The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Scott H]

Quote:
Right now it looks like whole gains suspended in brown gravy.....

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Right now it looks like whole gains suspended in brown gravy.....

Yummy.

 

[delisha]

Quote: I keep seeing this on this site but it must do something.....

Quote: O.K. seems like I stirred up the FF discussion on here and I'm glad because I'm going to try it. I got some crappy organic feed which is whole grain based and non GMO. I say crappy because the grain is suspended in a brown powder which I guess is all the nutrients the grain doesn't contain to make it a well rounded feed. Well, the girls sort thu this flipping out the powdery stuff to find what they want. Never did this with pellets or crumbles.
So I'm going to dump this stuff in a bucket with some 3 grain scratch, and some pellets and let it sit. Should be epic. I will offer free choice pellets during the day and put some FF out when I get home at night. Maybe this organic feed won't be wasted.
Using a spray based poison on a bird would make me very nervous.

 

[Kassaundra]

Chicken lice/mites don't feed on blood???? Then how do they negatively effect the chicken? What do they eat?

 

[delisha]

Chicken lice/mites don't feed on blood???? Then how do they negatively effect the chicken? What do they eat?

Unlike human lice, chicken lice don’t feed on blood; they eat feathers or shedding skin cells. There are head lice, body lice, and lice that live on feather shafts.

Mites feed on the chickens..

 

[Kassaundra]

Unlike human lice, chicken lice don’t feed on blood; they eat feathers or shedding skin cells. There are head lice, body lice, and lice that live on feather shafts.

Interesting

 

[armorfirelady]

 
Chicken lice/mites don't feed on blood????  Then how do they negatively effect the chicken?  What do they eat?

Unlike human lice, chicken lice don’t feed on blood; they eat feathers or shedding skin cells. There are head lice, body lice, and lice that live on feather shafts.

Mites feed on the chickens..

 
Unlike human lice, chicken lice don’t feed on blood; they eat feathers or shedding skin cells. There are head lice, body lice, and lice that live on feather shafts.

Interesting

I agree I thought both fed on the blood of the chickens to some point.

 

[loveourbirds]

the will feed on the scabs from scratches, but they lack the blood sucking parts in the mouth. they can also feed on smaller feathers containing blood. as a rule of thumb systemic type remedies/poisons dont work on them because they do not get enough blood.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
but, topical treatment of ivermectin will get the lice, because it spreads along the skin and small bits will get into the skin and feathers that the lice are feeding on... oral treatment will affect anything feeding on blood. topical treatment is also absorbed through the skin somewhat and can impact internal parasites, but not as much as a feed-though dosage, which will affect all blood sucking parasites externally.

this is why I treat all new birds coming in orally first, and topically 7 days later. the lice are annoying but not usually life threatening like mites can be.

theoretically, if the bird is moulting, some might go into the feather's structure, which could help prevent lice down the road, but only minimally IMO since it would require a longer term exposure to give any significant amount to the feathers.

 

[aoxa]

Ideally, how long would you like it to sit?

About how much do you think you feed per day?

Ideally if just starting from scratch? 48 hours, but more is better.

ok on the FF topic (again? still?) I picked up a scratch feed today, that includes whole grains of corn oats wheat milo and boss... suggestions for adding this to the FF? it was only a couple dollars more than basic layer pellets so I thought I'd give it a try, but wondering about the whole grain thing.

I add one scoop whole grains to 4 scoops starter. It helps keep it a perfect consistency.