The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[BScott03]

As a bedtime present, there is a new thing in that place.



Welcome! Feel free to jump in any time and ask any questions you may have about getting ready for your new flock!

Thank you so much!! I have sooo many question but can usually find an answer on here

 

[CoopChick719]

Lots to catch up on...haven't been on for a few days...had friends & family at The Boston Marathon...all are safe but it was scary not knowing for quite some time. My cousin is a Boston cop who was working the race, thankfully was not near the blasts!

Maybe you could put a couple of goldfish in there to keep it clean and free of larvae. Wonder if there would be enough oxygen for them to live?

You sure can put goldfish or shiners in the rain barrell. I used 4 goldfish in my rain barrell one year--2 survived the summer into October. We didn't have a fish tank so I asked one of the science teachers at the high school if she would like them for her fish tank. 1 thing goldfish will grow very big in a 55 gallon drum.

I figure what with the depressing news today we could all use a smile right?

DH with the 6 week old EE chick, and her friend, the bantam (maybe cochin?) fluffy foot. They like him. I like him too.

He refers to both of them as "sweetie"

Thanks for the smile, BlueMouse! Great pic!!

OK - so while I was at Walmart today I found some of those round chip & dip trays on clearance. Heavy duty plastic and the dip part is divided in 2 sections... so I bought 3. Got them home, took them out of the bag and my 18-year-old son walks over and says, "Cool chicken feeders, mom!" Not 5 minutes later my 9-year-old daughter walks into the kitchen and says, "Oh! New chicken feeders!" I'm raising my kids right! LOL!

My youngest is still in the hospital and her lungs are still sounding nasty. She seems to be feeling a bit better, though. She was awake for about 6 hours today which is an improvement from the last few days!

Sounds like this guy needs a polite reminder that YOU moved to where you are so you could have chickens and other livestock if you so chose. When a person moves to a rural setting, they have to understand that other rural dwellers will have things like roosters... and since you've checked your zoning requirements, you are within your rights to keep these animals. (An if you had known you were going to get a troll for a neighbor, I'm sure you would have moved elsewhere too.

Help your neighbor gain perspective by providing him with a little desensitization therapy:
1. Put up a flyer at your local high school inviting teen bands to come practice at your place.
2. Put an ad on Craig's List renting out space for folks to keep (and work on) their project cars and motorcycles. Offer lower prices to those without mufflers or that have "pipes."
3. Start a donkey rescue and then toss food for the coyotes around the fence line a few times a night.
4. Have a load of uncut firewood dropped off at your place, and fire up that chainsaw!
5. Keep your yard mowed... every evening!

Love this advice!! I knew I liked you BDM!!

 

[Mumsy]

Mumsy- other than wetting down the ground around your barn nightly ...........

I think you are mistaking me for someone else.

 

[amberr]

Newbie question, what's the difference between the medications blukote and nustock and the other one that started with a V?

 

[countrygirl74]

Thanks soooo much to everyone who helped me out with my girl's wound - she, "Pocahontas" thanks you too.

I did end up trying to flush it with my sprayer - not sure if I got all the dirt out, but I tried. I even used a q-tip to swab out some dirt from under the skin. It appeared that after I started getting it cleaner that a thin layer of skin was already trying to form but it had so much dirt stuck on it and was such a mess, I ended up removing some parts of it. I am definitely not cut out to be a vet but I do what I have to do. She was sooo good. She sat on my kitchen counter for more than an hour while I soaked, worked, took breaks to come on here and check for answers and advice, etc. She just hung out and let me do what I needed to do. I would have never known she had the wound, she was good at hiding it from me as well as all the other chickens. And other than the wound, she is perfectly healthy.
I applied neosporin and blukote, put a new saddle on her (thought it might help hide it a little and maybe keep some dirt out), and put her back outside in a little iso pen within the run. Her best friend Mayflower (the other BR) was so happy to have her back. I went out later in the evening after everyone had went into the coop for the night to release her to go in with them for the night and found Mayflower outside - she wouldn't go in without Pocahontas! Too cute!
I put the roos in the "cock box" and let her go roost with the rest of them for the night. When I let the roos out in the morning, I will put her back in her iso cage for the day (after washing and treating her wound again).
Now I am going to check them more often!!

On another note, I tried bringing in my silkie to break her broodiness as it's driving me and the other hens crazy but it didn't work out well. She was soooo mad that she kept trying to fly out of her ENCLOSED pen and I was afraid she was going to knock herself out as she kept hitting her head. So, I just put her back outside. I locked her out of the whole run and coop today to force her out to free-range for a while. She did good for a little while and then actually started flying at the door to the run, trying to get in! Silly girl!! I'm just going to keep taking away the eggs and putting her out of the nest every time I find her in it. At least I know she eats and drinks when I kick her out before she heads back in. I don't want to cut her out of the coop completely in case she actually needs to lay. It's a good thing she's cute because she sure is being a stinker!

 

[countrygirl74]

I think my girls are mad at me...

We had a cold front move through for the last 3 days with completely awful wind! I didn't let them out of their run to do any supervised free-ranging at all because I didn't want to sit out there - it was terrible! As a result, egg production went way down. Thank goodness my ducks kept up the good work though!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Awesome thread glad I found it! My first chicks will be here in about a month! I'm trying to learn as much as possible!

Glad to have you!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Newbie question, what's the difference between the medications blukote and nustock and the other one that started with a V?

Here's what I know - others probably have more to add!

BlueKote is antibiotic and antifungal. It gets it's blue tint from the gentian violet which is anti-fungal and is used in medications for oral thrush in babies (among other things). It stains everything quite "purple-blue"... It's definitely harder to observe any changes in the wound due to the color it puts on. The color takes a long time to wear off, but it can also be advantageous in that it kind-of camoflages the red of the wound so it's not screaming "pick me"! The bottle I have is the consistency of alcohol - very liquid. (Blue Kote is on the list of "Banned and Dangerous Substances" for animals "intended for food"...not sure how it affects eggs.) http://www.drugs.com/vet/blu-kote-can.html http://www.drugs.com/vet/dr-naylor-blu-kote.html

NuStock is antibiotic and antifungal. STINKY! Greasy consistency. More "natural" ingredients. Does a good job on a lot of things if you don't mind the smell. Wood shavings, etc. would have more of a tendency to stick to it. Good for vent gleet, scaly leg mites, killing nits on the feather shafts, and just plain good general first aid. This link shows how some folks have made their own "home made NuStock" just so you can see the ingredients. I haven't made my own, prefer to buy it.

Vetricyn is comparable to Dakin's solution.

 

[flagirl]

this may help in pinch? My SIL's 93 yr old mother just had a huge skin cancer removed from her leg that left a large hole. the dr told them to fill the hole with vaseline rather than polysporin-he said much cheaper and works even better for wound. the wound healed up wonderfully. wonder if you could use this on chicken wound also and then cover with blu-kote?
As for hurricane, I leave the chickens in coop with door to run open. But, the real damage done (except along coastline) is from mini tornados, so as mentioned before, nothing you can do for that but pray. When we get rain the chickens are out foraging around, when it gets to a downpour, they run inside anyway.

 

[zinia8]

chicken mystery:
4 year old BO hanging in nest box and not coming out of coop.  Last week, had the mystery death of an apparently healthy mutt hen, who wasn't looking good on day one and died overnight on the roost.

So, no wating on the BO. Pulled her out, she had egg yolk on her face, messy bottom.  Gave her an epsom salt bath.  Not sure if she could have had lice as it seemed like there were little bumps of goop at the base of her tail feathers . Crop pretty much empty, but it was early morning. Skin on belly bright red.  Dusted her rear. Put her back in the coop while I got a dog kennel ready for her.

Went to coop to get her, she was back in the nest box, with an egg.  Not sure if it was hers or not.  Picked her up, her entire belly had sopping wet feathers.  Now, I know she was perfectly dry before I put her out there just 15 mn earlier.

She's in the kennel, not eating but drinking large quantities of water. (1/2 pint in 20 mn)

One very watery clear poop with a little white urate in it.  One very watery dark brown poop.  Her back end feathers are also very wet.

Very red comb.

I'll try an internal epsom salt dose.  I have no idea what is up with her.  Any ideas?

good news - the hen is pooping green!  very oily as she has had two doses of oil mixed with teeny tiny pieces of bread - and not normal yet, but a good dark green.
she still isn't too interested in food.  I am hoping to return her to the coop tonight.  


I am going to be sure to make a quarantine pen in the coop I'm building in the storage half of the trailer coop. Would love not to have the big old dog kennel in the house!  And now that I have two cats, it is hard to deal with the hen and two cats when you are trying to treat her/bathe her, etc.

I decided she doesn't have lice - used a flashlight to get a better look at her bloomers and I think I was just seeing urates stuck to the feathers.

only 2 inches of snow so far, more coming!  

Did you do the epsom salt flush? I just lost a two yr old to what I think was kidney failure. She had been drinking lots of water for a couple of weeks. She had a very messy bottom that I would clean and put bag balm on. Thought maybe she had vent gleet but no smell. She quit laying thought maybe she was egg bound. She would eat but started loosing weight thought worms. I tried treating her naturally but in the end it didn't matter. I was going to neocropsy her but couldn't bring myself to do it. She was my DBF favorite she just loved him. One thing I did notice is this bird never went through a molt she never lost a single feather. There is one more that hasn't molted also. I am keeping an eye on her she is looking kinda thin.

ETA. These are production birds so at two yrs.they are already past their prime. Thats what I've been told. Not by anyone on this thread.