The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I think many of us can agree this year was terrible for hawks...

Never had an issue until this year. Lost maybe 10 juveniles that I know of.

 

[armorfirelady]

I agree more hawks around here as well this year. Maybe they know it's going to be a hard winter so are storing up?

I to am interested in making streamers like that for next year. Anything to deter the hawks !!!!

Scored 5 free pumpkins today and a bale of straw. It amazes me people pay $13 for a pumpkin just to put it in the trash when the holidays are over. Their loss is my gain

I won't put the straw in the coop so it's just sitting in the veggie garden next to fence around the compost pile. Girls are sticking their heads through the hole in the fence to pull the seed heads off

If I gather all the whole pumpkins people have on their porches in the neighborhood girls will be eating pumpkins all winter

 

[aoxa]

I sure wish my Buckeye cockerel had a better comb. I think he's very pretty. He did well at the show and was not disqualified for his less than perfect pea comb. It's wonky.. I've had this with one of my Ameraucana roosters last year and not all of his kids developed the wonkiness, so I hope I can correct it, because he is all I have to work with (him and Woneyeda)

 

[aoxa]

He's my most shiny chicken. The FF does him well!

 

[MumsyII]

At first I was skeptical it would work but that ribbon that is kind of like holograms, mylar and highly reflective like the shiny side of foil can be seen far up into the sky. I'm sure planes and helicopters flying over my place must take a double look when they see all the fluttery reflective sparkles. It does nothing to keep birds off my blue berry, raspberry, and orchard trees. Crows and Blue Jays sit high in the Douglas Firs and gaze down at the flock foraging in the compost pile but so far nothing larger than the Jays have come down to land. I have seen hawks sitting up high on trees in my back yard just staring at the chickens too but they don't come any where near the streamers, whirlygigs, and flags. I am sure they are trying to figure out if they can grab a bird but wondering if the streamers are some kind of entrapment. Large birds do not want to risk injury to their wings if they can see the danger. Netting can be dangerous for entangling large predator birds. The reflective moving streamers seems to be confusing and not worth the risk to them.

I have stuck these things every where my chickens hang out. They (flock) seem to know they are safe while hiding and hanging out under these things. Many of the streamers have caught in tree and shrub branches but they still cast off shimmer and movement. Some streamers nearly touch the grass. Some are caught in the fencing. I gave up trying to untangle them all. I pick up ribbon from the ground when they tear off. I don't want them munched on by chicks or turkeys. (those guys taste everything) Also my husband doesn't want them tangling in the mower. So far it's not a big problem. We've had a couple of whopper wind storms and the streamers kept intact for the most part. It is important to use ribbon. The fragile stuff like christmas tree tinsel won't work. It breaks too easily and gets everywhere.

 

[delisha]

It is called Milard ribbon?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I won't put the straw in the coop so it's just sitting in the veggie garden next to fence around the compost pile. Girls are sticking their heads through the hole in the fence to pull the seed heads off

I use the bales as a wind break when I have them so that when they come out the coop they have a sheltered area from the wind.


Lake effect snow tonight. 3-5" forecast.... I guess I'll have to take down the electronet

 

[Leahs Mom]

Happy Veteran's Day. Thanks to all our Vets.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

About overhead protection for the flock. I think trees work great for overhead protection and can also provide awesome forage area for birds. I know my birds love the little backyard orchard and adore scratching around under evergreens and though there are *always* hawks screeching overhead, I haven't yet lost a bird to a hawk because so far I have the birds pastured in the orchard. I am hoping to expand the orchard, so have been researching what kinds of things I could plant that would be interesting for me and for the birds while providing good cover. Planting new trees can be a big time investment while you wait for produce, but now is the time to be planning what kind of trees to plant in the spring (in North America, now is when nursery harvest begins, and shipping the baby trees to the garden centers is soon to follow).

Earlier I posted that a good business associate of ours has a nursery local to us that sells exotic fruit trees & shrubs, etc., that he has traveled the world to find and worked to naturalize to our area (Pacific Northwest). His online business is called One Green World. Here is a link to his website: https://www.onegreenworld.com/ If you're at all into plants you could get lost in that website, and it is a great place to learn even if you live outside the shipping area. There are some searches already organized at the website ... this one looks very promising ... https://www.onegreenworld.com/articles.php?article_id=27

I spoke to the owner recently about helping me design a Chicken Orchard, and he said it sounds fun. I've already requested both Mulberries and Pawpaws in this orchard, both are things he grows. The goal would be to plant a big variety of things that provide fruit for as much of the year as possible, but not too much all at once. Also a mixture of trees and shrubs would provide the best coverage for the birds.

I've read that chestnut trees are great for chickens ... this article talks about different kinds of things to plant for forage, including both chestnut & mulberry trees http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...feed-zmaz10fmzraw.aspx?PageId=1#axzz2kMWT9jUi ... We grow chestnut trees here and have some old mulberry trees we could probably use to propagate more.

One of the cool things about the Pawpaws I mentioned above is they prefer to grow under the cover of another tree, so maybe planting them under mature evergreens or flowering ornamentals could work. They are also already native to North America, so finding one to do well in my zone shouldn't be too difficult. There are lots of native fruiting things we've all but forgotten about ... native plants can allow for Xeriscaping, which could be very useful here as we have very dry summers. Other things I could probably water with duck-pond waste water if I worked it right

For more normal fruit trees, my chickens LOVE the plum tree in their pasture! The variety they have access to at the moment is Brooks Prune (a variety of plum that can be eaten fresh or dried ... it bakes pretty well, too), and the chickens are even more wild about those plums than they are about the apples and pears. The turkeys LOVE apple drops, but they haven't had access to the plums yet.

I really want fig trees ... maybe some olives ... filberts do really well here ...

Maybe some "fencing" could be built out of grape vines or raspberry canes or thornless blackberries or a hedgerow of Oregon Grapes? The chickens would just climb most things, but most things would work to contain flightless ducks and commercial-breed turkeys.

I can already tell the Chicken Orchard project will be a lot chicken math!

 

[aaggjg]

Yes. It is strange when you find an otherwise robust virile cockerel in good flesh stone cold under the roost with no apparent weakness, illness, or wounds. The first thing I do in necropsy after a thorough external examination is pull the internal organs. His heart was the only thing that looked strange. It was raining and cold on the exam table so I didn't take pictures. I have learned to notice irregularities in the heart and where to carefully slice it open to view the different chambers, aortic valve, and such. That clot was blocking and lodged in the large aortic valve. It was very like a small liver in consistency. The heart lining was covered with a fine white veining that sort of resembled white netting. Have not seen that before. It did not look like any normal chicken heart I've seen. I'm really glad I held back four HRIR males. It is exactly for this reason I needed to wait for choosing breeders.

It always makes me smile to enter my barn yard. Those flags and streamers looks like a party every time there is a breeze. The hawks cruise my neighborhood but I haven't lost a bird since flying the sparkle flags. And I let forty white Silkie chicks free range the orchard and garden everyday. Having said this, now I'll probably get hit. It takes just one really brazen and hungry predator to break the cycle. But so far....Not one loss to predators in over two years.
I don't have a dog or overhead netting. Except for the turkey run. There is a tarp and net over theirs to keep them dry and from flying out and taking a jaunt around the neighborhood. When the turkeys are all in freezer camp, the Silkies will get that run. Wet Silkies are pathetic looking. I need to net and tarp their set up.

Mumsy I am always afraid that I will go down to feed the girls in the morning and find one dead.... I had a young splash silkie boy who I found dead in the run last year... He seemed fine the day before and then dead! I didn't open him up to take a look as I had no idea what I would be looking for ... and unfortunately at that time I didnt know about the great free service that UC Davis does!

Sorry for your loss .... glad that you have more boys!