The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mrs Hutcherson]

Kind of a shot in the dark, Is there a way to keep snakes
Just pulled a 5 ft rat snake out of one of my chicken pens, nobody was in there luckily.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: about 17 weeks but they are small for their age. We ordered the pan fry deal. But we lost over half between the PO and hawks / owls, mainly the PO. I think I will not be ordering a pan fry deal again.

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.

For setting the eggs, the carton should have the bottoms cut out to allow air circulation. The candling to see an air pocket is pretty easy if the light is bright. You should be able to take the entire carton into a dark room and shine the light into the fat end of the egg without even having to touch the eggs, if you don't want to. I'm sure once you candle a few you will be an expert. I also recommend using a cardboard carton or if you have an egg turner you could set the eggs in the turner. Air flow is important.

Well...I've messaged PigeonGuy 3 times now with no response. I hope he's just on vacation

I hope you are right.

 

[Leahs Mom]

AFL...I agree that's true of most of us here that do use good husbandry.

 

[MumsyII]

I would think Leahs Mom that this would not be a problem for you or any of us who practice good chicken health/coops & who are aware of our birds and their health. Kassaundra is correct about maggots not liking healthy skin. I would think & hope that none of our birds would sit still long enough to have a fly land on them & lay eggs.

Or have bottoms that filthy that it would attract flies.

X2

I have a barn yard layer that always has a filthy bum with caked on poo. It is never wet though because she has access to wood ash dust in various wallows around the barn yard. She loves those wallows and I see her use them throughout the day. Free ranging and have ready access to dusting I believe is key to preventing this kind of thing, plus of course good animal husbandry practices that we follow.

 

[BlueMouse]

I would think Leahs Mom that this would not be a problem for you or any of us who practice good chicken health/coops & who are aware of our birds and their health. Kassaundra is correct about maggots not liking healthy skin. I would think & hope that none of our birds would sit still long enough to have a fly land on them & lay eggs.

Or have bottoms that filthy that it would attract flies.

X2

and I would think that any that crawled up the vent would be quickly flushed out again by the next poop. I ouldn't worry about it. I would worry more about healing the gleet/messy bottom issue and returning the chicken to vibrant health. Then I think the maggots would dissapear. In the meantime although they are undoubtedly gross, they aren't actually going to hurt the chicken. If I saw maggots I think my initial concern would be that there was some sort of wound that I hadn't seen under the feathers. I remember reading someone (I think on this thread) that had a wound full of maggots, she cleaned, applied nustock, and the chicken made a complete recovery. As Kassundra said, maggots themselves won't harm any healthy or healing tissue, only eat away the necrotic.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Well...these are going under the broody so I can't leave them in the carton!

I got them yesterday and tried to candle. I could see that 1 of them looked stable, 1 was questionable, 3 are totally free-moving inside.

I put them in a carton point down. I was hoping to set them under the broody tomorrow evening. I guess I should just leave them alone until tomorrow and then look at them again to see if they're stable in there.

Does the yolk usually reside at the end where the air cell should be? (the end that's not pointed).

 

[Kassaundra]

So...if a chicken has them on their bottom (bottom that is "oozing"...perhaps gleet?) what would you suggest doing to remove them?

Cleaning the area removing the visible maggots, keeping the area clean, normal wound management, clearing the gleet.

 

[aoxa]

Cleaning the area removing the visible maggots, keeping the area clean, normal wound management, clearing the gleet.

I have heard hair spray kills them. I haven't tried.

I was terrified my original Penny would end up with maggots when she was injured on her side. The wound was VERY deep. It was like a pocket.. It was gross, but never maggots. Probably because it was October and not so many flies around..

Dewlap Toulouse are prone to fly strike because any wounds they get are typically covered by their feathers, so it's very important to keep clean bathing water around for them (which I do).


I have seen maggots for the first time in my life this summer.

Not on live birds have you... They are disgusting..

Even Dylan found maggots in his wet garbage it has been so hot this year. This month is much better than July so far.

 

[aoxa]

Oh and I mentioned my broody baby chick that I had to correct it's legs...


Not my picture, but this is what it looked like prior to the splints. I get these a lot with chicks late to hatch. I have no clue as to why. I can fix it if I am quick to do so.


You couldn't really see my work if I let go of the chick, but you can see I've taped it with vet wrap. Three pieces. Two around each ankle, and one strip to hold legs together.


Cutest silkie I've hatched. Love her vaulted skull. She has a beard worth bragging about

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: My 4 older girls tend to have messy bottoms. I try to regularly trim their fluffy butts to keep them clean. But like yours they are daily visitors to the dust pile so its always dried feces.

But when I last checked them Sunday their butts were clean. The only change I made was to switch everyone over to starter/grower because of trying to feed 2 different feeds to the hens & chicks. I'm curious if the layer feed was the problem since that the only change I made.