The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

That was from my necropsy. She did not have an impacted gizzard(which is what I thought until I cut into her and the fluid rushed out). And I was not implying you did not provide grit, yours just did not have a lot in there. But gizzard muscle looked good and thick with nice color.

Don't worry, I wasn't upset - I appreciated the comment. What would we see if it was an impacted gizzard?
I know the dead hen's sister hasn't been looking good for almost a year - she has dark purply comb and wattles and I figure she might have an overtaxed heart, being a hatchery BO. Today I noticed she came out of the coop and ignored the food, headed straight to the haybale corner and nestled in. She is not a layer. Spring has a way of clearing out old ones, according to my old neighbor farmer down the road.

I have not seen any worms at all, and I have been checking quite often. I think my neighbors think I'm strange when they see me poking apart a fresh poor with a stick...

Now I feel crazy just saying it! Lol. The whole reason I started looking into this is because I got a couple blue copper marans roosters from a person local to me I met here on this site. Well the.birds were very skinny to me. Now I don't really know exactly what a "normal" healthy chicken is supposed to feel like exactly(this is my first flock), but they didn't feel any where close to what my girls feel like. I posted this on the marans thread and they said they should not be skinny, theyre meat birds, and to worm them asap, and even though I didn't see worms they could still have them.

Now this lady kept them inside, she wasn't allowed roosters, and from what I understand they ate whatever she cooked. I figured this was why they were skinny. Now they have put on weight in the last month and a half but not a whole lot. I have no clue how fast they are supposed to put on weight.

But, I noticed a couple of my hens breastbones are slightly more prominent now. Still no worms in the poor tho. I think this is because the boys are really aggressive with the girls, but that's a whole other issue, and its stressing them a little.

Sorry this is so lengthy, just trying to paint a clear picture. Long story short, I do not know if they have worms, I have not seen any, but like a previous poster replied, I too believe an ounce of prevention is worth pounds of cure. Hence the reason I came here! Not wanting to pump my birds full of chemicals, and not knowing if they are infected, and possibly causing a resistance of some kind, I wanted to find a more gentle and natural approach.

Once again, sorry for rambling, but I wanted to get you as much info as possible. Thank you all so much for your help.

Jeepgirl, I'm betting your bcm roos, will be like some hens I have that were also kept indoors for a year in a guy's bedroom. They came to me looking pitiful, although he did feed them a commercial feed. Pale, skinny, dull feathers. They did put on weight and now have glossy feathers and red combs/wattles, but they are small to me - I think their growth was stunted by the indoor thing - and I bet your roos are stunted from the diet and the indoor thing. If so, they will always be on the small side.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

My fantasy pasture setup!

Wow!!

Oh my gosh, they are beautiful!

x2

That's a pot of bad stuff sorry to hear it. You may want to put the little with the leg almost pecked off down so it does not suffer anymore.

x2

The baby chicks I just moved over (10 weeks tomorrow) had to be caught and put in the coop each night for 3 or 4 nights, then they just went in on their own. Tonight I noticed that they were all roosting on the lower roost too!

Oh and I have a broody hen now One of my Cuckoo Marans. Growling and meowing (totally sounds like a cat) even made a sound like, I kid you not, "nooooo" when I was reaching under trying to get the eggs. Got me a couple pecks for it too, but I got three of the eggs out from under her. She has one more for sure. I went back out after it was very dark and she was wide awake, waiting for me LOL. She howled before I even got the nest box door all the way open! So, if she's still doing this tomorrow, I think I'll go get some hatching eggs and see what happens. Oh and of course she is in the favored box (the one that she herself never lays in!). Funny thing is, my *other* CM is on the other nest tonight, not doing anything. I moved her off earlier. She has no eggs under her at all.

Bossy sounds like a cat sometimes too. She got louder when I asked her (sitting in the kennel on ground) if that mewing/purring was her.

Leah's Mom - What a wonderful opportunity with a trailer that big. Not only space for all the birds but you have cupboards for med's, herbs/spices, even reference books, whatever you might need right at your fingertips and you didn't have to build it. I have to scramble everywhere looking for what I need. If only I could be taught to take care of things.

I had never heard of putting a dirt plug in with the chicks/poults. Definitely going to do that today. Of the chicks I hatched, half will be going tomorrow. I don't feel as sad over the chicks a I do the pout that is going too. Then, at the end of the month a few more are going. I can't say that I won't be glad to get rid of the dust. I can move everyone out of the house and into the brooder pen DH made.

The one nice thing I can say about tornado warnings is that the best warnings are the ones I don't know about until I see the announcement that the warning is off. We had one yesterday (we never have the as we don't get them) and it came across the tv that all was well. It sure was windy and now it sure is cold. It's supposed to be well below freezing the next couple of nights. Lalaland, snow? Seriously?

I see so, so many newbies on and am so excited! New voices and opinions. A great big welcome to all of you. That's the nice thing about this thread. You can have your own opinion and it's ok! Aoxa - that's what I mean't about being hesitant for commenting on putting turkeys and chickens together. Some feel that it's not being responsible as turkeys can get Blackhead from chickens.

Has anyone ever noticed different patterns on feathers out of the same hatch? (this is on turkeys) Most of the baby poults are white like Rosie (Royal Palm) but the darker ones like Chuck (Bronze/Royal Palm cross) have different patterns.

Looks like they prefer the FF to the dry too! Photo testimony.

This is so helpful! Like this option over buying another feeder

So, I'm kinda feeling like a looser chicken mom right now. I woke up at 4am & got to thinking about something that was posted yesterday about pasty butt due to temps in the brooder being to high. I've had a hard time regulating the heat because of my brooder's height & where the lid is positioned...

Anyway, heat issue aside, after my post about them looking raggedy from the fermented feed getting on them - I remembered seeing some runny poop still on one chick's bottom last night.

So, I went out to check & sure enough - 4 of my 5 Doms & 1 of my 10 BOs had it. I quickly found a thread here on BYC with some suggestions - brought the 5 to the house & ran a stream of warm water over each of their lil hinneys to help get the poo off & then applied a mixture of coconut jojoba oils before returning them to the brooding box.

Will be adding a "sand box" today & also giving them some hard boiled eggs & yogurt as a further preventative (already have ACV in their water & a sod plug in with them).

Our 8 year old son is so excited about the chicks getting a "sand box". He is also the one that suggested we sing them a lullaby every night & insists on having them all named. So far we have Buttercup (which could be any 1 of the female BOs) but told him we'll have to wait on the Doms because they're straight-run, ha!

This goes without saying but one of the reasons I've been excited about getting chickens is for the kids. I'm a firm believer that pets are essential to teaching responsibility & life lessons. We have 4 sons (15, 13, 8 & 6) - our older boys & their Dad like to joke around about chicken dinners but I can't help but think they will still derive some enjoyment from us having chickens in other ways as well! Also, our youngest son is a Downy & I'm especially looking forward to him learning some essential life skills through our newly acquired farm animals!

Sorry about the lengthy post but thanks for letting me ramble! Blessed day to you all!

Yes nature exposure = great lessons. Mine love eggs and yogurt.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote: Not sure. I know with mine I was able to squeeze the contents out of the gizzard. I suspect if it would have been impacted I could not have done that.

 

[pigeonguy]

No offense taken. I was just repeating what others have said. Heck I figure even my dogs probably have worms with all they eat outside

but have no problems since they are healthy. Heck I figure even people have worms of some sort lol

I don't take the chickens to the vet but I do take my dogs and my vet says no they don't have worms. I talked with her about all things have worms and she said There are good worms and bad worms. We generally only check for the bad worms. Your dog has none of them present in the samples you brought. Also show no symptoms that we should check the good ones.
So I am going with her statement. No worms. So I just wonder why people think everything has bad worms. Just because someone on here said it with no evidence to back it up.

 

[pigeonguy]

I noticed that my "Americaunas/Araucanas" (Who knows what they really are) are mean to the young'uns too. On of my A's was the bottom of the pecking order till the new kids came a long and she is pretty mean to them. I think she wants to keep her place in pecking order so she needs to be sure they are lower than she is. Her "sister" A is always mean to HER. The others are just "generally mean" to them but I think it's because they are higher in the pecking order and they don't have as much to protect. Those A's will seek the kids out to torment them.

My thoughts are that if they young'uns have some place to get away from the older ones for respite, let them work it out. I got these fence pieces from the local Lowes that the youngers could get in but the olders couldn't. There are other creative ways to make them a little refuge from items you probably already have.



When we butchered the roosters (the ones we learned on) I purposely cut open the intestines to look for any sign of worms and I didn't see any evidence at all either. These boys weren't raised with the kind of husbandry that I think would be particularly preventive either.

Of course, I was only looking for intestinal worms but I didn't see any problems in any of the organs either.

What other kinds of worms would affect chickens that we wouldn't see in the intestines, heart or major organs... What about brain? Or elsewhere? Just curious as I always wonder about the statement that they all have them as well.

Copy and paste from another site.

• The following types of worms can be found in poultry:
  
• Hair worms - Found in the crop, oesophagus, proventriculus and intestine.
• Round Worms - Found in the birds digestive system.
• Gizzard Worm - Found in the gizzard, mainly in geese.
• Tape Worms - Fairly uncommon, found in the intestine.
• Gape Worm - Found in the trachea and lungs.
• Caecal Worms - Cause little damage but transmit blackhead to Turkeys.

​

 

[jeepgirl13]

Thank you all for being so helpful and welcoming! There were to many posts to quote so I am just going to ask a few more questions and hope the right people read it. Lol.
With the garlic, do I chop it, shred it? Can I feed it to them straight?
The seeds, do they have to be the soft fresh ones or can I used dried/baked ones?
How much cayenne do you guys use?
I need coffee before I can process all of what I read. Lol

 

[Eggcessive]

Hello again,
I need some advice. I have a hen that has raspy breathing a occasional sneeze. Eyes are not watering and no nasal discharge. Appetite is good. She is.laying regularly. I panicked and didnt want it to spread to my other birds so I.treated her with tylan50 for 5 days. Now no more sneezing and the raspy is very slight. I feed her fermented feed and water with ACV. I've only had her for a little over a week. Nobody else.in my flock is getting whatever respiratory yuck she has. Is there anything else I can do for her? Cayan pepper? Garlic? Could it just be something caught in her throat? I cant imagine that its worms....or could.it be? I have checked her poo and there is no worm shed in it. Suggestions?

You may already know this, but whenever you bring home a chicken you should isolate it from your other chickens for 30 days. The Tylan50 would be the correct treatment for a respiratory disease, but now the whole flock may be exposed. This site is good for symptoms of all the common diseases: http://ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[pigeonguy]

Thank you all for being so helpful and welcoming! There were to many posts to quote so I am just going to ask a few more questions and hope the right people read it. Lol.
With the garlic, do I chop it, shred it? Can I feed it to them straight?
The seeds, do they have to be the soft fresh ones or can I used dried/baked ones?
How much cayenne do you guys use?
I need coffee before I can process all of what I read. Lol

Chop the garlic grind the seeds dried not baked and mix in the ff. Hot pepper if the birds actually have worms lots if for prevention not so much also mixed if ff. Hard to say how much without knowing size of food batches.

 

[Eggcessive]

Last week the same day my chicks were all hatched out, my silkie and a barred rock hen went missing. We suspect a hawk took the silkie after seeing a few feathers, but we have never found either body. The funny thing is we had 3 and 6 week old chicks out with our big chickens at the same time, and they had all been on their own since their broodies had abandoned them. We had not lost any more thank goodness.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Broke the ice on the water this morning for the girls. Gave them smaller feed thinking I'd let them out today. Windy chill when sun breaks out but then snows. Rotating in this except the chilly (no, bitter I think) wind is consistent and the sun rotation is only a minute long. At least we didn't get the 3" yesterday with more today as weather predicted. I think it is almost too cold to snow. Poor girls.... will be second day not out free if this continues as my migraine escalates with a deep searing cold to the head every time I go check on them.

But I am ready for the non bitter weather. The piles/hills of soil/sod excavated by county to make a ditch at road are still frozen. So can't use it over the skirting if I make the run today. 50' of hardware cloth 4' tall is waiting in my jeep bed.

Was at FF&H yest. ALMOST came home with 3 RIR chicks! But not having proper accommodations stopped me flat. Surely the three three year olds I have in the small TSC would not tolerate them.

Forgot to say I found Unpasterised, Unfiltered, with mother ACV by Heinz at Walmart. Couldn't find Braggs anywhere except online where you have to buy cases or pay high shipping. I was able to use my food card to get it. So they will finally get it added to their FF and water.