The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

Delisha - I've been thinking (worrying) about you and your flock all day. I know you'll post when you can. Just want you to know there are a lot of folks out here pulling for your birds.

x3

 

[TeaChick]

I'm new to chickens, but I know a little about human biology and you are right about the acid (in the case of humans), the male sperm have a harder time surviving in a more acidic environment in the mother-to-be's body.

Yes, I read that too, but didn't do anything about it.

I don't think I'll do anything in particular about it either. I want some cockerels b/c I want to have some to eat.

But obviously, douche works as well as the rhythm method (my mom's method of BC in the late 70s, which produced two fat, happy, little babies: me and my brother lol)

Haha! Yes, my mom always used to tell me "Do you know what they call people who use the rhythm method?" pause "Parents!"

Yeah, I know what you mean. My dad was full of those. lol
I was with a friend and said, "Excuse me" (I think I belched or something); she said, "There's no excuse for you" (jokingly, of course); I said (with a straight face that is very uncharacteristic of me) "Yes, there is *pause* The rhythm method." It took a moment, but we both cracked up.

 

[TeaChick]

Good morning from a very chilly 13 degree, heavy dusting of snow area. I left the girls in a little longer this morning and no one really ran out when they finally could. Even the pathetic looking molties are out looking for a treat in the leaves now.

I know we discussed this before but what all do you sprout or use for greens when pickings get slim. I sprout BOSS and I soaked the scratch for a while once but I felt it just got sweeter and sweeter, didn't want to make the girls silly on alcohol.

AFL - I'm not sure that my BCM that are the same age are laying either but if they are, the eggs are a light brown. Right now I'm not getting any dark eggs even from the 2 that I know that do lay the darker eggs. On occasion I find 4-5 smallish eggs but I have 8-9 that should start laying. Unlike most of you I really don't know who lays what.

I still have over 250 posts to read as I got behind.

It's warmer than that, but colder than I like here!!! That's why I'm...

.

I've been fermenting deer corn. If you want a good (albeit harsh) lesson on feed, you can check out the fermented feed thread. I think it's in Managing Your Flock, but not sure.
I'm going to get some pellets and probably ferment that, or soak it anyway.

I know this wasn't @ me, but IDK who lays what either. I can guess b/c I had one lay in a brooder before I incorporated her into the flock, so I know what shade of brown her eggs are; otherwise, I only know that my Leghorns lay the white eggs. =o\
I got behind too.

 

[TeaChick]

Originally Posted by Delisha

Quote: I would say ..any flock under fifty birds is considered a small flock.
I have 5 roosters and if they are not in breeding pens they free range all together too..The three Orpingtons are together and the 2 Wyandottes hang together. I do not count George..he is a silkie male..to me he is not even a chicken. He does not free range at all. He has to stay in the compound.

Oh, wow! That's a large small flock.
I'm planning on increasing my flock this spring. I lost my SLW/LBrahma roo. I'm hoping to get a Plymouth Rock roo, probably after Thanksgiving.
My plan for increasing the flock is to see what my Cochin and Jersey do for their first brood and base my decisions about other broods on what they do and whether any of my Comets go broody.

 

[Kassaundra]

I just had to cull one of my chicks, it was a harder for me cull then usual considering my recent attack and how few I have left, and that she was a she. She wasn't "sick" just failing to thrive. The ironic thing is before the attack I wouldn't even have considered keeping her b/c of her large bow tie (a nn). She was young and tiny, so I am trying cooking right after culling. I plucked since she was a nn and then when I had finished threw some seasoning in her and stuffed a potato in her cavity, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[TeaChick]

Originally posted by fosterson

On another thread, this guy takes the WHOLE coon and puts it in the pressure cooker and feeds it back to his chickens....I don't even know what to say about that.

Revenge is a dish best served pressure cooked and cooled to middling temperature?

haha

 

[TeaChick]

Okay.

I have a really STUPID question.

I've gotten two different flocks of 'rescue' birds over the last few months. NONE of them roost on a roost. They make little nests in the bedding and sleep there.

Is this really an issue? Other than the obvious dangers of a predator getting into the coop, is there a problem with them sleeping in the floor? I've got 25 linear feet worth of roosts and not a dang one of them will sleep on them. Even if I put them up there myself at night. They're in the bedding the next morning.

I didn't even have roosts in my original coop. They sleep on the roosts now, in the new hen house, but they did fine sleeping on the ground in the other one.

 

[TeaChick]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/01/13/59566/the-other-dark-meat-raccoon-is.html
Here's an article about it.

Well I can't imagine it being organic if it lived in the city, but otherwise sounds pretty accurate to me.

It's gamey. My grandfather has eaten it.

People eat squirrels all the time too.,

I've eaten squirrel, and my dad killed and we ate either an opposum or an armadillo.
I haven't eaten raccoon.
I would eat any of that if I had to, but I wouldn't want to have to.

 

[TeaChick]

I'd rather skin than pluck.
Plucking is like breathing feathers for two hours per bird. (At least until you get good at it)
Anyway, I'm not breathing feathers long enough to get that good at it.
I like the skin, but I'm not going to miss it that much!!!

 

[TeaChick]

I started skinning instead of plucking and never had any trouble skinning, but after I started processing NN I tried plucking "just to see how hard it was" and I gotta say I will never skin a NN again!!!! Not only was it amazingly easy and quick, but no hair to singe!!!!

What is NN?