The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

We give our chickens all the offal from any fresh caught fish from a clean source. Since we have a creek in our yard this is not a big deal. We just throw it right to them and let them pick it clean (If DH fillets it) then he either throws whatevers left (and it's not much) into the creek for the fishies to pick clean or buries it to keep it away from the dog. As far as vennison, we eat quite a lot of it too (main source of red meat for us), and butcher our own. As long as everything looks healthy, liver, heart, and possibly kidneys are great for your birds. very high in a lot of minerals and vitamins. Slice into thin strips about the size of a worm, or dice, and freez in portions on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Then you can pop them off the wax paper and store them in a big ziplock bag. That way in the winter when good meat is scarce, or when you have chicks in the brooder, you can just thaw a portion at a time. We do the same or dehydrate the heart and liver from the half a cow my parents buy every year from a local friend, t he processor knows we feed liver and heart to our dogs, and always saves a few extras for us. It's always gone to the dogs, but now they have to share with the chickens. Dogs will go nuts over dehydrated liver treats, but Iwon't do it because even doing it outside the small makes me gag. I wouldn't over feed liver, only as a treat or once a week as a main protien supplement. I don't think you can over do it with heart though. this is of course only my.02 and ymmv. This is mainly speaking from experience feeding dogs. Right now I'm buying whole organic chickens from the store. If I'm not roasting I butcher it out, cut off the breasts, and then the legs. I then use a cleaver to hack the remaing carcass in half and put it in my ACD's dish. He's in doggie heaven. I'm looking forward to starting my BSF colony so I have something productive to do with cooked bones! I hate throwing them in the trash. We haven't had to have a fire even at night in forever, guess if you're getting the 30's we have a good chance of getting the same. It's gonna play merry hob with all my seedlings. Guess I'll be running around draping blankets over plants. Chickies will be hapy to have their favorite dustbath back! Right now they're dustbating in one of the new raised beds that I built around my new fruit trees....
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what is ACD and BSF? Oh boy I feel so behind. I am so excited to learn about this free protein source for our flock! Thanks to all for the suggestions on how to preserve it.
 
A large "stray" dog (it belongs to a neighbor, but he doesn't take care of it) came into my yard today.  Of course the chickens were out, roaming free, doing their chicken-y things.  My dog ran the stray off, and alerted the chickens to run for cover (which they did).
Good dog.

we also have a very good chicken dog. Except for one I discretion when the chickens were new two years ago. This dog hunts like crazy all day for squirrels and lizards. Then she roams the property all night and has been seen chasing critters out of the property saving the flock numerous times I'm sure. You can even hear the raccoons late at night in the woods. But that dog keeps them out. She gets every egg that is cracked and the occasional duck egg when she lays in the middle of the yard, I think she loves the birds now for they give her treats!! The other snores so loud all night you can her in the house.
 
Hi Y'all!

Just stoppin in to say Hi!

Miss you all and hope all is well.

Just picked up 2 miniature horses for Carla. They already got away, were found and walked them home. Thankfully no foundering. Buildin fence in about 12 hours I reckon. Birds are up to 4-5 dozen a day.....

Shawn/Loan/Loin/Hero to swooning females

Car Dealer, Landlord, Farmer, Auctioneer, Masseur, Fisherman
lol..your a funny man and glad you stopped in..
Quote: well said and I agree 100%. I wish I could sometimes say things so they sounded this diplomatic.
Quote: I read what you posted. The maggots are eating her dead skin and part of the infection. I really had not known about the maggots and I seen no sign of them in any of your pictures..I saw no injury at all. I am confused I guess. I thought you originally said she was limping. I guess I missed a whole big part of this story. One thing for sure. I would go to the neighbors house and give them a very very large bill. If they do not replace your chickens you need to take them to small claims court. It does not replace what you lost, but, it might encourage them to keep the dogs at home.
Since this is the "natural" forum, I thought I'd share...
Muccle, my live incubator, hatched Buff O chicks on Monday.
I so love good momma hens...

tooo cute
Another question about meat scraps- my husband kills a couple deer each year and we eat mainly venison as our red meat staple. Much healthier than beef and so much cheaper than organic grass fed beef. So can we request the processor save some organs from the deer for our chickens? If yes what organs are ok? How would I package and store it?
As far as fish goes we haven't given them fish organs, are they ok too? We just give the slivers of meat that gets trimmed off. What is ok and what is not?
I give mychickens every part I do not eat..including intestines. I love to watch them drag it running. It is funny.
Quote: I feed them all. I of course make sure they are healthy. Intestines are used as casings for sausage and wieners. My chickens deserve them since I am not going to make casings. I do wash them. I have been butchering for so long i can pretty much tell if i am feeding it out or eating it by smell and sight alone. Sometimes when I butcher out a really old hen I hesitate. Livers that are going on 7 years old look pretty beat up. I posted pictures of that one because I was not really sure if it was her liver that was the reason she was not re-feathering after molt.Still laying an egg a day though.
Quote: I also use sand in my dust bath. Wood ash-sand, and dirt.
My run addition is finished
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We started out letting the girls free range during the day but had to keep them in the fence all the time because of stray dogs. The tall part and the actual coop was all we had to begin with. I wanted them to have plenty of room plus I wanted to get more so here she is! It goes around behind the back too
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There is also a sliding door where I can close off the new part from the old part in case I need to keep one separate of maybe for the new babies coming in July

Nothing fancy but I'm so happy with it!
It looks really great!
Quote: no such thing as too many trees!
 
Oh boy I just found out that the chicks we thought were hatching next week are already in the mail! Oh my gosh I didn't even by the chick starter. Now the feed store that sells organic sells a chick starter but its a cracked grain and the pieces look too big for these day old chicks. What to do? Is the non organic chick starter crumble ok?
 
My run addition is finished
big_smile.png


We started out letting the girls free range during the day but had to keep them in the fence all the time because of stray dogs. The tall part and the actual coop was all we had to begin with. I wanted them to have plenty of room plus I wanted to get more so here she is! It goes around behind the back too
smile.png




There is also a sliding door where I can close off the new part from the old part in case I need to keep one separate of maybe for the new babies coming in July

Nothing fancy but I'm so happy with it!

Very nice looking!! Congrats!
 
this must be chicken heaven.. Hummm
great idea.. !!!
photo of swing dissapeared.. but . how can you forget that..
I'm going to try some thing.. in the hoop coop.. humm may need to think on the location.
Try this!

I have always wanted to. Looks awesome!
 
Hi Y'all!

Just stoppin in to say Hi!

Miss you all and hope all is well.

Just picked up 2 miniature horses for Carla. They already got away, were found and walked them home. Thankfully no foundering. Buildin fence in about 12 hours I reckon. Birds are up to 4-5 dozen a day.....

Shawn/Loan/Loin/Hero to swooning females

Car Dealer, Landlord, Farmer, Auctioneer, Masseur, Fisherman
God luck with the fence :)
 
what is ACD and BSF? Oh boy I feel so behind. I am so excited to learn about this free protein source for our flock! Thanks to all for the suggestions on how to preserve it.

BSF is Black Soldier Flies... I'm guessing ACD is austratlian cattle dog... just a guess
 

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