The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

well, I had to use the hose to spray mrs murphy out of the pines. she was heading for the roof of the trailer, I wonder if that is where she spent the night. I felt bad abot spraying, but there are way too many owls here - I have no squirrels, no rabbits, because the owls are good hunters. I also thought I had better break her of this before it gets to be a habit.

Got her in, and went to do the count. counted twice, and then again, and oh crap! another one missing! my heart just sank, but I took a peek at the big girls, and what do you know? there was one of the sulmtaler pullets roosting with the big girls. I swear, I've got to relax. this is getting way too intense

 

[Sally8]

My husband's arm always aches for days after the shot. I believe that my arm hurt a little but not like a lot of people's. When I was 12 I trapped a feral cat and put him in a cage on the farm but only after he scratched me on the lip. Several days later he started foaming at the mouth. Back then the sheriff came and took the cat someplace to have it analyzed and I went through several rabies shots in the stomach before they found out the cat wasn't rabid. I'll never forget those shots. I don't remember this but my mother claims a week after this I came home dragging a fencepost with a critter in it. lol

 

[Sally8]

Armourfirelady-I have news for you. We were getting ready to line all the extra boys up for freezer camp but I sold 6 hens and a roo to a family and guess who got chosen to go? George will be so happy to have 6 girls to himself as Wrinkles was not sharing.

 

[armorfirelady]

Yeah, really wanted to be able to let them in my yard, but with a breeding pair of hawks in a neighbors yard, a fox den with adolescent kits about a block away and 2 different types of owls that have landed in our yard, not to mention the neighborhood cats, there is just so much that can eat them!  But we are almost done with the 30'x12' run with 8'x12' coop, so they will have some room.  They also love the kale and tops from the carrots we grow, sure they would like some brussels sprout greens and tomato scraps as well.   Just wish they could roam a bit more, but safety first, at least they will get 3 days and most evenings to free range, while supervised.  Thank you for the welcome!!!

Welcome !!!!
While my worse ground predators are neighborhood cars & dogs we do have coins & red fox & coyote in the area. I've never seen an owl but hawks are routinely seen flying above my yard. I use 200 ft electric netting for their forage area and have several small triangle huts as hawk safe places if needed. We do have crows or ravens that nest in nearby trees and they help keep the hawks at bay. But my girls are very aware of what's in the sky. I can be working in the yard wonder why it got so quiet and see frozen hens that suddenly disappear under cover or into the coop. They even run from sea gulls :/ I am not allowed a rooster so the hens need to stay on their game. I've been lucky and suffered no losses even the one day when I counted 6 hawks circling above.

I know others use flags, twirlers, run fishing line above the yard as deter ants and have good luck with them.

Enjoy your chickens

Aoxa tetanus shots tend to hurt for several days. Longer needle that goes into muscle unlike allergy shots that are under the skin. (I am not afraid of needles but I still make a face once a month when I get my allergy shot )

Lala hope your chicken mystery is solved but she and mrs Murphy sure are pretty girls

ETA: my fire company provides fire & EMS for our fair. The ladies auxiliary has been saving me greens and leftover veggies for the hens. A chest freezer and stand up freezer are filled up!! So excited to fill them so the hens have lots of veggies for winter. Sure wish you guys lived closer so I could share my bounty. I have more veggies am freezer room.....next I a, going to fill my moms freezer since there are 3 days left of he fair.

Mumsy- the birds at our fair don't look to bad but last year at the state fair I saw ones who had BAD pasty butts and a lot of them. I would never buy a bird from there and def will be changing clothes before going out to the coop

 

[aoxa]

Welcome !!!!
While my worse ground predators are neighborhood cars & dogs we do have coins & red fox & coyote in the area. I've never seen an owl but hawks are routinely seen flying above my yard. I use 200 ft electric netting for their forage area and have several small triangle huts as hawk safe places if needed. We do have crows or ravens that nest in nearby trees and they help keep the hawks at bay. But my girls are very aware of what's in the sky. I can be working in the yard wonder why it got so quiet and see frozen hens that suddenly disappear under cover or into the coop. They even run from sea gulls

I am not allowed a rooster so the hens need to stay on their game. I've been lucky and suffered no losses even the one day when I counted 6 hawks circling above.

I know others use flags, twirlers, run fishing line above the yard as deter ants and have good luck with them.

Enjoy your chickens

Aoxa tetanus shots tend to hurt for several days. Longer needle that goes into muscle unlike allergy shots that are under the skin. (I am not afraid of needles but I still make a face once a month when I get my allergy shot

)

Lala hope your chicken mystery is solved but she and mrs Murphy sure are pretty girls

ETA: my fire company provides fire & EMS for our fair. The ladies auxiliary has been saving me greens and leftover veggies for the hens. A chest freezer and stand up freezer are filled up!! So excited to fill them so the hens have lots of veggies for winter. Sure wish you guys lived closer so I could share my bounty. I have more veggies am freezer room.....next I a, going to fill my moms freezer since there are 3 days left of he fair.

Mumsy- the birds at our fair don't look to bad but last year at the state fair I saw ones who had BAD pasty butts and a lot of them. I would never buy a bird from there and def will be changing clothes before going out to the coop

Allergy shots: Totally worth it. SO WORTH IT.

I am so glad I spent those two years.. It was unbearable before and now I am never congested or have sneezing fits or eyes feeling like they are burning from the inside out during hay season.

 

[armorfirelady]

Well I'm better with mine but this year they don't last the whole month since April. High pollen levels, rain and mold at work are driving mine nuts. It's the first year since starting the shots 8 years ago I have had to supplement with Zyrtec. Hoping next month they will test me again and tweak my serum so I get relief longer

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa -

On the T shot...if you exercise your arm as much as possible...pick up heavy things, reach up, etc. during the first 24 hours, it helps move it out of the muscle with the muscle contractions as you work. If you do that, the pain usually goes away within the day. If you don't, it seems to last more than a week.

 

[armorfirelady]

Anyone that has BR or BCM at what age do they start laying? I've gotten a pullet size dark brown egg twice now and no clue who its from. I checked the vents of both but they are both small and firm and since they are only 15 & 16 weeks old I really don't think its them. Their combs and wattles aren't red either. And Lucy's eggs (or what I think are hers are an XL size). My big girls have never laid such large eggs and their over a year old so I don't think they would just start laying bigger eggs. I know she's laying from looking at her vent. Maybe one of the big girls is laying darker eggs after not laying for a couple weeks?

 

[Eggcessive]

We had a serious tick problem when we moved to this farm... pulled off more than 20 off each person a day.
Got guineas... problem solved.

That said... I will keep the tetanus shot opinion to myself... but will tell you I got one on Nov 5th last year (after a serious cut on a rusty cattle gate while I was preg testing cows).
Took a month to figure out what was wrong... could have killed me... I will never have a tetanus shot again... will take my chances with ticks and rust gates.

I took care of an older women with tetanus in ICU 30 years ago, and her body seized up into decorticate postering to any noise or slight touch. She stayed like that for 2 weeks before dying, never regaining conciousness. No one had ever seen a case before at the hospital or since. She had stepped on a nail, and it had become infected. I get my tetanous shots.

 

[RedRidge]

I have heard people can have bad reactions to it. Is there something they can do if you do get a bad reaction?

We avoid shots of all kinds... always have... but I thought I was doing the smart thing.
Without going into a lot of detail the reaction was severe but went undiagnosed for three weeks.
Shut down my kidneys and every hormone in my body. I'm an extremely healthy person and hadn't a clue what was wrong.
I am just now really starting to get all levels where they need to be again and feeling good.
They think it was the delivering agent - thimerosal. Thimerosal has been linked to many complications including autism and is a common delivering agent in many vaccines.
We have always believed vaccines are a bad idea... I wouldn't allow my kids to have them.
This just reaffirmed what we had always believed.

Lockjaw is very uncommon and with proper wound care 99.9% of all farm wounds are not a problem. We had a woman close to us die of lockjaw last year... she was an MD. Cut her hand working in her garden. It happens. I'll take my chances.