The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[starlingdaly]

Goodness, am I supposed to be feeding this starter twice a day!? The links I read sad every four days...sigh. This is hard. I've got a wild starter going right now, but it's a little odd at the moment. I'm working on it.
And to make this "chicken" it's super cute watching the chicks scurry under the Eco glow, they learned real quick what it was for. After a couple hours they're eating the FF just fine.

Maybe that's if you are keeping it in the fridge? That slows down growth. When I have it on the counter, I feed it twice a day to keep it healthy and strong. A bit of organic whole wheat or rye flour also seems to help if you don't do that already.

 

[Ashdoes]

Oh oh I'll take the extra roo..... but you said two roo and five girls..... don't I see EIGHT birds in that photo?

Yep, you counted eight...we ordered two boys, but they sent three. Lucky us.

 

[Ashdoes]

Maybe that's if you are keeping it in the fridge? That slows down growth. When I have it on the counter, I feed it twice a day to keep it healthy and strong. A bit of organic whole wheat or rye flour also seems to help if you don't do that already.

Well that makes sense, because right now it gets liquids fast. Sigh...I so want to make good bread.

 

[delisha]

We had mites in ours, and in research it said the DE wouldn't harm the earth worms, because they don't have the hard shell....but I don't know about meal worms. We only did the light sprinkle over the top for the mites and that worked out fine. For the ants my husband built a little stand for the bucket and I sprinkled the DE around it. I've checked the worms twice and they're thriving just fine, even though I worry about having the DE in there.

Wipe down all counters and your kitchen floor with 50/50 vinegar and water.

The vinegar removes the ant trail and they hate vinegar.

Sprinkle cinnamon, mint, chili pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cloves or garlic – whichever one you happen to have – in the area where you've seen ants and along your home's foundation. Bay leaves can also be placed in cabinets, drawers and containers to further deter those pesky critters.

Chalk/ Baby Powder

Draw a line of chalk or sprinkle baby powder across the spot where the ants are entering your home.
Why This Works: Talcum powder, an ingredient in both chalk and baby powder, is a natural ant repellent.


Borax

Mix together equal parts Borax and either syrup or jelly. Then, place where the ants will find it.
Why This Works: Once consumed, Borax damages both the ants' digestive systems and their outer skeletons, resulting in death.

 

[bbsnooks]

You know...I like the idea of the LABS but have never watched that whole video to the end .
Is there a site that just writes out the steps... Something that I could print and keep as a reference?

that video was pretty long.. there was some good info there.. but.. long ..
here is a link to the written directions on 2 blogs & pdf ** is my best recommendation..

1) http://rooftopecology.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/korean-natural-farming-lactic-acid-bacteria-lab/
2) http://kimcschang.blogspot.com/2010/10/lactic-acid-bacteria-lab.html
** 3) PDF lab's & more ... p 41-44 http://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf

If some one is interested in.. more of the KNFarming.. good mp3 lecture is here w/ slides - look for
Drake on Natural Farming Soil Foundation

 

[starlingdaly]

T

Well that makes sense, because right now it gets liquids fast. Sigh...I so want to make good bread.

Hehe. It took me about two weeks of feeding (and actually discarding) before I felt comfortable using my starter. Since then I never discard the leftover from feeding. I add it to a bowl and it becomes my bread base after a few days of feeding -> adding.

 

[jlynnet]

I came home to 5 chirping Polish chicks in the bator! Maybe we'll get a few more. My boys got to watch them hatch and thought it was so cool. Bummed I missed out.

 

[pebcrb]

I am new to chickens and have a perplexing issue, my 6wk old sfh chick has been acting a little less spunky and showing signs of respiratory distress when stressed. I originally thought it was from the wet fermented feed making dirty stick to its nostrils. When its stressed aka when i hold it it gasps, gargles, and even has had mucus and bubbles at its worst. It has a pale yellow beak and I noticed that it had dark "boogers" blocking its nostrils so I took a moist qtip and cleaned it out, it seemed spunkier and better all day but tonight when I checked on it, it had dark "boogers" again and gargling and gasping. Can't be from the fermented feed cause I haven't feed it today. Any suggestions?

 

[lalaland]

Ew is right... but at least my dogs don't have fleas too. Yet.
In a perfect world I would do raw, but even though I know you're right about them eating less then, I still don't think I could afford it. I have two dogs, one is 32 lbs and would eat like nothing... but my problem with her would be that she utterly refuses to eat raw meat. Yeah, she's a weird dog in a lot of ways. She catches the bunnies and squirrels and my other dog eats them...

And my other dog is 100 lbs of muscle and energy. I could afford to feed the other one alone, but not the big one. He would need to eat 2-4 lbs of food a day, according to the raw feeding guides I've looked at. My family doesn't eat that much meat a day because we can't afford it, I'm not going to feed to to my dog! Maybe if my husband hunted or we had some other super cheap source of meat.


We have 2.6 acres and were overwhelmed at first but have now (more or less!) got it under control. The hardest part for me was getting the right equipment for the jobs we needed to do. We didn't even own a mower when we moved here! I don't have even close to all of it utilized the way I would like it, but I'm on my way. There's still some territorial conflict going on over the top yard (the house is on a hill and most of the yard slopes down, but there's a big expanse of yard, probably a little less than an acre including where the house sits, that's just open grass) between my husband and I. He likes grass, I hate it and think it's useless (well, not totally, chickens like to graze on it and cows eat it, but that's all it's good for!) and would like to get rid of most of it in favor of garden beds, fruit trees, etc. He hates mowing around the nonsense I do (but I do it anyway!). But most of the rest is fruit trees, my very large garden, walnut trees, an oak grove, and chicken pens. It's a process.

I think I could handle 40 (maybe more) acres by myself (more or less, I'd need help occasionally) because if I had that much I'd raise cattle (and possibly other large stock, but definitely cattle) and a few horses to ride to check said cattle. So like 1/2-1 acre for the house and surrounding permaculture beds, 2 or so for fruit trees and shrubs and a large annual garden, then the rest would just be pasture and hay ground. Why don't I list chickens? I'd probably have a coop near the house for breeding and raising chicks, and just because I love having chickens around the yard, but if I had that much property and the resources to buy/build all the necessary infrastructure, I would do intensive rotational grazing and follow the cattle with chickens, which would be housed in large mobile houses. And obviously I would need a LGD to guard the chickens... See, I have it all planned out! The only thing missing is the money to fund said idea...

Quote:
Nope, it never gets old! My first broody was a hatchery chick, too, and she's my best broody to date.
I keep seeing people refer to LAB's... I know what they are, and now I know how to make them, but what are they for?


Not to be a pain-in-the-butt know-it-all, but moles are insectavores. It's a common misconception that moles eat roots, bulbs, and root crops, but it's not true. They may nibble a veggie here or there, but never enough to do much damage. It was more likely pocket gophers, which are really common here in MN. I tell you this not to be a know-it-all (well, that might be part of it) but because it may help you control them if you know what is actually stealing your crop!

I don't think they ate the garlic, just had so many tunnels that the garlic was moved - same thing happened in my strawberry bed. funny, i have seen moles a zillion times here and that is what gets caught in the live traps and in the rat zapper, but haven't seen gophers in the garden. a couple of acres away, yes, gophers.

I am new to chickens and have a perplexing issue, my 6wk old sfh chick has been acting a little less spunky and showing signs of respiratory distress when stressed. I originally thought it was from the wet fermented feed making dirty stick to its nostrils. When its stressed aka when i hold it

it gasps, gargles, and even has had mucus and bubbles at its worst. It has a pale yellow beak and I noticed that it had dark "boogers" blocking its nostrils so I took a moist qtip and cleaned it out, it seemed spunkier and better all day but tonight when I checked on it, it had dark "boogers" again and gargling and gasping. Can't be from the fermented feed cause I haven't feed it today. Any suggestions?

pebcrb, I don't have any suggestions, other than to start or increase fresh garlic for this poor little one, and to separate it from others. It is the swf chicks that I have been having problems with, one just wasted away, and now a week later another one is repeating this. Mine don't have respiratory issues, but just quit eating and drinking.
Hope someone here can give you more helpful info.

do you have only chicks?

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Another book recommended earlier "The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable" - Juliette de Baïracli Levy has some bad reviews on it - esp concerning horses & the use of motor oil to coat them. Yuck. I don't have any books to recommend currently, though I feel it's always good to read the reviews before ordering.
Goats aren't native to Australia and neither are most of the plants they eat. Same goes for the majority of treatments recommended for them. There will be differences but the main text should be true enough and close enough, because for example in treating many diseases it's about the substances you give the animal, not are not too often completely restricted to one single plant species on one continent. It'll have useful practical info too on birthing and other topics that are species specific more than geographically specific. While Pat Coleby and J.d.B.Levy were specific mainly to Australia and Europe respectively, both traveled and learnt from the world in general, and while Levy's works are often more specific to European herbs and diseases, in Australia we're a country of imports of all kinds so it applies just fine. It works. After all, we don't use the native animals or plants to any great degree, whereas we use often European plants for European species for European diseases, all in the ex-penal colony of Oz.

The bad reviews J.d.B.Levy gets are usually due to other's ignorance; some of it's due to a few mistakes she made but overall her works are lifesaving for humans and animals and she has many doctors and vets and scientists who agree with her findings. Many worked with her and swore by her methods. She names names in the books so you can research it if so inclined. She was a trained veterinarian herself. She was often viciously attacked and tested by the scientists of the time and came out on top. Her works are still popular because they are proven and still relevant.

Mistakes she made include using asbestos mats and talcum powder as both those things came to light as dangerous after her lifetime. Mistakes other people make when reviewing her work include 'coating horses with motor oil' --- lol, I can't recall where that one comes from --- and it's also important to remember that motor oil back then was not the same as it is now; also she gives you the pros and cons of various popular treatments of her time. Another classic bad review she gets is about 'dusting chickens with tobacco powder' ---- she was not referring to the chemicalized tobacco people smoke, only the natural herb that was commonly used as an insecticide. Most people who give her bad reviews have not understood what they've read in her books, if they've even actually read them; most of it's chinese whispers. I've used her works as a guide to save both my own and animal lives of various species so I can vouch for her because I've put her works to the test many times.

Regarding the cost of raw garlic: I was getting it for $1.50p/kg, so it wasn't a pain in the wallet, and it's not necessary to give them a whole clove each per day if they're having it regularly; those who need it more will eat more. But I can't speak for the cost of garlic where you are, nor what breed of it's available and how potent or weak it may be. Rue is an alternative Levy reckons is superior to garlic for poultry, but I can't get it to grow here yet, my gardening skills are still developing; it is available though, and it'd be an investment for me since I intend to let it grow in adequately netted bushes so they can continually self-medicate and not kill the plants. Wormwood's supposed to be the equivalent for turkeys, but Levy, unfortunately, did not give precise dosages for it as overdose can be poisonous. So for ages I've experimented in great trepidation, only to find you'd have to severely over feed, most likely force feed, to poison them on it. Maybe wild growing wormwood in her native country was more potent than the pretty but still useful cultivars in Australia.

Regarding the loss of health I see in my chooks after a long time without garlic: combs getting pink instead of vibrantly red, which I associate with decreased haemoglobin and anaemia even though they're considered in the normal range... Also increased susceptibility to infections, not that they've needed treating for any; generally just not looking as prime and shiny and not being as productive as they were. A few randoms have had some short term illnesses I am sure they would not have had if I were tending them as usual, and egg production's at an all time low. I'm chafing something severe about this interim situation; I wanted to be back to breeding and eating them by now, in fact months ago. Gah! I actually try to not think about it too much, just focus on my business. I've been severely bitten with the chicken loving bug. I want to keep them for the rest of my life, they're just an incredible and economical addition for the sake of health, and they're fascinating animals too. Lol@me.