The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

One of our RIR rooster's legs have some reddish places on them. Is this normal? This is our first time to have chicks so I didn't know if this is normal or something wrong. He is about 22 weeks old now. Thanks!

Perfectly normal

Hi everyone. I just have to jump in to ask y'all a quick question my youngest members of the flock are now ~10wks old. (Ducks) I had such water problems in my open roofed, dirt floor pen that I totally stopped giving water in the pen about 1.5 wks ago. Now the ducks are locked up for the night without water and I'm a bit worried about my decision as its 80'F even tho the sun is down. Am I doing the wrong thing? At what temperatures would you provide water at night if you do not regularly? Thanks.

I do not leave water in my coop ever. they need to get out to drink. If you are worried in the heat, make a small exit for them incased in hard wire they can take a drink outside and be protected. In the wild..ducks do not go wandering off looking for water..they know they need to hide.

Hey everybody,

I'm having a terrible time with mites. I put DE in there favorite bathing spots.....dust with poultry dust occasionally....they are getting ff with garlic, cilantro and oregano. I want to keep things all natural, but I had to break down and get the big guns out and spray my birds with permetherin.....but the mites keep coming back......I've cleaned the coop all out and sprayed it down also, and add new bedding every other month.....so what am I missing? I will be moving.them to my new coop, and I'd really like to have these nasty little buggers gone before I move anybody. My walls in the old coop are painted white(just paint). My nest boxes are wooden crates with one side taken off.....lots of little nooks and crannys for those little critters to hide I guess. That seems to be the worst area for them since my laying hens are the ones that keep getting mites repeatedly and have the highest concentration of them. Poor girls. Would it help to whitewash the new coop instead of paint? Any other suggestions?

Mites suck. Once you get them they are hard to get rid of. It took me forever to get rid of mine this last time.

To get rid of them you need to burn a ton of wood and let it cool
empty the coop of all bedding..and kick the birds out. Burn the bedding and throw the ashes on the compost pile
Cover the birds in a thick layer of ash..be careful of the face..all on the same day
neem oil all surfaces in the coop
put fresh bedding in and if you are using straw, the chances are the straw is loaded with mites. It is hollow and a good home for mites..I would not use it during this time at all..
I bought bagged wood chips..ugh. I did not want to chance mites on any leaves, grass clippings or wood chips from my pile
I than dusted my wood pile/leaves/straw with ash and left it for a month burried in the ash.
White wash

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]3 large coffee cans of hydrated lime (about 12 cups)
1 pound or 1 small coffee can of salt (about 4 cups)
2 gallons of water[/FONT]

stir and make a thin paste..let set over night
add water if needed the next day

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this. We live in a "country estate" type subdivision. 5 acre lots, lots of woods, no livestock allowed with cloven feet. ThIs morning when I went out to let the chickens out, I heard this really strange bird call, like an injured duck. I heard the same thing yesterday in a different area. After realizing that my neighbor's hunting son was over, I figured he was out hunting. But for what? Turns out it is coyote season, and only coyote season. So I'm not sure how I feel about him calling coyotes into the area near my chickens. Sure if he gets one that's fine. I haven't actually seen one or heard one in the area, though we did see a fox yesterday. I guess that could have been a coyote? It was across the field in the neighbor's woods. So now I am feeling anxious and unsure about letting the girls out of their run. :-(

Your concern is enough to go talk to the neighbor

ok, I just have to whine again about those expensive chicks,....the ones that were supposed to be sfh (3 of them), icelandics (4), cream legbars (4)and superblue layers.(4).

The hatching woman must have gotten them ALL mixed up. There were 4 cream legbar chicks - they are easy to identify and all were pullets. If you aren't familiar with them, they can be 100% sexed at hatch because the color patterns are very different in girls versus boys. one died. of the three remaining, well one has developed a rose comb - ???? so I did more research and what a surprise, legbars don't have rose combs. And yesterday I thought I heard a crow...and today the largest "cream legbar" with the rose comb started crowing. NOT a legbar (yup, I am shouting). He is 2-3 times the size of the other legbars that are actually legbars for real, so I am guessing she grabbed the wrong one out of the swimming pools full of all kinds of chicks. This roo has to be older than 4 weeks. I do have two legbar pullets, I can tell from the coloring they are developing.

and the bantam chick (not what I ordered) looks to be a roo.

And I have been slowly getting the hens treated for feathermites, and found some also have those lice that lay nits on the feathers around the vent - first time for that too. 9 hens to treat, did 3 the first night, 3 tonight, and 3 tomorrow. wait a few days and do it again! It is hard to get the hens, so I take them off the roost at night when I get home from work, so I can't get them all done because it gets too dark and there is no light in the coop. I smell like nustock, and am going to have to make up a batch with the sulpher that is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

I bought cod liver oil today and am going to start adding some to the feed for both chicks and for the hens. Going to lay a thin bead of it on the feed.

thanks for letting me rant! only a chicken person would get any of this!

Talk to the person you got your chicks from

I'm repeating my broody question from earlier, it was a while ago- will I have to separate my broodies? As we speak they're hatching near simultaneously. So far they each have 2. So I assume they'll be finished at about the same time. Will they be able to keep each others' chicks straight? And they'll be in with another broody with 2 week old chicks, will they fight or stay out of each other's way, or will I just have to watch and see? Of COURSE timing sucks, I'm going to be gone Wed-Sun this week. Maybe I should just separate to be safe... we'll see if they finish up tomorrow and I can get a feel for how they're going to be together.

I have three ducks with duckling..4 hen with chicks. They all are out and about. They do fight and the ducks can get nasty. I have had duckling and chick deaths from the females nastyness and them getting in the way..it is part of the life cycle. A sad part..

 

[boyswillbeboys]

Makes me itch just thinking about it.

Softness has a lot to do with fiber length, and how it's spun, even a baby soft merino wool (supposedly the gold standard) can be itchy if spun to tight.

I learned to spin, and still spin on a drop spindle, though I would like a babe production wheel, I can't afford it yet.

 

[delisha]

The Silver Pencilled Plymouth Rock chicks LOVE their eco glow!

I am looking forward to seeing these grow..I love pencil rocks.
Love your alpaca and all the new pictures

 

[delisha]

A have a full fence in area with moms and baby's this time of year.

 

[lalaland]

I totally get it... not with my chickens at the moment, but I am treating my dog for some mystery disease and I feel like I keep shoving meds/supports down his throat but we don't know what's wrong with him and we don't know if it's working. And since he won't eat, getting him to take the meds is a huge struggle.

And with the breed mixup, my first chickens were supposed to be Wyandotte's (1) and Buff Orps (2). One of the Orps was stunted badly and the Wyandotte was NOT a Wyandotte. It may have been a part Wyandotte mutt. BUT I didn't pay that much for them, definitely not the amount you paid for those rare breeds.

see, you know what i mean. not getting what you expect is no fun. And I say expensive, because to me they were, but they were only $8/chick. I'm still used to the $1 or $1.50 chick from back in the day. The hatching woman, who is perfectly nice and probably just a bit disorganized, trades eggs and hatches out to order. I know, I see you can pay $50 for a chick from some of these...

I also kind of gasp at the price people have on craigslist or the local chicken listserve - $20 bucks for a hatchery pullet not at pol? but apparently, thats what they go for around here.

 

[brandislee]

I have had co-sitting broodies a few times. No problems with the chicks. They went mom to mom. The mothers who set in separate nests fought occasionally, but the ones that sat in the same nest never fought.

They'll figure it out.

Thanks! I'd much rather leave them together.

 

[aoxa]

I am looking forward to seeing these grow..I love pencil rocks.
Love your alpaca and all the new pictures

Thank you - I look forward to watching them as well My Barred Plymouth Rocks are hatching this coming weekend. Looking forward to those as well. I am a fan of Plymouth Rocks.

 

[brandislee]

see, you know what i mean. not getting what you expect is no fun. And I say expensive, because to me they were, but they were only $8/chick. I'm still used to the $1 or $1.50 chick from back in the day. The hatching woman, who is perfectly nice and probably just a bit disorganized, trades eggs and hatches out to order. I know, I see you can pay $50 for a chick from some of these...

I also kind of gasp at the price people have on craigslist or the local chicken listserve - $20 bucks for a hatchery pullet not at pol? but apparently, thats what they go for around here.

I think $8 is plenty expensive... I paid $5 for my buckeye and faverolle chicks and I thought that was high (and turns out I like my hatchery EE's better... go figure!). If I were looking for a super hard to find adult chicken I MIGHT pay 20-50, depending on the breed, age, health, etc, but I don't even see myself doing that. It's such a risk bringing in adult birds anyway, plus the expense? I'll avoid it if I can. However, I am going to pony up more cash the more time I bring in new EE chicks and get them from someone local instead of from the hatchery. I am DONE with hatchery birds, other than cornish cross, and if I could come up with an even remotely comprable meat bird I would. There's a small hatchery out east I think I'm going to get all my meat birds from from now on. I just watched a thing on how large hatchery chicks are treated and WOW, how the heck do any survive?

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Ok lost all the multi reply. Memory if I can.

Last chick Bulldogmom! Wonderful news. And so cute.

Les Farms is looking good.. Am envious of your set up.

Must have permission of any neighbors to shoot within certain distances. We are all within the limit but we all don't care if each other does. We just know when each is hunting and where.

Thanks for all the replies on my building materials for Open air Woods style coop. Doing it alone so we will see how fast I get it done. And the old coop (more a tractor size) can fit inside, so I'll be able to use it for separating babies if need to.

A have a full fence in area with moms and baby's this time of year.

love the photos!

 

[4Hgirl]

http://www.weedemandreap.com/2013/06/are-plant-based-diets-fad.html
I need to share this article with you guys. It's so interesting. I'm sure none of us here are vegans - because I'm sure we are fans of eggs here on BYC.

Nice article and easy to read. Even a semester of nutrition and numerous nutrition books read this really helped.

Q

this sounds cruel, I hate even posting about it. 

there are 2 easy methods, a chick is pretty delicate and easy to cut. a good sharp knife with sufficient force does the job. don't chop, but make sure you do it in one slice.

another method is to wrap 2 fingers behind the head and pull until the head is removed. if you do this fast and accurate its probably less painful to the chick. also you wont have to worry about the head moving and not finishing the job, and/or cutting yourself.

I have heard of people using garden shears (pruning), I haven't tried it but it does sound like it would work.

Difficult subject but thank you for explaining it.

I find it rather disturbing that people find it strange that we eat our own meat because we have raised them.. Thinking it was sad. What is sad is the way store bought meat (for the most part) is raised and then slaughtered. I'd much rather eat something I know had a good life. Who had many good days and only ONE bad one.

I got in a debate with a vegan at work about this when I was showing pics of our milk bottle calf who will fill my freezer next year. She felt it was sad. I said its sad how awful cattle are treated at feed lots! And a non-vegan also at work says the same thing but gives me coudose for doing it as she wishes she had the nerve. She just says she never could do it. She sure wants to try the beef though! Most people are so out of touch with food anymore.