The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

Oh - another thing - I know a few folks had photos of chicks with sod in the brooder (aka: a plug). I need some of these photos for an article on that very subject.

And if anyone has suggestions for articles they'd like to see, please let me know!!

 

[brandislee]

Ok, I have a non worming question (but I have really appreciated all the info. I love that I can constantly learn on this thread!!): Now that I am sure that my broody is really broody I'm going to be getting some fertile eggs for her to sit on. My question is: is it really best to move her to a separate pen? Should it be within the run still so that she can intergrate the chicks easier? Should it be completely away from everyone else? Right now she is in the favorite nest box (of course!). I managed to get the last egg from yesterday and the first laid today out of the nest when she was eating this morning. I wondered what would happen when she returned to the empty nest and well she just stayed in there, waiting for more eggs. And so yes, the other girls just squeezed in next to her! I'm sure there are three under her at least. I don't know if my other CM laid today. (the broody did NOT lay yesterday).

Thank you !!

I'm sure someone also answered this, but here's what I do and it works well to prevent reintegration issues later. I just let the hen stay on the nest- just make sure you MARK THE EGGS and pull non marked eggs daily, because other hens will get in there and lay eggs. And I mark my calender. Then, on hatch day, I have a wire front I can fit on the nest box and I put that on to keep other hens OUT and to keep the chicks from falling out. After 24 hours/all eggs hatched I move mother and baby to a seperated area inside the coop, where they're away from the others but can still see each other. This area has it's own small run, but within a week I start letting them in with the rest of the flock, but I watch closely to see how well the mother protects them from other hens (btw, if she does a poor job I wouldn't let her raise chicks again...). So far the two hens I've let hatch chicks have done a great job protecting their chicks from the other chickens. I did keep the chicks separate for a while after the mother stopped caring for them (they typically stop around 3-4 weeks) because the others were picking on them... I kept them in that same separate pen just until they got big enough to defend themselves.

 

[lalaland]

Lala- sorry about your birds! Can be so stressful! Went through some sickness over the winter and am now rebuilding from zero only to spot last summers chicken stealing fox (or offspring of) playing only 100 feet from the barn! I don't think I'll be getting a lot of sleep this summer! Good luck!

Thanks.
Foxes are awfully effective at getting chickens, turkeys too. I have had dens of them every few years and mama fox really thinks chickens are the way to go. Hence my huge secured run. I know some do the sss thing, but I figure they were here first.

Sorry to hear about the sickness, what was it?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hope everybody is having a great Sunday!

I made some updates to the Index page on the thing. If y'all have a chance, go check it out HERE. Now all the articles are organized and listed by title so (hopefully) folks can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Also - if anyone is interested in doing an article on a favorite breed or any other subject, please let me know! Articles can have a certain amount of opinion, but must be able to be backed up by research and facts.

If someone wants to find the index from the home page, is there a link?

ETA...forget it

....I found it on a tab at the top

 

[Bulldogma]

If someone wants to find the index from the home page, is there a link?

Yup! It has it's own tab right at the top of the page. If necessary, I can put a banner button up somewhere also if you think it would be easier to find!

 

[brandislee]

Any time I try to click on one of the pages (on the Natural Chicken Keeping Blog) it says I don't have permission to view??? WTH, I was just looking at it yesterday?

 

[brandislee]

Any time I try to click on one of the pages (on the Natural Chicken Keeping Blog) it says I don't have permission to view??? WTH, I was just looking at it yesterday?

Or rather, when I click on one of the links in the index it's acting like I'm trying to edit the page, and sending me to the Blogger log in page... did you link them properly or is it just my computer being dumb?

 

[Bulldogma]

Or rather, when I click on one of the links in the index it's acting like I'm trying to edit the page, and sending me to the Blogger log in page... did you link them properly or is it just my computer being dumb?

Is it doing that with all of them? I'll go back in and check it out. I may have done something dumb - LOL!

 

[Bulldogma]

Gah! I'll fix the thing. There was some sort of glitch...

 

[brandislee]

And I have a question... I would be really interested in a list or resource concerning the additions to the FF. I understand the reasoning behind adding garlic and cayenne, but there are a lot of other additions people have listed without the reasoning behind them. I'm hesitant to just start adding things to their feed without good reason because 1) that could potentially be a waste if I'm adding things that they don't need or that don't benefit them, or if I'm adding the wrong amounts, and 2) their digestion and physiology is considerably different than ours, so I know better than to assume that just because it's good for me that it's also good for them. I would assume adding chickweed, comfrey, and nettle would be okay and beneficial (I've served them those mixed with scrambled eggs before after stressors... often when I come home from being gone for several days, because it seems like being confined to the run that long stresses them out). But is there a list out there, or could we start to compile one?