The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Have fun!

 

[Pozees]

Okay, I free range, so I'm lucky if I happen upon one of my hens when they're laying.
I know that Goldie is laying light brown eggs and that Sandy (my lightest not white hen) is laying dark brown eggs (b/c I happened to catch them).
I know that my JG, when she's laying, lays light brown eggs (the ones I've gotten haven't and known were hers weren't pink or pinkish).

Who (between gold Comet, Jersey Giant, and Cochin [Bantam Frizzle]) is laying which egg here:

If I had to guess I'd say, top to bottom, JG, Bantam Cochin, and Gold Comet.

Oh - and while "OTs" here refers more to Old Timers, your puppy news (especially when it includes pictures!) is most welcome here

 

[aoxa]

If I had to guess I'd say, top to bottom, JG, Bantam Cochin, and Gold Comet.

Oh - and while "OTs" here refers more to Old Timers, your puppy news (especially when it includes pictures!) is most welcome here

Gold comet is probably the top one. My RSL eggs are always very dark. My darkest eggs.
I'd agree with the middle and the bottom one my guess would be the JG

 

[ki4got]

I did put a game camera inside the coop about a week ago, because I want to see if anyone's even remotely interested in the nest boxes, plus I thought it would be fun to see what goes on on the roost in the middle of the night.

But I've been having two problems. One is that the infra-red flash is way to bright for such close shots, so all my night pictures are so completely washed out you can't even make out the shapes of the birds. The other is that it only gets a small portion of the coop (another problem of trying to take close pictures). I'm not sure what to do about those problems. I put the camera as high as I could on the wall opposite the nest boxes, but I haven't looked at the pictures taken since I readjusted the camera to aim at all three nest boxes (hopefully) instead of just one.

I was thinking maybe I could tape some paper or something over the infra-red flash so it wouldn't be so bright. Haven't tried that, though.

Maybe it's too cold for the camera to work anyway. Down to 9F tonight (-13C to our Canadian friends). I've been trying to give them their ff more often in this cold, since it freezes so fast. I was thinking it might take longer to freeze if I warmed up the glass pans I feed them in, so maybe I'll try that tomorrow.

why not just get a wireless webcam? or 3. LOL most of them work pretty well in near dark conditions.

 

[Allysha1990]

Hi all
I have been battling with my girls for a while beginning with red mite to a respiratory infection which hopefully are all now cleared.

The coop, run and the garden have been cleaned and disinfected. They have been treated for mites contineously so should all be healthy (cannot find anything on them or the coop or at the end of their feather shafts) but now a couple of them have swollen ankle joints.



Their perches were about 4 foot high and I noticed that a couple of them seemed to limp after jumping off the perches so the only thing I can think of is that they have injured themselves jumping from such a height.

So.....I have lowered their perches to just on 16 inches from the floor, put Ropadiar (oregano tonic for poultry) in their water but 3 of them have swollen ankels that are warm to the touch but no scab or hardness in the foot pads. I was thinking that by doing what I have should eliminate any further injury from jumping, infection should be helped by the ropadiar tonic but here is what I am not sure of.......

Is there a natural anti inflamatory that I can give them to help reduce the swelling and assist them to heal or am I looking at a vet visit?

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

chamomile is a natural anti inflammatory

 

[ki4got]

Quote: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-L...844?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4accaf13d4

that's the link for one of the ebay ads I found... but i'm not sure what kind of wire it is, if it's coated or what... so not sure how the FF might affect it for the short time it has any on it, but I think if you were to drain the feed and then rinse the strainer right away it might not be an issue. my own routine is to fill the strainers before I start work, then feed everyone from that when I get my first break, so bare wire might not be so good for me...

I've also thought about making something with some fiberglass screen I had left over from re-screening our door. in that case, maybe using a bucket strainer might work better... an extra bucket, pour the feed into the strainer-bucket and then put whatever's left over back in the one. then any fine stuff isn't really lost. the other thing I've done with the fine stuff that drains out, is to just leave it in the bottom of the bucket after I've poured the water back in to the fermenting bucket, and then leave it on it's side outside for the free rangers to nibble on. but they don't seem to like it much.

*thinking out loud - kinda*
maybe taking the drained feed and putting it in with the fine stuff after you pour the liquid back into the fermenting bucket and mixing it back up would be a way of getting it used up. or adding some crumbles to it with enough liquid to make it a mash, as a semi-fermented meal.

 

[ki4got]

ok it's been a long day and i'm about exhausiated... LOL

I've skipped 10 pages of posts, so if anything was aimed to me specifically, pm me. I doubt anything was, but you never know...

went to the show in Knoxville and had a ball. showed 5 dorkings, 2 LF blrw, 2 bantam blrw and 3 blue mottled bantam cochins... one of my dorkings got BB (colored girl), got 3 BV (red, silver grey, and colored) but stupid me forgot my camera at home...

I had the only blrw there, so got automatic BV for both of them (pullet for the bantam and cockerel for LF), and my blue mottled cochins, they were well represented, I got 3rd and 5th in their group (pullets) - my roo was too sunburned and was dq. I figured that might happen but he was already bathed and ready to go, and I wanted to compare him side by side with some others to see how he compared for type more than anything else.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I found these ... Some could both scoop and strain ... Not sure how long it would take to drip the scoop "dry" enough. I've just been scooping the "settled" food from the bottom of the barrel into an empty bucket, then adding a little dry food to that to soak up any extra liquid.

http://americanhousewaresmfg.net/coated-strainers.html

 

[Jewelwing]

why not just get a wireless webcam? or 3. LOL most of them work pretty well in near dark conditions.

Would that work? I don't have electricity anywhere near the coop, and it's probably close to 100' away from the house. Would a webcam need to be plugged in, or do they work with batteries? Would it transmit that far? Would it record, or would I have to watch it in real time? Can you tell I have absolutely no experience with a webcam?

With the trail camera, it only takes pictures when it sees movement, so I can use a relatively small sd card, and not have a zillion pictures to wade through.

To be honest, I never considered a webcam. Thanks for the idea!

 

[ki4got]

Oh - and while "OTs" here refers more to Old Timers, your puppy news (especially when it includes pictures!) is most welcome here

I figured OT meant off topic... aka anything goes. which it usually seems to LOL