The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Well Armorfirelady, the super blue egg layer has turned out to be a bust. Edie's 2 sisters have started laying and the eggs are white with a tiny hint of blue (if you look real hard, with 1 eye shut and think blue). oh well. I have several people that do not want blue eggs including my mother, daughter and neighbor. I do have chickens that already lay blue and green eggs.

BTW George hasn't quit crowing since he got here and is trying to round up his own group of girls. Stealing from "good old dad". lol

They are laying already?? Did they hatch with Edie? I swear when I looked last night that she is only 16 weeks old? I didnt think she would start laying till September at the earliest?? I didnt realize EE layed so early.......but I havent seen Edie checking out a nesting box....tho at times her comb & around her eyes has reddened but it comes & goes. She is not squatting for me yet either.

And glad to hear George is rounding up his girls. His girls here miss him. And glad we did the switch when we did if he is crowing up a storm.

I tossed some watermelon in the freezer and hope that helps them.

This is one of my hens favorite hot summer day treats. I swear they would eat a giant watermelon a day if I gave it to them

Quote: Ok I am going to try again with the pictures I wanted to post last night

My newest addition, Lucy. BCM mix? Sally8 figures she is about 4 months old. I lover her copper necklace. Very skittish with me but is settling in ok. She finally turned on Stella the BR when she tried to chase her. Edie still tries but isnt always successful. The big girls just ignore her. She is bigger than Sophie who is 13 weeks old. But she has the same kind of tail as her & a little more wattles. I def believe she is a hen since George was def a boy way before this age.


And Edie the EE. You can see she is suppose to be white with a few black splotches but is now more gray/brown. She was NOT impressed I interrupted her preening. They love this new shade lean to I put up.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

There are people that are GF because it's trendy and to 'lose weight' but let me tell you: the GF replacements are often higher in carbs and can actually make you gain weight.

All this corn replacing the wheat...

Susan and my best friend Dylan are GF by choice. I eat a lot of GF foods and they cook everything GF. They don't do it to be trendy. They do it because they are educated on what wheat is now. I am not bothered at all by any wheat, but now that they have been GF since October, they will be locked in the bathroom with the runs after eating anything with gluten.

I have IBS and some foods really set me back days. Any processed meat really makes me ill.

FridayYet, I agree with you. No one should be called names for their choices. That was the point in my first post. No matter what you eat, you are not above me, nor bellow me. You can eat McDonalds every day and I will not look down on you: so don't look down on me. That was my point.

I think the people who truly irritate me most are those who act as though their life depended on knowing the entire ingredient list of everything, but who seem to have NO concept of what their diet actually should entail... asking if (obviously) breaded chicken is gluten-free, is the beef stew vegan, etc. Ummm, if something was going to make me deathly ill then I would surely take time to educate myself on all of it. And if even a tiny drop of something would make me deathly ill (or meant that much to me as a choice), then I would have to come to the realization that ever eating out again was not a wise decision, because in a restaurant kitchen you have many different foods being prepared at the same time and could never be sure that some particle of the verboten food didn't make it onto my plate. But then I also get people (more than one would think possible) who ask if I will kindly pick all of the peas out of mixed vegetables for them as I'm dishing it up off the line (with 100 people in line behind them no less)!

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

So the Buff Silkie I got a couple weekends ago appears to have gone broody, says my wife as I am 150miles from home. I told her to leave her sit and collect any eggs she may lay and to take the couple out of the fridge to start warming them up. When I get home Friday I will check her and if she is indeed broody I will put her eggs under her Saturday. Yay, the breeding process begins. Need to see what kind of chicks they are gonna produce so I can determine if I need to change out the cock. And still waiting on first egg from Marsala, the lead poison survivor, going 8-9 months old now.

I know this is late, but I just stumbled across the post.

Can you re-warm fresh fertile eggs that have been stored in the fridge? I don't know the minimum range for eggs, allowing them to be chilled, yet still be viable. I have just been saving them on the counter top in a basket for 2 weeks. (In case of a broody)
Then, after the 2 weeks, then they would go in the fridge to be used for eating.

So far, I have been able to broody hatch 2 small clutches of counter top eggs. Seven in April '13, and six just on July 1. Of those two hatches, it was 7 of 9 hatched....2 didn't develop. The second was six of either, 2 not developing.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[aoxa]

I think the people who truly irritate me most are those who act as though their life depended on knowing the entire ingredient list of everything, but who seem to have NO concept of what their diet actually should entail... asking if (obviously) breaded chicken is gluten-free, is the beef stew vegan, etc. Ummm, if something was going to make me deathly ill then I would surely take time to educate myself on all of it. And if even a tiny drop of something would make me deathly ill (or meant that much to me as a choice), then I would have to come to the realization that ever eating out again was not a wise decision, because in a restaurant kitchen you have many different foods being prepared at the same time and could never be sure that some particle of the verboten food didn't make it onto my plate. But then I also get people (more than one would think possible) who ask if I will kindly pick all of the peas out of mixed vegetables for them as I'm dishing it up off the line (with 100 people in line behind them no less)!

There are always restaurants dedicated to all GF foods. Sadly not in my city, but lots in Toronto.

Susan and Dylan are smart. They find the ingredient list online prior to ordering (most times). Usually their questions are only about sauces. Obviously breaded chicken HAS gluten.

I can't imagine any restaurant that serves gluten being cross contamination free.

Also: Employees really need to educate themselves as well. Susan asked Tim Hortons if there were any GF options, and the employee said their wraps were GF. Really? Come on... They were not.

I think soup is pretty safe, as it's not cooked on a surface that has not been washed. But I could be wrong...

 

[midnightroo]

Delisha, no I don't think there is enough ventilation in the coop. I leave the door open at night because it is just too warm to close it. Luckily I have been lucky and haven't had any issues with night predators. I want to cut out more holes in it, but my husband is worried it will ruin the structure because we have taken too much out. I think I might try and take the plastic pieces off of the triangles prices at the top(sorry my brain isn't working this morning, I can't think of what they are called) so that the plastic isn't in the way of the air flow. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. It was part of the reason I posted pictures. I figured if there was an issue someone would mention them. Thank you for confirming my thoughts.

Camellia, congrats on the truck, they come in handy and the first is always exciting!

I tried the bricks in water, they only drank out of it also. They seem to be adjusting to the heat some, they do forage even in the hot part of the day. Some one mentioned sunbathing with the chickens in the heat. I have seen mine do it also. Why?! If I see it I try to move them to cooler areas, but does anyone know why they might sunbath?

Armor and sally8. You two have some beautiful chickens. I am glad the new hen is settling in well and that George has realized he is a he.

 

[aoxa]

Delisha, no I don't think there is enough ventilation in the coop. I leave the door open at night because it is just too warm to close it. Luckily I have been lucky and haven't had any issues with night predators. I want to cut out more holes in it, but my husband is worried it will ruin the structure because we have taken too much out. I think I might try and take the plastic pieces off of the triangles prices at the top(sorry my brain isn't working this morning, I can't think of what they are called) so that the plastic isn't in the way of the air flow. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. It was part of the reason I posted pictures. I figured if there was an issue someone would mention them. Thank you for confirming my thoughts.

Any way you can build a hardware cloth screen door for both doors? That would really help.

My baby barn does not have shade cover and will get hotter than it is outside if we don't leave the door open in the day. Right now only two broodies are setting in it. No one else uses it. I make sure lots of air flow during the day for them.

 

[MumsyII]

Hello all my BYC peeps,

For the last couple days, I have been unable to post pictures. Been having increasing troubles ever since BYC changed their software. I'm not the only one.

I did all the troubleshooting suggestions. When I changed my default setting to Google Chrome, I had to re-login. So of course I couldn't remember my password. No problem I thought. I requested a new one. Well, now it seems BYC is unable to send me email. In fact this has become so messed up, any request I make for support is not answered. I keep getting the same message. "Check your email for new password instructions". I get no email. I've done this so many times now, I'm sick of the whole thing.

Last night I thought I would try and start over with a new profile. Thus the MumsyII. Same thing. I can't even upload images on my new profile! The only image I could get on was a new avatar. And still no email from Support of BYC. Something is seriously wrong with my connection to BYC now and before they changed the soft ware, everything was fine. So I doubt I'll be here much if I can't get help with getting this fixed. Sorry everyone. I really enjoyed this forum and especially this thread.

Mumsy/MumsyII

 

[Leahs Mom]

Mumsy
No..... Don't give up!!!!! We need your input!!!!!

 

[aoxa]

Mumsy, I have been having small issues as well, but nothing with images.

I hope this gets resolved. I know I for one would really miss you!

 

[MumsyII]

Mumsy, I have been having small issues as well, but nothing with images.

I hope this gets resolved. I know I for one would really miss you!

I'm so bummed. You have no idea how many hours I've been sitting at this computer trying to get it fixed. I pm'd support last night and have heard nothing. I've tried clicking on the link for support and it messes up my computer so bad I have to shut it down before it crashes! I have no idea what's going on. Two days ago...Everything fine. Today...I'm in exile.

OH...I'm having no problems on any of the other forums or any other web page. Just BYC. So I know the problem is with this site.