The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Pozees]

These are 4 Fogle RIR chicks and 3 Colloncas chicks

 

[Bulldogma]

Grumble - lost all my "Milti" quotes... probably were WAY too many anyway - LOL!

Darth 'Bator is broody again and sitting on 6 of Gunnar's last eggs.

New thing on the thing. You know where to find it (in my signature).


Love the giant pickling jar.
Love Mumsy's pictures!
Love Aoxa's barn!
LM's SFH are looking fantastic. Miss Black?? Perhaps Miss. Take or Miss. Tery (you have to say those fast and all together). LOL.
The broody with the ducklings - squeeee!
I know I am missing a bunch of things I wanted to comment on. Sorry!

I am down to 6 hens. Have lost 3 in the last 3 weeks to a bobcat and osprey Lost another this morning, climbed into the run(8ft with monofiliment on top) and got out with my last cukoo maran. It seems to come around 8:30 to 9 on sat, sun and mon! Kee[ing them in now in coop till after 10. Will have to do more to run

So sorry for your loss. Netting isn't going to do it for a bobcat, unfortunately. Sounds like you actually need a roofed run - or at least supports with hardware cloth... and a good LGD in the yard at all times. *sigh* It's a difficult thing to have such cunning predators. So sorry this is happening.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm thinking the multi-quote thing is malfunctioning. 3 of us have had problems.

 

[flagirl]

So sorry for your loss. Netting isn't going to do it for a bobcat, unfortunately. Sounds like you actually need a roofed run - or at least supports with hardware cloth... and a good LGD in the yard at all times. *sigh* It's a difficult thing to have such cunning predators. So sorry this is happening.

I know, My 14 yr old lab(who was not a guard dog) died 2 months ago, but she was out and about in the mornings. probably took this long for cat to realize there was no longer a dog around. not ready to get another dog yet, wonder if I can rent a dog for mornings

 

[PatQ]

Too cute, love the colours

Me TOO - I think it is going to be a beautiful flock

 

[jeepgirl13]

Hey all. I've got another question. I want to.make my own ACV. Its expensive to keep buying when I'm feeding it to.my chicken.s, my dog, my horses and myself. Lol. Everything I keep reading says it has to be done in a glass container. Can I just use a regular old water jug for this? Does anyone have any preferred methods or recipies? Thanks in advance

 

[PatQ]

They do look so healthy and big for that age! Growing faster than mine for sure (by about a week). What do you feed your babies?

Their main source of food is non-medicated Purina Sunfresh Start and Grow (all they had at local feed store - will switch to organic layer feed), but I have supplemented since day 1. I brought chunks of sod into the brooder box with chickweed/dandelions/clover/violets/grass since they were 1 day old. Also have given them ground up muesli/pumpkin seeds/flax. Daily I chop up finely - fresh produce from my garden - spinach, kale, swiss chard, lettuce, pea tendrils and flowers, basil, parsely, dill etc. Yesterday they shared a whole grain blueberry pancake and LOVED it - and then as you can see watermelon was introduced yesterday. They also had an Eco Glow which I think accounts for their great health so far and their early feathering - no lights to upset the natural circadian rhythm - they have put themselves to sleep every night and wake up raring to go in the morning. They actually abandoned the Ecoglow at about 2 weeks old. Well I guess I went a little overboard answering your question

 

[4Hgirl]

They are adorable. I have some younger chicks & feed FF. I purchased one of those Plastic chic feeders at TSC and just made the head holes bigger so they could fit in there to eat but it left the top post across the top so they couldn't walk in their food. My BCM have feathered feet/shanks & constantly try to scratch the dish before eating

& the little BR is always walking the top part. You can sort of see the bigger cut outs. I did open a couple more spots & made sure they had smooth edges. That way my EE who is 8 weeks can easily eat from here as well yet I dont have chicks covered in FF. I know others have used glass bowls with plastic lids that they cut holes in to prevent the chicks from walking in it

Oh that just gave me an idea. I'll let you know if do it.

 

[Ashdoes]

Darth 'Bator is broody again and sitting on 6 of Gunnar's last eggs.

Good luck! I've been wondering what you were going to do, I hope they all hatch and you get a couple of fantastic boys.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Darth 'Bator is broody again and sitting on 6 of Gunnar's last eggs.