The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Shan30]

Thanks Shan30, I started doing some digging and found some interesting things about organic sulfur(MSM) and DMSO. I will post some about it after I collect all the info together. DMSO has been under attack by the FDA and other alphabet organizations for some time and can cure almost everything from cancer to many other life threatening problems, so it does not surprise me that sulfur has a bad rap and has been kept hush hush. It makes me wonder if the miracles that are from DMSO are really from the organic sulfur compounds?

Where do you buy your sulfur at?

Our local feed store (Buckerfields) I believe it was in the garden section.

Can't figure out multi-quote haha...

I do hope we can process for meat and will be double checking with animal health when I call as there were a few other things on the report I did not fully understand. Even if just for dog food. The idea of wasting it all is awful.

Either way we have to dispose of the rest. The far west coast of the island never has burn bans (as it never dries) so I suppose that is a possibility. As far as burying them goes, we live on a glacier slide so not enough soil. We had a hard time finding a resting place for our old lab.

Thank you for all your kind words. I never though I would grow attached to my girls like this.

 

[Shan30]

We just had Nigerian Dwarf ribs for dinner last night, they are delicious! Way tastier than the dairy breed wethers we grew out with them last year. Though, I never noticed them doing much defending...the chickens lived with them, so we maybe avoided some small predators because of that, but goats are just as vulnerable to coyotes and other large predators as chickens are, so I wouldn't depend on them to the same level as an LGD or even a donkey. We dont have goats this year, but next year I think we will get a couple of Nigie wethers to eat brush and then be eaten, they are used mostly as a meat goat in Africa (where they are native to) and I now know why! The tenderloin was some of the best meat I've ever eaten in my life.

Oh yeah! I forgot to add delicious to my list haha!

A fellow poultry enthusiast (crazy chicken guy) on the island was telling me that he now houses goats with all his chickens after losing his entire Silver Laced Polish flock to mink and hasn't had a predator issue since. We had some of his polish and were going to surprise him with hatching eggs but not anymore His horse just killed a dog that was killing lambs too.

The dogs are pretty good with the large predators.

Mostly just making a list of reasons to convince DH

 

[Italia]

Our local feed store (Buckerfields) I believe it was in the garden section.

Can't figure out multi-quote haha...

I do hope we can process for meat and will be double checking with animal health when I call as there were a few other things on the report I did not fully understand. Even if just for dog food. The idea of wasting it all is awful.

Either way we have to dispose of the rest. The far west coast of the island never has burn bans (as it never dries) so I suppose that is a possibility. As far as burying them goes, we live on a glacier slide so not enough soil. We had a hard time finding a resting place for our old lab.

Thank you for all your kind words. I never though I would grow attached to my girls like this.

I am very sorry for your loss Shan30,

I found this on Mercolas web site

A senior scientist at MIT suggests another (relaxing) source of sulfur…

• Soak your body in a warm bath with magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)…
• Helps compensate and counter act sulfur inadequacies…
• Use twice a week with about ½ -1 cup in your bath (relax and enjoy)

This type of bath can help your skin absorb sulfur.

So I am wondering if Epsom salt would not only be great for their magnesium intake but for sulfur as well.(As long as they don't get the runs) It is cheap and easy to find.

 

[wlhtx]

While we are rebuilding our barn we have our flock separated into two groups: the older layers and the juveniles. The older layers are currently bunking with the goats while the juveniles are in a large chain-link dog run (the 7ft tall version) literally a foot off our back porch.

When we first separated them out this way, I was so worried about the older laying flock because the goat pen is located all the way across our pasture from the house. We do leave our dogs out at night for the purpose of discouraging predators, but I was still worried. However, we haven't had a single loss of any of the older layers. I haven't thought until now to give any credit for that to the goats... But I guess it does make sense as we have witnessed our goats kill a poisonous snake recently. I guess they would be capable of warding off raccoons and opossums too... Hmmm...

 

[uglychickens]

This was too funny and bizarre not to share!

Ok that's gonna give me nightmares!!!!

 

[chooketychook]

Ok that's gonna give me nightmares!!!!

LOOOOOOOOOOOL Well THAT has made my life worth living!!

 

[aoxa]

It started POURING buckets this afternoon. I came home to 12 half dead Pennies. 2 were positively dead.. But I remembered what LoanWizard said about his chicks all appearing dead and after warming them up they came around. He deserves a prize, because he just saved my day. I was out there balling my eyes out clutching the chicks to my chest, running this way and that trying to get them out from under the tree branches (jungle gym).

They are all 100% fine now. After some heat. Me? Not so much. I'm on edge and just an emotional wreck.

I so need Susan to come home. lol

 

[echosrevenge]

Chicks are wicked resilient. I had a broody cochin mama kill all but one of her clutch this weekend. The one survivor had nasty wounds to both sides of his neck, and none of the other broodies would accept him. I put iodine & my homemade ghetto-nustock (sulfur & pine tar mixed into an ancient tin of burt's bees gardeners salve) and carried him around in my pocket for a day. Stuck him under another broody, she wouldn't take him but he's found the creep feeder I have for the 6-to-10 week olds, and is huddling with them at night. Even with the chilly rain today, he's blazing around between everyone's legs and doing great. I thought for sure he was a goner, but he's a trooper! They're way more resilient than we think sometimes...

 

[aoxa]

Chicks are wicked resilient. I had a broody cochin mama kill all but one of her clutch this weekend. The one survivor had nasty wounds to both sides of his neck, and none of the other broodies would accept him. I put iodine & my homemade ghetto-nustock (sulfur & pine tar mixed into an ancient tin of burt's bees gardeners salve) and carried him around in my pocket for a day. Stuck him under another broody, she wouldn't take him but he's found the creep feeder I have for the 6-to-10 week olds, and is huddling with them at night. Even with the chilly rain today, he's blazing around between everyone's legs and doing great. I thought for sure he was a goner, but he's a trooper! They're way more resilient than we think sometimes...

If you had of seen the chicks.. They were far worse looking than anything I have seen.. They were so weak they were laying on their sides with feet out to the side, eyes closed tight. I couldn't detect much of a breath either. 1 hour under the ecoglow and they are eating and drinking and dry.

I guess you are not dead until you are warm and dead makes a lot of sense now that I've experienced it!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

About the goat's milk for babies. I have read that it is better than formula but not quite as good as the baby's mother's milk.