The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

noticed bumble foot on my wellsummer. want to try putting nustock on, but am questioning if I can use vet wrap. am still building up the floor of the coop with sand(1 1/2 ft so far) to keep the water out, but the sand inside is damp all the time. No rain for 4 days, but water level only down 1". to get out of the coop the girls have learned to jump from milk crate to milk crate (7 in all) to get to dry land. Would it be ok if the vet wrap was wet most of the time? and we are expecting rain this weekend, so may be shoveling more sand in soon. we have created an island for them. If i can figure how to get a pic loaded, I will show the girls parading along the crates-pretty funny.

I use vet wrap on my hens feet that i put several pieces of duct tape over to keep the vet wrap on and keep dirt out & dry....well as best as it can.

My girls have no fear of rain and Green was out there walking thru it all with her booties on. If it wet out I just change them every other day. So far so good

 

[BlueMouse]

AND....
Has anyone just NOT heated the water at all? Have any of you tried just having 2 waterers of whatever type and just putting one out in the morning then switching it out with a second one in the afternoon and bringing the first one in to thaw and just doing a rotation? I have read that some folks have just done it that way and quit trying to do a heated waterer. Just curious if anyone is doing that?

I got my chickens in Febr. I had a minimal setup, and I watered them out of two large tupperware dishes. Every morning and every night when I fed I took out a new clean tupperware dish, and put it on a platform (cinder block) to keep them from trampling it. Then I just knocked the ice out of the old one and took it inside to clean and re-fill. Frankly, even as cold as it gets here it stayed mostly thawed all day If it was REALLY cold all day I might go out at nap time and change it out again. Easy enough to do since I have to go out several times during the day to bring wood in anyhow. I did the same thing with the FF. I only fed them what they could clean up before it froze twice a day and didn't worry about the dish being uninsulated. Now I have a bucket waterer with cup drinkers. If that's a pain to get heated or I feel uncomfortable with the way the electric has to be run I will get a couple of those black rubber bowls for the winter and just knock the ice out twice or three times a day.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I think if I were not working during the day I might just revert to doing it that way. I'm just away for a good part of the day and get concerned about them not having water.

Interesting that I read that one person discovered that their chickens liked eating the snow when they were outside. She started scooping up a big bowl of clean snow and putting it in the hen house for them and they would eat every last bit of it. Her conclusion was that they were getting their water that way.

 

[aoxa]

I think if I were not working during the day I might just revert to doing it that way. I'm just away for a good part of the day and get concerned about them not having water.

Interesting that I read that one person discovered that their chickens liked eating the snow when they were outside. She started scooping up a big bowl of clean snow and putting it in the hen house for them and they would eat every last bit of it. Her conclusion was that they were getting their water that way.

Mine eat snow as well. This is exclusively how my bunnies got water last winter.

Are you working now?

 

[armorfirelady]

r.
Interesting that I read that one person discovered that their chickens liked eating the snow when they were outside. She started scooping up a big bowl of clean snow and putting it in the hen house for them and they would eat every last bit of it. Her conclusion was that they were getting their water that way.

The lady I got my original hens from said I didn't need to water them during the winter & to just let them eat snow. She never gave hers water. I don't know how her geese and ducks survived since I cant see them eating snow.

My girls will eat snow but I do leave water for them also. Around here we can have a few inches of snow when you leave in the morning but if the sun has been out all day you can have bare grass by the time you get home.

 

[aoxa]

The lady I got my original hens from said I didn't need to water them during the winter & to just let them eat snow. She never gave hers water. I don't know how her geese and ducks survived since I cant see them eating snow.

My girls will eat snow but I do leave water for them also. Around here we can have a few inches of snow when you leave in the morning but if the sun has been out all day you can have bare grass by the time you get home.

Ducks and geese NEED water to clean their nares and eyes. They still eat snow though

 

[mlowen]

I am beginning to think about my "winter routine." I don't have electricity to the coop/run and I sure don't want to use extension cords. I think I'm going to have to do the water swap-out. But I leave for work before it's very light and get home after dark. I'm a little worried about them getting enough food & water between their getting up and going back to roost. My brothers & sisters up here in the higher lattitudes...how do they do? Will I only see my hens on weekends?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa - Some days/times I'm able to check in while waiting on files to save or upload or whatnot.

I KNOW you're at work...

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: I have never had either but from the ones I do see who winter over in our area they seem to enjoy any unfrozen water they can find.

Aoxa - I'm able to watch the forum while I work on some days due, mainly, to the nature of the work I do.

I KNOW you're at work...

I check in when I am at work as well when its not busy.......I consider it a stress relief practice to check in the forum

esp since I stare at a computer screen all day. If I was Aoxa I would go cross eyed from looking at numbers all day

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa - Some days/times I'm able to check in while waiting on files to save or upload or whatnot.

I KNOW you're at work...

I'm a professional multi tasker