-Four 12 week old chicks.
-Mom abandoned them at night for the first time this week. (And has actually been quite mean to them.)
-Due to the cold, they had still been sleeping on the floor under and as close to her as possible.
-Tonight is the second night they will be without mom.

Tonight the auto door closed too early so they were stuck outside for about 15 min. after it closed. Still a good amount of light (I need to adjust the closing time.)

When they went in, they ate some then were totally at a loss as to what to do w/themselves. They were wandering back and forth between their normal sleeping corner and the regular roost that the big girls are on. They have a little branch roost near their corner that I put in there on Wed. so it is new. They jump around on it during the day but prefer hanging out on the big girl roost (which is a flat 4" wide by about 1" tall board.

One of them tried to roost w/the big girls but got attacked. They all went over like they wanted to get on the roost w/the big girls but none of the others dared go up there.

They were making distress sounds. They had gone back over to their corner still making distress sounds when I left.


-Should I do anything to help them roost or just leave them to figure it out?
-I tried putting a couple of them on the little roost but they were clearly uncomfortable and got off.
-Should I try putting them on the adult roost after it's completely dark or will the big girls give 'em hell in the morning?

Thoughts?

Me personally, I would leave them to figure it out on their own. They were broody raised so they are in the pecking order(just the bottom). They will get the courage and eventually stay on the roosts. I put 3 12 week old pullets in the main flock(indoor brood raised by me) and they had a rough go for a few weeks but eventually were allowed to roost.

 

[Pozees]

LM, free ranging your flock is a choice only you can make, after deciding what you can live with. My DH has never had chicks or chickens, and last year when I re-entered chicken world I got two pullets at POL and 5 Speckled Sussex pullets 4 or 5 weeks of age. I kept them in the coop and run for a few weeks, then let the two older girls out with me standing right there with them for an hour at the end of the day when I knew they would head back to roost at dusk, then a little longer, then walked away, and the day I watched them flatten and go still when a pigeon flew overhead I knew they instinctively knew what to do if a flighted predator was present. A few weeks later I started letting the SS out with them. Now they are all out all day every day. I have shrubs and trees they can hide under whenever they feel the need. The price is, no more mulch in my gardens, they have flung it out onto the grass, I have raked it back in many times, and now I'm going to rake it all up and put it in their run, it obviously is not going to stay in the gardens any more. My sedum bed is now a dust bathing bed.

When I first got them DH declared I was simply buying coyote lunch. When I first started letting them out, he was positive I would lose them all the first week. To date, the only one I've lost is the runt SS with the wry tail, who was dead in the coop one day. I am fully aware that can change in an instant, and have decided I would rather they had the best foraging life they can have even if it means they have abbreviated lives. They are so obviously, ridiculously happy out roaming the property, I can not go back to confining them unless there is some reason they can't be out, like the day last weekend we had to dig up the septic tank lids (that was some fun) and I didn't want them kicking the dirt back in the ditch/hole so they had to stay in - they complained loudly every time I was in their line of vision.

midnightroo - no reason not to leave chicks alone for the day, I do it every day, I have to work, as long as they have warmth, food, and water, they are fine.

 

[midnightroo]

midnightroo - no reason not to leave chicks alone for the day, I do it every day, I have to work, as long as they have warmth, food, and water, they are fine.

Thanks pozees, I figured as much. They are still scratching In The garden soil so I thinki will give them more on the morning to keep them busy while we are away. Hopefully they won't wear themselves too much.

 

[Mumsy]

The Silkies I have are from the same breeder that Mumsy just lost one to suspected lead. I have lost 4 of six since Nov. so I am treating just in case it is lead poison

I have one roo of the pair left from the breeder Trav got his from. The roo can never get enough water due to a great thirst and he has squirty diarrhea. He is not getting worse and has an appetite and seems to be ok in that regard. I had him separate from the flock but yesterday and today I decided to let him out in the orchard with the youngsters and Judy the Broody and her five chicks. I pulled up a chair and watched. He hasn't been out of the barn on grass alone like this before and his choice in company was Judy and her five kids. He couldn't keep up with the bantam rir pullets that flock with the six Johnny babies. Five of those are looking like roos. They run around and forage everywhere they can. A very robust and fast moving group. Judy and her kids sort of hang out closer to the barn and sunshine. He never once did a rooster dance or song. He just seems happy to have company. He is not foraging with them but just follows them around. Judy just barely tolerates him near the chicks. If this is truly lead poisoning, I expect him to either start losing weight and going into decline or he will hold his own now. I really don't know what will happen with him. I can't afford to have him tested. He gets to be a chicken with other chickens until it seems he is suffering. He isn't suffering.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thank you, Pozees.

I have a secondary roost question.
I'm thinking of raising the main roost up about 2 ft. higher than it is now and then adding a second roost (stair stepped out a bit) below that at the level the original roost is now. Below is a rough drawing.

But the question is this...since things are in a bit of havoc in there already, would this be a stupid time to do it? Should I wait until things have calmed down?

And...will the old birds just instinctively move to the higher level or would they likely want to stay at the level they're used to?