The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[countrygirl74]

Sad day here for us... we lost 18 firefighters in a fire today. One of them was my friend's young son who had recently become a hot shot. Lots of tears and disbelief... They had seriously just finished putting out this fire (pictured), when the next one seemed to start. They got trapped today somehow - can't even imagine how horrible it must have been... Prayers for all the families who lost a hero today.

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry to hear about the dog attack and the firefighters' deaths. Recently we had a wildfire that surrounded a town of over a thousand people and that's the last we heard, it's like the media just blacked out on it. Fire is one of those things... Horrific. I'm always the party pooper on the kid's and even adult's fire safety methods around here.

Too often people are simply criminally negligent, so careless it's breathtaking; I often end up telling grown men who ought to know better exactly why they ought not to be doing what they're doing. Not simple 'oops', but criminally careless 'who cares' behaviour. So many guys I know just light bonfires of plastics and dangerous trash on windy, dry, peak fire warning days, and they don't have safety methods in place, don't care, don't supervise... Drives me nuts. It's unfortunately a social thing over here. Just the attitude of the macho folks who do it. I'm not talking about all men here, it's a certain type of man who routinely engages in this. Some women are the same. These people are frightening to know or live within 10 000 klms of. They're so 'cool' they kill people.
Quote: My mum's first dog was a random mutt who would bring baby bunnies and butterflies to his owner in his mouth, completely unharmed, and release them. He also adopted newborn kittens and saved lives of many baby animals.

Out of all our current dogs, including the staffy mix, the collie cattledog mix, the dingo and the offspring of the the dingo and the collie mix, guess which one is the safest around livestock and pets by natural inclination? The wild bred and wild born dingo! He's curious as opposed to outright 'bitey' whereas all our experiences with tamer breeds of dogs has been that they are much quicker to bite than the wilder dogs. (We've owned a few dingo mixes in past, as well as more tame mixes).

I haven't been replying to this thread much as I've gotten a freelance job underway which may take me a long time to complete, it's an ongoing program. I'm still visiting every few days to read and keep up, mostly... But BUSY! (I shouldn't be here right now, haha). I noticed some people thought the thread had gotten a bit unfriendly or challenging of other's opinions, and I'm sorry if I contributed to that, since it wasn't my objective.
Quote:

I use garlic, cayenne peppers, cukes, zukes and pumpkins a a deformer. I don't give it on a schedule or anything. Just add it when I remember, I believe, prevention is easier then trying to cure and so far no worms, mites or lice in my flock.
Wood ash is a natural lice & mite preventive. I chose not to use de since its a chemical.

A little additional input so that new people aren't mislead with erroneous information.... Wood ash is a chemical compound, typically including primarily calcium carbonate or calcium oxide, and various other trace chemicals (dependent on the type of wood) and oftentimes iron oxide (at times up to 12%). Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a natural occurring chemical compound consisting primarily of silica (80-90%), alumina ( 2-4% -largely from clay minerals) and iron oxide (0.5-2%). Diatomaceous earth gets its name from the fossilized remains of diatoms (the silica aspect), a type of hard shelled algae.

---rick
A little extra additional input is also needed...

There are naturally occurring substances classified as chemicals, and artificial ones engineered by mankind, also known as chemicals. When people say 'chemical' here, on this thread, they usually mean man made chemicals, not naturally occurring chemicals, which are almost always safer. 'Chemical' is a very loose and widely used term.

Scientists have named chemicals in nature as they found them, and people often don't differentiate them from artificially made or synthetic ones, which are the ones we are usually trying to avoid as natural chook keepers. Chemicals are not created equal. One of the prime determinants of whether or not a chemical will be assimilated safely is its level of processing... The less the better, as a general rule. Naturally occurring chemicals tend to come in conjunction with all the other substances needed to process them properly, not in stabilized and singular extract --- or worse, synthetic --- which can often turn a helpful chemical into an assault on the system.
Quote: Cage bred birds in my experience are the ones who adopt that sound as their main daily vocalization. It is indeed complaining. It tends to breed out quickly when they are freeranged.

Quote: Regarding pooping to force release, I have had birds who use it deliberately (I'm sure of it! lol) and once they know it doesn't lead to their release they give it up. I just hold them in such a way as to not get pooped on, initially.

Side note, off topic again (but the thread does say OTs welcome, something I think some people missed...) About the requoting of entire series of photos, over, and over, and over again, I wonder how many pages smaller this thread would be if an admin removed all requotes of images? Other forums I've frequented in past used the '@' symbol to address someone else's post, rather than quoting their entire post. It would tidy things up into a more easily digestible form if people maybe copied the lines they are responding to, and the name of the individual, rather than the entire post. Just a thought... It's very hard to keep abreast of happenings when people have repeated someone else's ten photo post seven times, etc, I've got slow internet so it takes me a very long time...

 

[jlynnet]

I just read an article on the lost fireman Countrygirl. Words can not describe how devastating that is. What an amazingly brave group they are! My thoughts go out to all of their families and also those who've lost their homes.

 

[armorfirelady]

It helps if your helper holds her like a baby, cradled in her arms.  It allows for easier restraint and seems to calm them more, but be advised mine pooped more then once in this position, w/ this treatment.  I think it was on purpose as a protest personally.

Funny you say that. When my mom was holding her yesterday so I could put blue kote on her foot Green let a squirt out. I jumped out of aim just in time. She has done it before so I was being careful. I already realized I need to cover her bum tomorrow lol.

I'm headed to the dollar store & pharmacy as soon as they open at 9. The back deck will be the area I will use. I can't bring her in the house with 4 cats and I need to secure the dogs inside. Every time I am holding a hen and she starts squeaking Lily freaks out and tries to get in with me. She thinks I am hurting her hens :/

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well I subscribe the the Bekissed method of measuring lol lol lol I put a squeeze of iodine in a glass bowl then added enough sugar to make it thick enough to be a paste. Applied as much as I could fit in the hole and hold w/ the bandage and tape.

Since I had attempted to correct this w/ the surgical method first I don't know if the iodine and sugar would work w/o a larger hole, I had been descabbing it and expressing the cheesy gunk for a while before I came across the sugar iodine method.

Thanks. That's how I do it to... "by eye"... but a general description is very helpful

My girlfriend saw how frightened the chicks were this morning, and decided she would spend the day helping me make a way for them to get out to the pen and back to their portion of the coop! Rivers were too high for us to kayak...so, perfect day for a project.

Love seeing your photos and the kids enjoying the birds



Incredibly sad on the fire fighters. Hard to imagine losing someone like that.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy- love e pictures. Your chickens look beautiful as does your gardens. Is that a tree house in the background?? That's where you would find me with a good book

 

[OohLaLa]

Sad day here for us... we lost 18 firefighters in a fire today. One of them was my friend's young son who had recently become a hot shot. Lots of tears and disbelief... They had seriously just finished putting out this fire (pictured), when the next one seemed to start. They got trapped today somehow - can't even imagine how horrible it must have been... Prayers for all the families who lost a hero today.

I'll keep family and friends in my prayers. There are far too few who rush in when the rest of us are running away.

 

[delisha]

Mumsy..I sure enjoy seeing your pictures..the kids are so cute

Sad day about the fires..

 

[BlueMouse]

Is your daughter older?

Boys are easier teenagers (from people I've heard from), but boys are so high strung as kids..

I have twin nephews and a single nephew. I can not watch all three at once without refusing to have kids for another year

My daughter is four. My sons are one and two. I find the epic drama more tiring than the excess energy of wiggly little boys!

Mumsy- love e pictures. Your chickens look beautiful as does your gardens. Is that a tree house in the background?? That's where you would find me with a good book

X2!

and I forgot to quote Stony about the rain, but good golly, we sure don't need any more. A week of dry would be just the thing for us. We've had mudslides, flash floods, you name it. Standing water everywhere every time it rains. It's raining right now and all the hikens are huddled on my front porch.

 

[salt and pepper]

I have a question, Today I got my first strange egg. I t was under the rooster, and had broken. It didn't have a shell, instead it had a thin, leathery covering. What could have caused this? All of my layers free range all day, and always have rock hard shells. I do have one batch of 18 week old, but haven't gotten any eggs from them as of yet. Could this be one of the pullet's first eggs? Or does one of my older hens have a problem? Any help is appreciated.
So sorry about the fire....