The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[SallyinIndiana]

My chickens have been locked up since Friday because a hawk sat on the coop. My boys need to fattened up before heading to freezer camp. At $3.00 a bird, I'm taking them to be processed. We don't have the time to learn on about 10 birds.

If you lived closer DH and I would show you how. I have not picked a date yet but either late OCT or early Nov we will be butching a few chickens again. Unless I rehome / sell them all on CL.

So I am getting everything together to set the coop up for winter. I keep thinking about the FF and having to put it back in the house. Anyone ever think of using those heated buckets they use for livestock to hold their FF all winter so it doesn't freeze? And then can be in the coop all winter?

They tend to go on sale in the fall and I really want to buy one to see if it would work. Does anyone use one now and have good luck with it? Any negatives?


This is what I meant

The only things I have seen pointed out in prior posts are 1 it takes electricity that many don't have in their coop and 2 it is made of plastic. I use plastic but here on the natural thread there is more than a few plastic that either avoid or even despise plastic to eat from.

 

[armorfirelady]

Not sure where that info came from, it wasn't well researched in other areas (that the only two chicken breeds that lay blue eggs, when there are several others) that they called araucana the same as "Americana" (their spelling not mine). With the easy well known and documented mistakes in the article it does not inspire confidence in me that they actually know what they are talking about in the more technical areas.

That being said a retrovirus ages ago effecting dna changes that then were passed on the good old fashioned way is plausible at least on the surface. However the article title makes it seem as though the chickens now laying blue eggs have a current ongoing virus, very inflammatory and misleading considering the content of the article. The article also seems to hint at the possibility this is an unhealthy virus, which according to thousands of years of blue egg laying chickens in home flocks and the wild around the world seems a clear indication that if it was started by a retrovirus ages ago that it has not been harmful to these chickens, again not inspiring confidence in the content of the article and seemingly needless inflammatory statements.

Sorry I forgot to quote, this was about the blue egg virus article

It was quite interesting and the fact were controversial. The comparison to HIV and the blue egg gene (virus) was laughable. I noticed they addressed some of the questions, but did not answer them.

The only things I have seen pointed out in prior posts are 1 it takes electricity that many don't have in their coop and 2 it is made of plastic. I use plastic but here on the natural thread there is more than a few plastic that either avoid or even despise plastic to eat from.

I was thinking of putting my bucket I use now inside the heated one. For those who don't like plastic perhaps they could find a glass container/crock that would fit inside yet not freeze?

I am hoping next year to have the coop items that need electricity to be run on solar power. FOr now I have to run an extension cord but I have taken every step to make sure it will not be a fire hazard

 

[Kassaundra]

I was thinking of putting my bucket I use now inside the heated one. For those who don't like plastic perhaps they could find a glass container/crock that would fit inside yet not freeze?

I am hoping next year to have the coop items that need electricity to be run on solar power. FOr now I have to run an extension cord but I have taken every step to make sure it will not be a fire hazard

The plastic the heated bucket is made of is designed to take heat, make sure the bucket you put inside is able to take the heat too.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote:
Ahhhhhh never thought of that. I wonder if I could fine a glass container that would fit inside that would work ............hmmmmmmm

 

[Mrs.SB]

Rosie is growing fast

Sooo cute!! I haven't been on in a while but if I'm remembering right you have a lgd, right? I want one really bad but I've got a few questions. First is we have about 80 acres but out house and animals (13 chickens and 2 rabbits and 2 pet dogs) are on about 1 acre. Would she be happy enough on that? And would a wireless fence keep her from the road? Our chickens aren't in the dogs fence so she wouldn't be either and I was wondering if a wireless fence would contain her. A maremma (sp) is the type I was looking. I couldn't really find any locally either. Are they hard to come by? I'm in NC. Sorry for so many questions

 

[MEMama3]

Ahhhhhh never thought of that. I wonder if I could fine a glass container that would fit inside that would work ............hmmmmmmm

I've heard people say that their glass containers cracked, but they had good luck with ceramic. Maybe you can find a small shallow crock pot.

 

[delisha]

I use glass inside my heater dog bowl for FF in the winter. I just add water so it come up the side of the glass. Those heaters do not get that hot.

 

[jackiebr]

do you put the ashes in the coop itself or in the run ? i use apple cider vinegar in their nesting boxes and spray their coop floor with it when i clean, but why put it in the water and how much?

 

[jackiebr]

what is ff

 

[mlowen]

I built the moveable fence and set it up around my garden. I think I'll call it the "portable paddock." The girls spent the day in it, today, and it worked great! To make the posts, I screwed a 24-inch piece across the flat of the 2x4 post and a 16-inch piece that butted up to the cross piece . The cross piece lumber slides right through the fencing (2x4 welded wire.) I used coat hanger wire to hold the top of the fence to the post. I got all the 2x4's from the cull lumber bin at Home Depot. $.51 each 4 foot piece. I wanted to use 5 foot wire fencing but it was way too heavy for me to manage by myself, so I got 4 foot high fencing. I got mine at Tractor Supply, but I've seen it at Home Depot, too. I used 10-inch, 3/8" spikes for the ends of the cross pieces. They were $.20 cheaper than the 12" spikes. I built 10 of the fence posts and will probably build two more...just because.