The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Just because I'm kinda tickled with myself: For those of us whose chickens cannot forage nearly as much as we'd like and who have an abundance of grasshoppers, I created a jar top that allows for "stuffing" the critters in, but they cannot jump out. I cut a circle out of an old plastic file folder to fit the top of a canning jar and cut a cross-wise slit in it and screwed on the ring. It works really well. You can even put it down long enough to make a two-handed catch.

Wow you are very creative !! I gave my guys some beetles yesterday. They looked at them for awhile but then green and Edie tasted them and decided they were tasty. Today I gave my mom a pumpkin leaf with squash bugs on them. They stared at them for awhile then green and Edie tried them and they were gone in seconds . I wish I could leave them in the veggie garden to eat them all but they tried my green pumpkins and decided they were a tasty snack :/

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks on the eggs. Since I'm using a broody I don't have the option of setting them in the incubator. I'm not sure I'm good enough at candling to be able to know for sure in the air cell!

They're supposed to arrive on Thursday and I want to set on Saturday as that would likely result in a Saturday hatch while I'm around.

 

[flagirl]

My hens do not like tomato horn worms. since the leaves of the tomato are not good for them, I am suspecting they sense what they are filled with -certainly can smell tomato leaves when you crush them

I sometimes get these worms that roll in the leaves of green beans and they will not eat them either.
Still getting too much rain and despite building a dam around the coop and building up the inside of the coop with 10" of sand, the last 2" of rain flooded the coop again and it is entirely surrounded by water now. Sandbags are arriving in the mail today, so will try to make the coop an island. No one has seen the water level this high in my area since the 60's. no where to build trenches, the lakes are full and my 5 acres are so drenched there is no place for water to go. to make matters worse, either the bob cat was back after 3 weeks or a hawk injured my BO and took a black sexlink. Cannot leave them in coop, toooo wet, so have to take chances with the predators. Yesterday there was too much water surrounding the coop they would not come out at all. hopefully the sandbags will arrive early so DH and I can fill and build an island quickly. Friend saw note on facebook from someone local: "for those praying for rain, please stop"

 

[Leahs Mom]

Friend saw note on facebook from someone local: "for those praying for rain, please stop"

Funny... But I do hope things settle down for you there soon!

 

[delisha]

Del -
They will all be SFH (rooster is SFH) but one of my pullets is little black which was the mystery chick that I thought was a BA.

I don't want to mix her egg up with the SFH.

See below

Quote: I purchase neem oil at the local feed store. 16 oz spray bottle.

Can someone refresh my memory - when you get hatching eggs shipped you put them in the egg carton with point down to rest... how long do we leave them like that before putting under a broody?

I would not bother if you are giving them to a hen to hatch, and a good way to keep the chicks seperate is to put your black hens eggs under a broody two days later than shipped eggs. The later hatches will be from your hen.

Thanks on the eggs. Since I'm using a broody I don't have the option of setting them in the incubator. I'm not sure I'm good enough at candling to be able to know for sure in the air cell!

They're supposed to arrive on Thursday and I want to set on Saturday as that would likely result in a Saturday hatch while I'm around.

Or put the shipped eggs under her Thursday and your eggs Saturday.. And no that is not correct..the hatch will be the third Sunday for the Saturday eggs. The Thursday eggs will be Friday. Under broody's is an estimate for days. It can be 18 days to 25 days. It all depends on the hen and weather.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Good thought on setting the eggs a couple days apart, Del.

Wondering - do different breeds sometimes have differing gestation lengths as a rule of thumb? Meaning... do some have a tendency to go a day or so longer than others of a different breed?

 

[BlueMouse]

My one pullet CX was about 2lbs lighter at 13 weeks than the boy I did at 10 weeks. They just are smaller. Although her table weight was still a nice 7-8lbs. I did notice though the CX start getting fat deposits after 10 weeks. She had some, small, but she had some. The boys had none at all.

Yeah. mine dressed out at an average of 2.5 lbs. they're TINY. my biggest boy was almost 4 lbs.

This girl is quite small for 13 weeks, but that's not a bad thing.

You can keep growing her out until she is of sufficient weight, or even keep her as a breeder. I know Del does.

I have some 5 week old pics of my CX at home. I'll have to post them. They are really big.. I would totally take them off a morning feeding if I didn't free range younger birds I didn't feel comfortable withholding food from.. But they still don't get fed freely. Twice a day for 15 minutes what they can clean up. At this time I feed the babies and the meaties don't notice.

They then nap for an hour and get to free ranging again. I hate looking at them after they've just eaten. They are such gluttons.. they stuff their crop to the point where it is so heavy they walk funny. Once the crop processes that feed, they are much easier to look at.

Watching them eat.. Ugh..

All but one is fully feathered now. The largest one hardly has any feathers. I bet he is going to be my first processed.

My plan was to keep the two pictured as breeders and breed some mutts for next year under my quite large buff orp rooster. Which ould make our meat sustainable mostly (we'd have to get a new run of cornish every couple years to replace the breeding stock most likely) but I'm not sure that's really a good idea if the tinyness was genetic.... I have no idea. I don't have enough experience to know if I did something terribly wrong. But it doesn't seem like two feedings a day and pasture in the tractor was insufficient, they still all had fat deposits. They were by no means hugely fatty, but they did have body fat. I'm so confused.... and frustrated.

and the lights BOTH burned out in my incubator today when I was gone. so I came home to cold eggs. This whole incubating thing is making me kind of nuts. What are the chances that TWO lightbulbs burn out at exactly the same time? that's why we HAVE two lightbulbs, so they won't burn out at the same time. Leaving the eggs in but my guess is that they're dead. so much for having cream legbars.

 

[Kassaundra]

I have never raised Cornish cross, but from the many posts I've read in the meat thread getting mentally prepared to process my own I have come to the conclusion that the Cornish cross are pot luck each batch can either be great or not so great even w/ the same husbandry.

 

[Quailsong]

Love that 'stuffing jar' idea. I've used other containers w/ cloth tunnels but this one def looks good to try.

Flagirl, grab up those hornworms anyways, stuff them in a jar for a day or two with mellow leaves & then feed them to the chickens. They'll taste a lot less bitter/poisonous to them as the insects' guts will be loaded with diff food.

 

[RedRidge]

Well one of my broody's is finally off the nest...
YES, these are keets... LOL
I believe we counted 15 or 16 of them.