The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[camilleathome]

We really had fun too Camille!!

We drove 2 hours with 65 chicks, two turkey poults and 6 adult barred rocks + 40 hatching eggs. All in all very eventful trip, and I am tired!!

I was up at 4:30 AM XD Im sitting here now exausted but not able to sleep. Loving the sound of chicks in the house again

 

[BlueMouse]

about the comfry, it's a good mulch for the berry bushes/trees/rhubarb/aspargus because they're perennial heavy feeders. That is, you don't turn new material into that soil yearly, you can only top dress. Comfry is great for this, it's high in nitrogen, and it draws up minerals from the sub strata of the soil into the leaves, which then break down and are available to the plant you are mulching.

 

[delisha]

Quote: I would estimate a bit earlier...but not by much.
I have a sensitive nose, but when I egggtopsy it does not seem to bother me.
I leave my birds where they choose to nest inside the coop. I do cover them with something if I do not find the nest in time if they have nested outdoors. I do move them into the coop after they start setting in earnest. I have used a wheel barrel, a home made wooden A frame, all kinds of things depending on if I do or do not find them outside in time.

An incubator question.

For those of you that have incubated, what was your FIRST experience like?
-Was it easy? I do not remember that long ago. I doubt it was easy.
-Confusing? Exciting
-Would you do it again? I do
-What would you say to a person who has never used an incubator before - your #1 tip (or 2 or 3).

1, Invest in a good hygrometer and thermometer
2. Use good hygiene
3. Once you get your temp set, keep your hands off the knob. It will adjust and regulate all on its own if you keep your incubator in a room that is temperature and humidity stable. As in :
Keep away from a heat source that turns on and off, sun beating on the incubator, cold drafts, excessive bumping and jostling. Children.

Quote: Every hen is different. Only you can determine if it is partial molt and use or one or the other. We can only guess. I do have a hen who is three and molting now, she is also over used and balding on her cushion. If she was a first year, I would give her to second molt to see how she fared. To see it is a normal occurrence to be so bald. This is my hen first time molting so bald and the first time with this rooster. He weighs over 10lbs, and she is about 7lbs. He is young and that is part of it. He is not quite a year old. If she does this next molt, she might become stew. She has never done this before, so she gets one more season. (She is also my DH's favorite hen). He fed her a peanut butter sandwich today and I was amused and a bit upset. I do not like them being fed bread at all.
Having a bald hen is not normal. You need more hens for your male. If it continues after more hens are purchased the hen should be culled. The chance of infection from skin damage is too high of a risk.

Quote: ohh yeah..what she said x2

 

[countrygirl74]

Here are some photos. You with "roo experience"...what do you think?



This is Charlie's Sister. CS for short. She has a "fancy pants" tail that she keeps upright most the time. If that tail is down, you can see some bare skin now.

Looks like a worn spot; however, on all my girls, it's much higher, more on the middle of their backs, not by their tail. As you can see in the photo, there are a couple with wing-guards as the damage is toward the front of their wings - again, not so much toward the back. Maybe it depends on the roo?? They were being over-mated for a short time while I had too many roos and they are all wearing chicken saddles while they heal up. No broken skin except one who had her side ripped open. She has since healed completely. The others were worn almost bald and I got the saddles to protect them from getting any worse while we re-homed 2 of the 3 roos. The silkie was broody during this time so she doesn't need her saddle - she had a nice long break from the boys!

As for your question about the balding area, I'd say it's probably rooster use, though my girls always had it higher up - around the shoulders. If she starts to lose feathers elsewhere, I'll change my guess to "molt." LOL.

X2

I had such a blast with aoxa today! Thank you so much for letting me tag along and sleep over. You guys are a blast to hang out with! Came home with the most awesome little guys. 10 mottled houdans, 10 easter eggers, 10 Blue australorps, 2 turkeys and one tiny little naked neck turken barred rock cross that I watched hatch out of aoxa's incubator . Got to see their new barn and it is gorgeous as well as got a chance to visit two other farms all with beautifull free range birds. It really is making my decision of opening up the other half of my barn up into a coop and free ranging my birds even more of a firm decision in my mind.

Sounds like an awesome day!!

Went to barn to dig into some of that deep litter..... Ummmm...... relatively dry on top..... Solid, wet, not at all decomposed under the surface.....Stinky too. Any ideas how to proceed? Gonna be a LOT of work to take a years worth of litter from 100+ chickens that is wet, full of hay that acts like rebar....I wonder if I switched to shavings if it would help. Remember, I have a very wet environment.

Figure I best get that stinky wet stuff out and to some sort of compost heap.

I noticed that when I used straw (mixed with shavings), it stayed wet longer, was more heavy, and stinky. I switched to shavings and it seems much better. I did spray LAB (lactic acid bacteria) on my stinky straw deep litter and that took away the smell. It still needed turning more often than the shavings do though...

 

[armorfirelady]

Incubation Station what's your Function?

1st time, I pored over the information on this site, candled 3-4 times, worried, had 85% hatch rate and the next time did about the same and had about a 40% hatch rate.....

Now.... I candle on day 14-16, lock down on 18....

Bought a fancy incubator off Bruce.... never used it yet. I want to incubate 200 eggs at one time, cull 100 roosters, completely new flock for this winter.... or.... maybe not lol.

New subject. Found tomatos on sale at TSC. Bought some, flipped a pallet upside down, put old garden dirt in it.... dirt prepared by Burt and Ernie 2 years ago (1st pigs).

Went to barn to dig into some of that deep litter..... Ummmm...... relatively dry on top..... Solid, wet, not at all decomposed under the surface.....Stinky too. Any ideas how to proceed? Gonna be a LOT of work to take a years worth of litter from 100+ chickens that is wet, full of hay that acts like rebar....I wonder if I switched to shavings if it would help. Remember, I have a very wet environment.

Figure I best get that stinky wet stuff out and to some sort of compost heap.

Made Goose mad today too..... Took her unfertile eggs and fed them to the hogs.... Talk about stink.... I think the chickens cleaned it up. I couldn't stay in the barn til it was all over. Remember, my goose thinks I am her mate and protects me from the chickens.

My coop/run area has been a battle this year with all the rain we have gotten and the coop being in a low spot. I was using hay/straw but like you said its like cement when it gets so wet. I ended up taking it all out and using shavings. So much easier to remove when wet.

I was thinking perhps you could use a rototiller to get thru all the wet DL. It should at the least go thru the top layers and chop them up and that may be enough to help it to start drying out ? Or at the least easier to handle.

All my wet hay is on the compost pile to break down. It stunk so bad

 

[Alibabe]

An incubator question.

For those of you that have incubated, what was your FIRST experience like?
-Was it easy? So far so good, the hard part will come when candling as I find it difficult to see anything even with good pictures to follow as a guide.
-Confusing? Yes, several sites that I have read appear to have contradicting advice on temperatures and humidity levels for lockdown. Some say 65% humidity and some say 80-85%?
-Would you do it again? Hopefully
-What would you say to a person who has never used an incubator before - your #1 tip (or 2 or 3). Read up as much as you can and ask lots of questions.

 

[groverlvchx]

This looks like roo roughing to me. How many hens is he covering? If she is a favorite, she is going to get worse. More hens for him would be the answer or cull. This sounds really harsh but I am a firm believer in only using hens with good feather covering over the saddle. If the skin breaks, infection is a real possibility. Hens that constantly squat and are over used by the roo will not last long. They wear out faster. This has been my experience.

Cull the hen or the roo?

 

[groverlvchx]

OH looks like Delisha answered my question--cull the hen. I have two that are desperately overused. They continuously squat for him, though. I'm going to get saddles asap or maybe just cull. He still has three other hens that he basically ignores...and I have one with chicks who should be back in action in a couple weeks and three more broodies on nests. Only one roo, but the ladies are very distracted with little ones right now. I'm working on getting him more hens (well, my broodies are), but it will be a few months yet. I'm worried that if I cull the two favorites, the remaining three will get beat up. Is it true that they only need to mate once or twice a month to be fertile all month? Because he seems to thing a dozen times a day is what it takes for the two baldies...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Strangely, I don't often see him mate this particular girl in question.

There are 9 females to 1 cockerel. 6 are hens; 3 are 23 week olds - same age as the cockerel.

 

[salt and pepper]

OH looks like Delisha answered my question--cull the hen. I have two that are desperately overused. They continuously squat for him, though. I'm going to get saddles asap or maybe just cull. He still has three other hens that he basically ignores...and I have one with chicks who should be back in action in a couple weeks and three more broodies on nests. Only one roo, but the ladies are very distracted with little ones right now. I'm working on getting him more hens (well, my broodies are), but it will be a few months yet. I'm worried that if I cull the two favorites, the remaining three will get beat up. Is it true that they only need to mate once or twice a month to be fertile all month? Because he seems to thing a dozen times a day is what it takes for the two baldies...

I've had only three hens with my roosters before, and it was a couple of months before any showed signs are wear, and the only one that did was his "favorite"