The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

Justine,

It is more that they all love him so much they clean him off. He is not so nice to baby's.

I am so surprised. He loves all the big birds only. I have one silkie who loves baby's. She screams when I take her away from them...lol..she is a bit of a freak.

Silkies are so great with young chicks. I have always found that.

Did I end up posting the picture of the babies here? I can't remember.. Will go back and check before reposting.

 

[aoxa]

Nope - didn't post it here yet.

 

[zinia8]

Today's progress!! Oh and had to add this. Really.. it kills me.. I was never a bunny person, but these guys are so stinking cute. They free range too with their parents. They can outrun all my dogs, who seem to think it's a game when they start running.. Anyway... So cute.

Looks great!!! I can't believe how fast its going up. Love the bunnies. Happy Anniversary.

 

[Quailsong]

My neighbors aren't animal people at all and wouldn't have known to tell me. Also, my chickens are supposed to be in a 3 acre fenced area, but my SFH are very intelligent and don't care for borders. They know how to get out and back in by wriggling under the permanent wire cattle fence. We've tried filling in their little spots, but they will actually dig stuff out of the way to get out again.

I see. Yeah that makes sense.

(Also, trying to catch up on posts! Spend a half day in the garden & I come back to 140 new posts.)

 

[Mrs.SB]

If I could only let mine out after 5 till dark, should I feed in the mornings? Or wait till night also? I feel like they would starve till 5. I usually have some kitchen scraps I could give then though

 

[Bulldogma]

Today's progress!!

Oh and had to add this. Really.. it kills me.. I was never a bunny person, but these guys are so stinking cute. They free range too with their parents. They can outrun all my dogs, who seem to think it's a game when they start running.. Anyway... So cute.

Hooray for the progress on the barn, and hooray for adorable bunnies!!

 

[delisha]

If I could only let mine out after 5 till dark, should I feed in the mornings? Or wait till night also? I feel like they would starve till 5. I usually have some kitchen scraps I could give then though

You would need to feed them something. You can try half rations in the morning, let them free range, and feed them the rest at lock up and see how they start to do. It is wonderful you are free ranging when you are home!! Any time you can give them is valuable. Maybe they might be able to skip that night feeding once in a while. Try it and see how it goes.

 

[delisha]

Justine,

cute silkies..your barn is going up so fast!!

 

[Eggcessive]

I mix my 24% gamebird feed with 8% scratch grains half and half which equals 16%. Lately, since I have young ones, I have upped the percentage of gamebird to the 20% range just to make sure.

 

[Bulldogma]

OK - the vet called with the preliminary results...

And I have come to the conclusion that the folks on this thread have been more helpful and insightful... because you're not all after my money - LOL!

OK - he didn't think it was the heart. He felt the cause of death was liver failure. He said there were lesions and an elevation of white blood cells in the liver.

The guy is an avian specialist and was trying to be nice/helpful, but he also seemed a bit put off by all my questions... because he wanted me to pay for more tests, I think. OK - so I respect that he wants tissue to be sent to the lab, but he was trying to get me to do it *now* by saying it could be avian TB. Um... no. Most birds will waste away for months prior to death with that lovely little nasty. Gunnar didn't start "wasting away" until a few hours before he died. (And I already told him my family has no money for all of this... )

So I cornered the doc with my questions and he finally said that yeah - a spider bite or exposure to rat poison/chemicals used by an exterminator could cause the issues he saw. We have a huge number of black widow spiders about right now - I've killed 3 in the last couple days. And then there is the exterminator that was on the farm just a few days ago.

So the vet pushed for the lab testing again (which he said would cost about $110 per test), so I asked about the state lab. "Oh well yeah - but there's a shipping fee involved with that!"

Oooooo $15 shipping fee! LOL! He's going to find out how much the state lab would cost and get back to me. In the mean time I pick up the remains on Saturday (because if I leave them there, there is a $25 incineration fee).

On the flip side, the vet complimented me on Gunnar's obvious health and called him "the most magnificent bird I've worked on in a long time."
Simple math: Obvious heath / Avian TB = Oxymoron

In the mean time anther SFH breeder from Richmond (and a wonderful person who I liked the first instance I met her last October) has offered me one of her beautiful roos! She's NPIP certified which makes me feel a bit more at ease about bringing an older bird on to the property (but of course he'll still be quarantined at first). Now we're just working out how to get the bird (Orion) from Richmond to southern VA. Keep your fingers crossed!