The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

Quote:

Here's a question, now that its warming up outside...should I continue to keep my eggs on the counter? Or is it getting too warm for them to stay fresh and unspoiled?
Oh! A while back we were talking about coconut oil, and someone asked if you can bake with it. Well, after becoming addicted to my coconut oil popcorn I decided to give baking with it a try. Banana Bread, replaced 1/3 cup butter with 1/3 cup coconut oil. My bread didn't rise, I'm not sure if that's the oil or maybe my baking soda is bad? Anyways the bread was moist and delicious. I need to find a calculator to see if there is a difference in calories and fat...I'm not a counter, but it's always fun to compare.
On the A/C....holy cow! That's all I have to say...

Mine are on the counter all weather. I do not have them long enough to even worry.

would you ask for a different chick?

So, after learning that the teeny tiny chick that hasn't been thriving was not a swedish flower hen, I couldn't figure out what it was. I had gotten very specific breeds from the person who hatched the eggs for me. This just didn't fit with any.

So I sent her a pic and her response was that it must be a banty, probably a welsummer banty. When I picked up the chicks, hatched to order, she had three kiddie swimming pools full of chicks and she selected them. She said she knew she had bantys in her pool.

ugh. first off, I have regular welsummers, and they are not my fav breed. I wouldn't choose to have another. Second, not a big fan of banties, and thirdly and most importantly, the last two smaller sized hens I had were picked on - and they weren't banty, just smaller sized. They both died - the one that was necropsied by the state lab came back with a result that it was a stress induced ecoli overload from being picked on. Both of the two had been picked on by a bully hen.

So I wouldn't bring a banty into this flock.

This little BANTY chick is not quite 3 weeks old. It has had this vitamin deficiency and has required separation with a buddy, lots and lots of extra care, and even when it has been healthier hasn't been able to keep up with the regular sized rambunctious chicks of the same age.

I'm toying with asking her to take the banty back. She will likely still have other ones that this one could be with, and she does maintain a home flock of a huge variety of ducks and chickens, including banties, silkies, giants, regular breeds, etc.

I'm not sure I have ANY swedish flower hens in this batch of chicks. I am a little frustrated here! Of the two chicks that died, one was teeny tiny and must have been a banty. Not a sfh because it had dark legs. I think it probably had the vitamin deficiency issue too and I just didn't recognize it. THe other one that died was the dead in the morning type with no obvious signs of problems.

For me..this would be a no brainer. You purchased FSH. You did not get them. You march right on over and get what you paid for.

 

[starlingdaly]

Here's a question, now that its warming up outside...should I continue to keep my eggs on the counter? Or is it getting too warm for them to stay fresh and unspoiled?
Oh! A while back we were talking about coconut oil, and someone asked if you can bake with it. Well, after becoming addicted to my coconut oil popcorn I decided to give baking with it a try. Banana Bread, replaced 1/3 cup butter with 1/3 cup coconut oil. My bread didn't rise, I'm not sure if that's the oil or maybe my baking soda is bad? Anyways the bread was moist and delicious. I need to find a calculator to see if there is a difference in calories and fat...I'm not a counter, but it's always fun to compare.
On the A/C....holy cow! That's all I have to say...

I keep mine on the counter year-round. I like to think of it like: 100 years ago there was no air conditioning on farms and people didn't put eggs in their tiny ice boxes. If we haven't heard old-timer stories of eggs exploding on the kitchen counter in the heat of summer, I think we'll be fine with eggs stored in the ambient temp if 75-80F

I do use coconut oil for baking when I don't have enough ghee and it seems to work well on a 1:1 ratio. I have not noticed baked goods being heavier so you may want to check that baking soda. Didn't think it could go bad tho.. Maybe I just use mine up too fast for it to go bad?
Did you do anything else differently in the recipe besides coconut oil?

 

[Ashdoes]

I keep mine on the counter year-round. I like to think of it like: 100 years ago there was no air conditioning on farms and people didn't put eggs in their tiny ice boxes. If we haven't heard old-timer stories of eggs exploding on the kitchen counter in the heat of summer, I think we'll be fine with eggs stored in the ambient temp if 75-80F

I do use coconut oil for baking when I don't have enough ghee and it seems to work well on a 1:1 ratio. I have not noticed baked goods being heavier so you may want to check that baking soda. Didn't think it could go bad tho.. Maybe I just use mine up too fast for it to go bad?
Did you do anything else differently in the recipe besides coconut oil?

Lol, exploding counter eggs. Funny thought.

I've tweaked this recipe to work for me in the altitude here...now that you just asked, other then the coconut oil, I did use bread flour this time instead of all-purpose.

For me..this would be a no brainer. You purchased FSH. You did not get them. You march right on over and get what you paid for.

I agree. If you wanted and paid for one specific item, you should get that item. You don't want bantam, why keep them? Especially if they won't work in your flock.

 

[farmerfogg]

Hello everyone! I've not been on in a long time because I've been busy with my oldest daughter, getting ready to graduate from high school. Exciting times!! Graduation is today at 3, and a big party on Saturday to celebrate. So I've been getting the gardens ready and power washing deck and house. Phew! It's been busy around here!

My baby chicks have really grown up! They are now 13 weeks old. Soon enough, we'll be getting eggs from them. I have a question about one of my Speckled Sussex chicks. She has been eating up a lot of sand from the sand roost. Her crop seems full, always. And she makes these frequent jerky motions. I've been massaging her crop area. Should I be concerned that something's wrong? Should I be doing something else to help her? She eats, drinks, runs about, and acts fine. Thanks for your advise in advance.

 

[Leahs Mom]

would you ask for a different chick?

I had that happen - got one that wasn't sfh. When I asked the folks I got her from, she immediately offered to take her back and to replace her or refund my money.

I think the place you got them from should have offered immediately; that's what I would have done if I were the seller. At least get your $$ back!

 

[Leahs Mom]

2 answers:

I bake w/coconut oil w/no problem.

I leave eggs on the counter but we have AC.

 

[aoxa]

would you ask for a different chick?

So, after learning that the teeny tiny chick that hasn't been thriving was not a swedish flower hen, I couldn't figure out what it was. I had gotten very specific breeds from the person who hatched the eggs for me. This just didn't fit with any.

So I sent her a pic and her response was that it must be a banty, probably a welsummer banty. When I picked up the chicks, hatched to order, she had three kiddie swimming pools full of chicks and she selected them. She said she knew she had bantys in her pool.

ugh. first off, I have regular welsummers, and they are not my fav breed. I wouldn't choose to have another. Second, not a big fan of banties, and thirdly and most importantly, the last two smaller sized hens I had were picked on - and they weren't banty, just smaller sized. They both died - the one that was necropsied by the state lab came back with a result that it was a stress induced ecoli overload from being picked on. Both of the two had been picked on by a bully hen.

So I wouldn't bring a banty into this flock.

This little BANTY chick is not quite 3 weeks old. It has had this vitamin deficiency and has required separation with a buddy, lots and lots of extra care, and even when it has been healthier hasn't been able to keep up with the regular sized rambunctious chicks of the same age.

I'm toying with asking her to take the banty back. She will likely still have other ones that this one could be with, and she does maintain a home flock of a huge variety of ducks and chickens, including banties, silkies, giants, regular breeds, etc.

I'm not sure I have ANY swedish flower hens in this batch of chicks. I am a little frustrated here! Of the two chicks that died, one was teeny tiny and must have been a banty. Not a sfh because it had dark legs. I think it probably had the vitamin deficiency issue too and I just didn't recognize it. THe other one that died was the dead in the morning type with no obvious signs of problems.

Banties are not normally like this.. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with them but typically they are much faster than standard chickens and don't get picked on. Just picked up barred rocks (real ROCKS - like 10 pound Rocks) and he had Old English Game Bantams running with them. Said the big ones can't catch the little ones, and the little ones can't hurt the big ones.

I can attest to this. My Bantam Ameraucanas (save Margaret who can not run fast enough) can easily get away from the standard birds, and can fly better than all of them to get away from the big ones if they do feel like being bullies (though mine do not).

Stony probably also agrees that bantams are not unthrifty. I don't know if his Sumatras are considered bantams, but they are definitely on the small side (I believe he sad 3-4 pounds).

 

[aoxa]

Mine are on the counter all weather. I do not have them long enough to even worry.
For me..this would be a no brainer. You purchased FSH. You did not get them. You march right on over and get what you paid for.

Oh and lala, I agree with Delisha no matter what - you paid for a certain breed: and that is what you should have received!

 

[aoxa]

Hello everyone! I've not been on in a long time because I've been busy with my oldest daughter, getting ready to graduate from high school. Exciting times!! Graduation is today at 3, and a big party on Saturday to celebrate. So I've been getting the gardens ready and power washing deck and house. Phew! It's been busy around here!

My baby chicks have really grown up! They are now 13 weeks old. Soon enough, we'll be getting eggs from them. I have a question about one of my Speckled Sussex chicks. She has been eating up a lot of sand from the sand roost. Her crop seems full, always. And she makes these frequent jerky motions. I've been massaging her crop area. Should I be concerned that something's wrong? Should I be doing something else to help her? She eats, drinks, runs about, and acts fine. Thanks for your advise in advance.

Check to see if her crop is empty in the morning before she gets to eat. If not she may have an impacted crop and is eating the sand in place of grit.

The jerky motions is something I see often when they eat too fast or eat too much at once. They are adjusting their crops.

 

[Leahs Mom]

C4L -
That's one of the reasons I wanted the Swedish Flower Hens. From what I've read, they're closer to their native/wild state without intervention from people. I'm looking forward to seeing how they compare to my hatchery kids.