The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Melabella]

WOW, Gorgeous! That comb and waddles are not only perfect in color, not a nick or scratch or black mark on them.. PIcture of health Justine!

 

[4Hgirl]

OMG these emoticons are cracking me up! My husband does that to me sometimes! ewwwww. Axora your the smart one, marrying a woman has its perks I bet! Congrats on your anniversary!

 

[delisha]

love your bar rocks..quality birds..


I do not know if they eat them frozen or not. I invert the bag and usually go do something else while the birds are fighting over the chunk.

 

[aoxa]

WOW, Gorgeous! That comb and waddles are not only perfect in color, not a nick or scratch or black mark on them.. PIcture of health Justine!

Thanks!! Yes he is very photogenic, and very randy. I think I may change his name to Randy.. Poor Margaret is hiding out trying to avoid him. He seems to only want the two bantams (Nora and all of her 1 pound) and Margaret (who is not much bigger than Nora!) He is a really good watch rooster. I'll keep him with my layers for protection.

OMG these emoticons are cracking me up! My husband does that to me sometimes! ewwwww. Axora your the smart one, marrying a woman has its perks I bet! Congrats on your anniversary!

I bet you she does that just as much as any man

love your bar rocks..quality birds..


I do not know if they eat them frozen or not. I invert the bag and usually go do something else while the birds are fighting over the chunk.

Vicki, only one of the boys is a pure barred rock. Cletus cracks me up. He is just starting to crow, and I love hearing them go from horrible to expert in a few weeks

 

[armorfirelady]

Last fall I froze all kinds of fruits & veggies-cukes,zukes, pumpkins, squash, apples,grapes, tomatoes, etc for the girls for the winter and they lasted all the way to March in keeping the girls happy with veggies. This year I plan on trying lettuce, turnips, beets & herbs. I dont know how well the leafy veggies will do but I am going to try & see. If worse comes to worse I could always put them in the food processor to chop them up and see if they freeze better that way x2

Ok thanks. Did you defrost it first?

During the winter I did defrost them since they wouldn't of done it being put right outside. When I put the items in ziplock bags I tried to put a variety in each ziplock bag and gave them some every day. A gallon ziplock bag lasted a few days each. I have a small chest freezer that I filled with veggies & fruit for the hens. I watched for marked down produce/veggies at the grocery store and filled it up. I am hoping this year I can fill it with more from my garden

 

[midnightroo]

love your bar rocks..quality birds..


I do not know if they eat them frozen or not. I invert the bag and usually go do something else while the birds are fighting over the chunk.

Lol! Too funny!

During the winter I did defrost them since they wouldn't of done it being put right outside. When I put the items in ziplock bags I tried to put a variety in each ziplock bag and gave them some every day. A gallon ziplock bag lasted a few days each.

I have a small chest freezer that I filled with veggies & fruit for the hens. I watched for marked down produce/veggies at the grocery store and filled it up. I am hoping this year I can fill it with more from my garden

Yes, excellent idea. I do the same with the fruit that I freeze for making smoothies.

Thank for your help!

 

[Tj11]

Hi everyone I'm new to this thread but I wanted to share this photo of my beautiful x bred hen Sophie. She is seven years old and was still laying 5 or 6 eggs a week before she went broody. She is my Proof that the free range lifestyle produces happy long lasting hens. It's so funny this is the first time in her life that she has ever gone broody at 7 years old so strange. I hope you all like it xxx

 

[brandislee]

well, now I feel stupid and I even took French! here I totally overlooked the French les, and went with lez...congrats on the 9 years! today MN passed the freedom to marry act.

love all the chick pics from everyone, keep em coming.

I know I have been whining about the cold and the snow on saturday and true story, tomorrow it is supposed to hit 90. these weather swings are something. all of a sudden I'm thinking I better remember to open all the coop windows and to make sure there is extra water out before I leave for work.

10 days til chicks!

I so want an ecoglow, but I put all my pennies into these chicks - most expensive chicks I've ever bought. feel like an old lady when I say "....eh, I remember when chicks were 50 cents!".

I'm so excited about this MN freedom thing- I'm proud to be here and be a part of changing history! It's weird because it doesn't really affect my life directly, but I'm ridiculously excited.

or quite simply, if you drop that basket, you broke all of your eggs. Ever almost drop your basket while collecting eggs? Quite the freak out moment

Ugh. I HAVE dropped my entire basket before... but by basket, I mean my shirt. Wait, I didn't drop my shirt, that's a whole other story, but I had my shirt full of eggs and the edge slipped out of my hand RIGHT onto the board I have nailed to the doorway to keep the DL in. Because when I drop an egg it is ALWAYS on that stupid threshold. But I dropped the whole batch once, it was a holy mess. And both the dogs and the chickens descended like vultures. I did manage to save a few though. This past weekend I FINALLY bought myself an egg basket. I've been holding out because I'm both super picky and cheap- I hate the ones they carried at the farm store (besides being ugly they look super top heavy, and since about 75% of the time my 4 year old gathers the eggs that didn't seem like a good idea) and wanted an pretty antique one, but I didn't want to pay antique prices. Then at the local gift and floral store I found an antique knock off meant for decorative purposes, but very sturdy and PERFECT. So worth the wait, because it just looks so beautiful full of multicolored eggs!

Hi everyone I'm new to this thread but I wanted to share this photo of my beautiful x bred hen Sophie. She is seven years old and was still laying 5 or 6 eggs a week before she went broody. She is my Proof that the free range lifestyle produces happy long lasting hens. It's so funny this is the first time in her life that she has ever gone broody at 7 years old so strange. I hope you all like it xxx

Perhaps after her long, successful career she finally decided it was time to settle down and raise some chicks? She's a modern hen

 

[BlueMouse]

Welcome! and what a beautiful photo!! I hope my hens are doing as well at 7 years old!!

 

[Ashdoes]

I got my egg basket at The Arc,,thrift shop...for $2. Same place I get my vintage Pyrex bowls, cast iron Dutch ovens and recently Descoware pots. When I need a specific kitchen item I go there first. I've started making sour dough bread and needed a tall heavy bowl, got a vintage bowl for $20 bucks, super pretty for sitting on the counter while the dough rises. My MIL and I try to go every other week at least.