The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[brandislee]

Okay...so it's ONLY BARLEY AND OATS that are supposed to be the issue so..none of either of those in the scratch and your oats certainly don't go over that percentage.

So...just wondering and racking my brain to see if I can think of anything...

I know that GMO grains can cause reactions like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) in people.... If the feed and grains are regular feed (which would be GMO grain items), I wonder if they are having some kind of reaction to the GMO items? (Sometimes GMO grains can cause "allergic" reactions in people and it seems that animals avoid them altogether if given the choice.)

Now...I have no idea if that's what your experiencing...just thinking out loud here.

Delisha or Mumsy - Do you have any thoughts on what might be causing this??

I know I'm like a day behind on this, but annecdotally many farmers have noticed the same allergic reactions in their livestock... the ones I read about were in pigs and maybe in poultry (dang it, now I can't remember). I changed to GMO free feed because of that and because it's also been linked to livestock fertility issues, and none of my hatches were above 50% last summer.

 

[brandislee]

I hope it works for you! I really find it interesting that what the animal eats can have such a huge effect on the products from the animal. I would love to see someone conduct a controlled experiment just for some data to throw at the FDA. I have seen a ton of anecdotal info, but it is too easy for the FDA to ignore that or claim it was some unknown factor. It is getting to where I feel disgust when I think about what to possibly eat! If I were independently wealthy, I would move to a country that bans GMO's...

I agree, the problem is who is going to fund this study? The people with the money are the people whose direct interests lie in NOT proving certain things (like GMO's) are bad for the livestock and bad for us.

 

[aoxa]

I know I'm like a day behind on this, but annecdotally many farmers have noticed the same allergic reactions in their livestock... the ones I read about were in pigs and maybe in poultry (dang it, now I can't remember). I changed to GMO free feed because of that and because it's also been linked to livestock fertility issues, and none of my hatches were above 50% last summer.

Interesting.

There is no reason NOT to avoid GMO, so why risk it?

But.. for those of you living in remote areas in Canada like me, what else are you supposed to do? Mix your own feed.. that's about it. I'm going to be locating organic chicken farmers here and seeing what they do.

I never noticed any issues with my chickens' health due to GMO, but my birds free ranged. A lot of their diet was foraged (and is foraged as of Monday for the new ones!) Almost all of our snow is gone too. This week has been fabulous.

On Friday it is supposed to be 64!! I can not believe it! Not a speck of snow by the weekend guaranteed! And we had a snow storm last weekend

 

[brandislee]

So I have a question. My pullets free range all day and I have one who will not lay in the nest boxes. We're talking "I'll hold this dang egg in 'til I explode if I have to." She's always been my most reliable layer, depositing her egg in the same spot in the garage every day. I collect eggs when I get home from work each day,and since Monday, nothing in her preferred spot, even if she's sitting there when I leave. Haven't found any secret stashes. No changes in her condition otherwise. She looks like a happy, healthy bird.

My first guess is something is eating her eggs. What do y'all think?

Could be a lot of things... I had a few hens who went through something like that last summer, because I did a poor job of moving and then acclimating them to a new pen. If she got spooked by something at the old spot she could have chosen a new one. A snake could be eating the eggs. A dog could be eating the eggs. A chicken could be eating the eggs (although I'm with the camp that feels egg eating isn't a problem, it's just something that happens...). Just keep an extra close eye on her to make sure she's not egg bound- could also be that she's having a light spring molt and taking a few weeks off... a friend of mine had ALL of her chickens do that a few weeks ago (she was so annoyed, but it didn't last long, now she's getting 10 eggs a day from her 10 hens!).

 

[brandislee]

I have a few questions.

The first was in my original post last week, but I asked a LOT of questions so it got lost in the shuffle... it was about whether or not to cull hens who get bare backs. I only have 2 roosters with my 30+ hens, and I have more than I care to admit who have bare backs. Do I need to cull all of them? And I need a WHY if the answer is yes, thanks

Also, in reading the last several pages of posts, I see a lot of people are amending their FF with herbs and garlic and stuff. While strangely I had thought about adding some chickweed or some other herb a few days ago, I didn't look more into it and didn't realize it was something people were doing regularly. What do you add (other than feed/grains) to your FF, and is there a list of things to add and their reasoning?

And lastly, I have some questions about natural care for turkeys. I've asked over at the turkey forum, but I'm getting some very NOT natural answers and my gut is saying NOOOOOO!

1) I haven't found any info on FF for turkeys, but I transitioned them when I transitioned the broilers yesterday. They were a lot harder to get started- the broilers figured out it was food in just a few hours, but with the turkey poults I kept having to sprinkle crumbles on top of the FF... then they'd pick all the crumbles off and ignore the FF. FINALLY after a whole day of this they got it and are absolutely wolfing down the FF, so that's good! I'm hoping all the little buggies (as my kids and I call them) in both the FF and the raw ACV in their water will help innoculate them against all the awful diseases they're prone to... Anyone have experience FF turkeys? Or ducks, because I'm also thinking about getting ducks later this spring...

2) Everyone on the turkey forum says they keep their Turkey poults 100% inside until they are 8 weeks old. 1) I just can't, the only way it would even be plausible would be if I set up a makeshift pen in the shed, and there is no way in h*#% you can convince me that is healthier than being outside, since the shed is dark and musty and dusty. And the vaccines... lots of turkey people give their birds the fowl pox vaccine at 8 weeks (before they can get outside...). Is that like 100% necessary or my birds WILL die? My plan, unless someone can present me with a convincing argument otherwise, is to move them outside around 3 weeks (with a heat lamp still if it's super cold outside, as it well could be, although they're pretty darn feathered out already, and if they're fully feathered by then they don't need heat, right?) to the smaller of my two tractors. They will tractor/free range with my chickens, and when the broilers head off the the processor I'll move the turkeys to the bigger tractor for the duration of their time on this earth. If they contract blackhead/fowl pox and die then, well, I guess I've learned my lesson and I won't try turkeys again. But from what I can tell it's not a huge issue in my area, and my chickens, to the best of my limited knowledge, have never shown any symptoms. Anyway... to that end I'll take any natural tips I can get! For what it's worth, other than not taking to the FF right away my poults have done awesome (knocking on wood) this first week, but my friend split the order with me and one of hers is having issues. Surprisingly she seems to have managed to save it (when she texted me Saturday night... of course during the new Doctor Who episode... she was sure he was near death, but she gave it some scrambled egg and some infant vites and it seems to have recovered... she's not the most thorough person, it may have just not been eating before that, I don't know if she realized that was a possibility with poults). Anyway... Thanks in advance for any info! I love this thread!

 

[armorfirelady]

AFL...maybe your kiddos don't have a problem at all! Maybe it's just like you said that they are messy and didn't wipe well !!!!! And...here I go again...

I guess what I'm wondering is - if they're not acting sick, maybe it's just their "norm"? Several of the folks here are saying they notice a little dirty on the bottoms on a regular basis... I know I have one or 2 that seem to have a little on the back side but their vents are okay and they're otherwise healthy it seems. I keep thinking about how people used to advise us not to be looking at the poop constantly and worrying about every little thing and wondering if it may be one of those things that we have heard so much about gleet, etc., that we're concerned when we don't need to be? Now...again...I'm just "thinking out loud" so I don't know...just wondering... Do you think you could take a photo that some of the folks here with longer experience could take a look and let us know what they think? Maybe this will be a learning thing for all of us!!

I LOVE ur thinking guy......he makes me laugh every time I see him It's to late now but I will try to get pics tomorrow after work and post Friday (I have class tomorrow after work) I really think their just messy butts......in every other way their ok. Heck their even getting use to me checking their crops at night.....now that I know where it is I make sure everyone has a full one . And I also want to tell u whenever my hens come running they remind me of your Tank......like little giants as the come across the yard. I really need to video tape it :!

Awesome upcycle on the brooder!

x2

Beautiful brooder GREAT JOB !!

How to tell your cat spends too much time w/ chickens .............................. her white fur is brown from dust bathing. She spends as much time stalking and catching insects as rodents.

I can just imagine how amusing that is to see my 4 cats are to prissy for that. Well maybe not Max he is king here & takes no crap from anyone including the dogs who are afraid of him lol. He would love to be outside stalking rodents all day

 

[Bulldogma]

I have a few questions.

The first was in my original post last week, but I asked a LOT of questions so it got lost in the shuffle... it was about whether or not to cull hens who get bare backs. I only have 2 roosters with my 30+ hens, and I have more than I care to admit who have bare backs. Do I need to cull all of them? And I need a WHY if the answer is yes, thanks

My answer to this question would be "No." There is generally nothing wrong with a bare backed hen if the feather loss is from rooster use - the rooster just really likes her. You want to keep your hen/rooster ratio good - at least 5 hens per roo or more (in general). This means the roos have plenty of potential partners and are less likely to use the same hen over and over. In fact, that would be a reason not to cull - you don't want a worse hen/roo ratio than you have or the rest of your hens will just end up with bare backs too.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: AFL


AFL - I think the "tank" you refer to is BDM's.... but I DO bet that is funny! I'd love to see a video!

 

[pigeonguy]

Ultimately, I won't let him decide for me, but here is my worry - that he will call the town and complain and even though I am allowed to have roosters, I worry that maybe the incessant crowing could just maybe be against some noise ordinance or something?? I am going down to the zoning office tomorrow. I was raised and grew up in this small town and I know a LOT of people, including some that work down there. I plan on telling them the situation and then finding out where I stand in a worst case scenario with this guy. That will help me I think.
Truth be told, my husband wasn't home at the time and I specifically asked for him to let me handle it just because my husband would have let him have it and I'm trying to handle this as peacefully as I can. My husband told me it was a good thing that I talked to him because it could have gotten bad if he was out there. I will keep you all posted on how things go... thanks so much for all the encouragement to not let him dictate to me how he wants his hot tub time.

That's what mine would have done to. Us husbands have a tendency to listen to the wife on these things and sometimes wish she were there to stop us before we got in trouble on other things.

 

[armorfirelady]

Y

And I also want to tell u whenever my hens come running they remind me of your Tank......like little giants as the come across the yard. I really need to video tape it :!

AFL - I think the "tank" you refer to is BDM's.... but I DO bet that is funny!  I'd love to see a video!

For some reason I get the 2 of u mixed up I thought that after I posted my comment lol