The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[midnightroo]

My daughter getting some chicken love in the garden today. They made it through the 30 temps last night without any issues. So far, I am very happy with the barred rocks for their friendly manor.

Mikkies. Clods of dirt are to expose chicks to the pathogens that could be in the soil and help their immunity. I did it with mine and they are doing well, plus they seem to love to forage so perhaps they learned yummy goodies are in the soil from the dirt in the brooder.

Lots of great information again on fermenting.

Lala sorry to hear about your losses, but glad that the rest went thought the flush fine and were able to take care of the bumble foot, even if the kitten tried to help.

 

[armorfirelady]

I just checked in with the woman I found on craigs list who is hatching eggs for me - she said she has only a 10% hatch success rate with swedish flower hens, and overall a 40% rate.  I know the eggs are being shipped, but wow, doesn't that seem low?

Hens came through the molasses flush just fine.  Because they were confined, I could examine the poops, and they were uniform, no problems. Everyone still alert, responsive.

I did bring one in for treatment, her bumblefoot was ready to work on.  I should have taken pics - it was a peanut sized lump, all hard mass - soaked her in epsom salts, and just scraped off the bottom gunk and pried out the kernal.  Swabbed the cavity, used nustock, and off she went.

Now, that sounds easy, doesn't it?  But no!  That kitten landed in the sink with the hen, and there was a commotion.  I wasn't prepared, and the hen was pretty upset.  Feathers everywhere but thank goodness I managed somehow to hang on to the hen who was trying to get airborne, and haul the kitten out of the sink.  I learned that trying to pick up feathers with wet hands isn't the way to go.  

Gad to hear they all came thru the molasses flush ok Lala.

I was thinking about your comments about bad hay as I was in the coop today turning over the hay that was so wet from the torrential rains we had. It smelled horrible but I opened the bottom flaps of the coop and there is a breeze so I am hoping if I keep tuning it every day it will eventually dry out!!

Here is a question about bumble foot. Does it start out as a small circle area? We were trying to trim poopy bottoms and we only caught one hen (imagine here 2 grown women trying to chase 4 hens around a large fenced area with 2 dogs outside the fence running the fence line.......I'm sure we were the afternoon entertainment for the neighbor is :/ )

Anyways I noticed on green she has a circle area on the foot pad. It's not hard at all. I plan on just watching it to see if it changes at all.

And we are waiting till later to try the poopy butt trims.....when they are all in the coop roosted for the night !!

 

[Ashdoes]

Our Barred Rock has always been the friendliest we've had.
When oh when will these ducks stop eating the shavings? I bought an eight pack of cheapy paper towels, and we've used three so far. I wait two minutes after I pull it all up, to see if they're still eating it, and they haven't stopped yet.
We have started our spring projects. Had the barn wired last week, that'll come in handy. Hubby is insulating the shed connected to the barn, and the ff and worm bin will go in there. I have trees and bushes being delivered every other day. We're going to block off the fruit bushes with plastic fencing, to keep the chickens off them. Really wish it would warm up all the way, having two days of warm doesn't make up for six cold days.

 

[lalaland]

these clods of dirt...could someone explain? and we've had rain/ snow...would clods of MUD work?

lol, I am not sure there is anywhere in minnesota right now where you could find a patch of lawn! what part are you in?

The idea of the sod clump is that it gives the chicks exposure so they can build up immunities. best if the area where you take the sod from had chickens on it - poop - but even if no chickens have been on it, they will still get some exposure to bacteria.

Chicks also like the stimulus of something different to peck at, the grass/little critters/tiny pebbles, etc are good for them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

these clods of dirt...could someone explain? and we've had rain/ snow...would clods of MUD work?

Well...it's not really a clod of dirt...it's a piece of sod you dig from the yard (AKA a "sod plug").

You dig down to just under the grass roots and dig up a big piece of sod with a base of dirt in-tact.

Put it in w/the littles and they will dig around on it for worms and bugs just like they would if they were outside. The ones I did only lasted a day or so before the grass gets pretty gnarley. Then you take it back out, replace it where you got it from, and dig up another and start all over again!

 

[lalaland]

Gad to hear they all came thru the molasses flush ok Lala.

I was thinking about your comments about bad hay as I was in the coop today turning over the hay that was so wet from the torrential rains we had. It smelled horrible but I opened the bottom flaps of the coop and there is a breeze so I am hoping if I keep tuning it every day it will eventually dry out!!

Here is a question about bumble foot. Does it start out as a small circle area? We were trying to trim poopy bottoms and we only caught one hen (imagine here 2 grown women trying to chase 4 hens around a large fenced area with 2 dogs outside the fence running the fence line.......I'm sure we were the afternoon entertainment for the neighbor is

)

Anyways I noticed on green she has a circle area on the foot pad. It's not hard at all. I plan on just watching it to see if it changes at all.

And we are waiting till later to try the poopy butt trims.....when they are all in the coop roosted for the night !!

first off, I'm laughing at the picture of you two chasing the hens around!

Bumblefoot is usually circular, but sometimes with the shape of the foot pad it isn't exactly circular. What it is, though, is a black spot on the bottom of the foot pad that is not dirt.
It represents a staph infection. Depending on your hen's health and immune system, they might take care of it on their own.

I never had bumblefoot with chickens til I moved to this land. I'm guessing it is the blackberry brambles that leave little thorns that cause the cuts. Anything that can cut the foot can cause it, including splinters on the roosts or ramps. A little cut, a little dirt, a little staph infection.

There are lots of posts on treating it, including do it yourself surgery. Because it is so frequent on this land, I usually have one or two hens with it. I just watch it. Sometimes it progresses to a bump on the top side of the foot, and sometimes it will burst out on its own, the way a splinter will fester and work its way out. Sometimes the foot starts getting inflamed and the hen reacts to touching it, which I think means it hurts. I intervene then, or when it looks bad. Sometimes it just disappears.

For me, I usually just do foot soaks, followed by scraping to see if the black part will come off. I don't like cutting, and have found that timing is everything. If it is ready, it will readily come off with soaking.

Apparently it can get quite serious and lead to a systemic infection. I haven't seen that myself, but figure it is just like people. We get cuts, we get infections, usually not a big deal, but people can end up dead too if their immune system is overwhelmed/blood poisoning.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Does anyone know where we could purchase dried liver or meat meal? I've been looking around for a source with no luck.

 

[lalaland]

LM, love the pic of the chicks nestled in and around the grass!

 

[jeepgirl13]

Hmmmm.... I wonder why so many people say citrus and parsley are poisonous to them then?

I toss oranges and lemon scraps into the compost regularly and the flock ignore them. They will eat my parsley plants to the nubs if they are allowed. I also planted extra garlic this year and extra Oregano. I can't keep up with my flocks appetite for them. Right now the husband is digging around the raspberry row and I asked him to toss grass clods aside for the chick pens. One big clod per pen and there is now a loud symphony of happy chick noises sounding off.

 

[Leahs Mom]

LM, love the pic of the chicks nestled in and around the grass!

Those little ones at the bottom have their little beaks in the grass pulling at bugs and worms they were finding in there!