The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Star Flock]

Leaves? Low dust, and some people use them as bedding. Of course, only if you have them. I have tons, but I don't use them in the coop purely because I have a thing for shavings- so easy to work with and they smell good. But I use leaves in the run/outdoor shelter.

Leaves would be great! But yeah, only a few trees on our property and the wind blows them far, far away. :/ Thanks, though! Great suggestion, anyway!

 

[camilleathome]

Entertainment of the Day. Watching Al(Hubby) crawl through the chicken door to get into the run to scoop bits of plastic and roofing that somehow were in the run. Chickens are so not scared of us anymore they wouldnt even more for him to get in or out which made things even hilariously more funny.

 

[hotrodflash]

I have a non-chicken related issue, but I know this is the place to ask this because in pretty much any other place I know what the answer will be...

My dog is off his food, and he's been puking since Friday. He seems mostly fine otherwise, although his energy is low for obvious reasons (not eating much for three days), but he still follows me around the yard, chases anything that moves (other than chickens), and plays with my other dog. He's eaten a little- I've been giving him eggs poached in chicken stock (which he kept down, although he puked up some water several hours later) and plan to give him some ground beef later today. Normally I would take him to the vet today just to be sure, but we are BROKE and the vet requires payment at the time of service. I know having a dog means financial responsibility, blah blah blah, but we're not like permanently broke, we're broke until Friday. Besides (and hate on me for this if you want, but it is what it is) our dogs are not our children. If we were to take him to the vet and he had some obstruction that needed surgery or something, I would either have him put down or I would see if the no kill shelter wanted to do something (see if someone else wants him who is willing to pay for the surgery or whatever). I won't spend hundreds of dollars on a dog. I know, I'm an awful person. But I'm okay with it.

Anyway, like I said, I knew anywhere else I'd ask the answer would be "go to the vet." End of story. But I know there are people here who do things a little different, so I guess I'm asking what would you do in my situation? Should I keep feeding him eggs/stock/meat until he starts to feel better? Could worms be causing this (I did see some funny stuff in his stool, which was a little runny, but I wasn't sure if it was grass or not- he's been eating a lot of grass)? Any other suggestions? My gut is saying keep him home until he starts to actually act more sick, and keep feeding him the good stuff in the mean time.

Cook up some rice and when it is still hot, scramble in some raw eggs, if you have any chicken breast you can give him a little of that. My old dog goes off his food in the summer sometimes and this is something he will eat very easily. Good luck with him.

 

[armorfirelady]

http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/equipment/poultry-float-valve-226

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/01/comparison-of-poultry-cup-drinkers.html


I also have the right drill bit measurement now....have to go look it up and get that post updated too.

Their website is down so I will try later but all this talk about rain barrels, goldfish, poultry waterers got me to thinking..........(insert your thinker guy here )

My rain barrel is about 5-8 ft from the new coop. What if I put the the cup waterers on the outside of rain barrel itself and postioned it so its still outside the coop yet the waterer cup is inside.........then I could put a heater in the barrel for winter (its a 55 gallon drum so my pond heater would work) and I would have unfrozen water during the winter and a free water year round. Throw in a few nickel goldfish in there to help keep the water clean.........hmmmmmm

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: My questions would be... how much pressure can the water cups takes? and how much head do you have when your barrel is full?
IOW, you need to make sure your PSI doesn't exceed the capability of the water cups.
It doesn't take much head to create a lot of pressure.

 

[hotrodflash]

Thanks everyone! I had heard hay can be dusty but that's why I was planning on getting this particular kind that is heat treated (reduces mold) and dust free (mostly). Here's a link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/683176/experiment-with-bedding

I considered sand but we live in Texas so it gets very hot and humid. Plus, we want to compost, too, making sand not the best option. The coop is going to be in our shed. As far as I know we'll be fixing up the roof to prevent leaks. This bedding issue has been the hardest to decide...

Try getting hay for horses, it is a better quality hay and has little to no dust. I have a neighbor who has a forage mart and he sells 2 qualities of hay, good, may be a little dusty, and excellent or premium has little to no dust.

 

[Star Flock]

This is great, now I have a plan! Can't wait to see what our stores have!!!

 

[salt and pepper]

I CAN'T get rid of the mites!!!

I've sprayed all the coops with a permethrin solution after taking out all the bedding. I only scrubbed one of the coopds though, since the others had been scrubbedless than a week ago. I'm using the same bedding again, since I just cleaned, but will be dusting it all with the permethrin dust. I might never get completely rid of them, but my chickens have shown now affects and still as healthy as ever, so maybe with routine cleaning, and regular dusting I can keep it under control..... thanks neighbor who doesn't take care of his chickens....

 

[kian]

Does anyone mind seeing baby chick pics? These are our hatchlings from last weekend (Mother's Day weekend). My other Cuckoo Marans has not laid in about 10 days, but she's inconsistant on the nest. The past couple days however, she's been playing Nanny with the babies. One even went to sleep with her in her nest box! Mama doesn't seem to mind. She hasn't abandoned any of them, but she doesn't mind a little time off when the other one has them.

They've been with the rest of the flock since hatching and we have had zero issues. Mama is very good!


I'm not really sure of their colors. I was told simply "splash, blue and black" but a couple of the blues look like they aren't all blue? It'll be interesting to see as their real feathers come in. One of the blacks has a lot of rust on his back and head. He's the first hatched, and I think he *is* a he. Stance and all. I think the splash is a "he" and one of the blues. 100% guessing.


Here they are today:















Look at the baby in the middle! It looks like it's trying to get it's Nanny's attention





They only get up on Mama's back though

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: My questions would be... how much pressure can the water cups takes? and how much head do you have when your barrel is full?
IOW, you need to make sure your PSI doesn't exceed the capability of the water cups.
It doesn't take much head to create a lot of pressure.
The links are working for me...

At most the places that carry the cups, they sell A LOW PRESSURE REGULATOR that has to be used if connected directly to the hose. Max water pressure is 5 psi per the McMurry web site http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/poultry_cup_waterer.html

Ididn't buy a "system", just the cups for $1.70 each from Cornerstone. However, the places that sell the whole systems have the regulators and I think you can also get them at regular farm stores.

Strombergs has the reducers and so does Beakup http://www.beaktime.com/ if you plan on using with a hose to feed or higher than 5psi.