The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

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I do the same....after dark I will throw a cup or two of 3 grain scratch mixed with BOSS and cracked corn into the pine needles and leaves in the back yard. Make 'em scratch for their scratch!
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Adele or Dina.. Or maybe Dr. Pecker (lol)
I'll play. Cricket is my guess for first and Sally is my guess for last.


My pic for laying first was either Adele or Big momma


My guess for laying first is Ethel or Adele.

Wow, guesses all over the place! My guess is Dina, except that I read that Welsummers tend to be later, so... My next guess is Big Momma, Adele, or Dr. Pecker.

It looks like out of you guys, I've got three votes for Adele, one for Dina, one for Cricket, one for Big Momma, one for Ethel, and one for Dr. Pecker. I'll let you know! Don't know how long it will be, though. I have a trail camera in the coop, so hopefully I'll see when each one starts laying. I can't wait!!


Love the picture of the two fluffy butts!

I know, right? Is it wrong to love chicken butts? I just love the way the feathers look, like some cool design.
 
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Drat. Ice frost crystals inside the coop when I came home last night.

I didn't open it up last night because of weasels but I did crank open the windows more to compensate. Although it is 35 to 45 below windchills today, I think the air temp is only down to -10 or something. Not sure if the frost crystals will go away even if the air is dryer, because....aren't they frozen to the windows? don't they have to melt to be absorbed by the air?

No, they don't have to melt. They can go directly from a solid to a gas - it's called sublimation, rather than melting or evaporation. How fast that happens depends how saturated the air is with water, the same way the humidity in the air affects how fast liquid water evaporates.

It can be hard to tell, but snow "goes away" even if it hasn't been warm enough to melt it and even if the sun doesn't shine on it. That's what it's doing too, subliming directly into the air, skipping the liquid phase entirely. I think it's pretty cool, plus I love the word "sublimation"!
 
Of course, I love talking about chickens it is a great passion for me!

What kind of grain do you feed them, I normally spread some scratch grain in there yard during the winter so they have something to look forward to when they wake up and a filler to get them bigger. I noticed the filler helps them produce eggs more.

They free range. I offer fermented corn for now, working on getting some layer pellets/crumbles. Mostly, they eat what's around the yard. =) I also give them treats; peanut butter tortilla here, cheese sandwich there, oatmeal sometimes, stale bread when we have it, etc.
I know I'm a horrible chicken keeper to feed them fermented corn
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; I'm working on the layer feed.
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What do you guys think of this rooster? We named him Einstein probably our most favorite rooster among our group.

Meant to say I like the name; I think it suits him!!!
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Okay, I see he's obviously Frizzled. (very cool IMO)
Is he a Cochin? Is he Bantam?
 
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No, they don't have to melt. They can go directly from a solid to a gas - it's called sublimation, rather than melting or evaporation. How fast that happens depends how saturated the air is with water, the same way the humidity in the air affects how fast liquid water evaporates.

It can be hard to tell, but snow "goes away" even if it hasn't been warm enough to melt it and even if the sun doesn't shine on it. That's what it's doing too, subliming directly into the air, skipping the liquid phase entirely. I think it's pretty cool, plus I love the word "sublimation"!
thanks! thats a relief, then, because as the coop gets dryer with the additional air circulation, I should be able to see fewer crystals then. THe windows have started to have frost crystals on them, even the ones that are open.

sublime - always took the meaning to be different than what it must mean in the context of sublimation. off to see the dictionary!
 
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thanks! thats a relief, then, because as the coop gets dryer with the additional air circulation, I should be able to see fewer crystals then. THe windows have started to have frost crystals on them, even the ones that are open.

sublime - always took the meaning to be different than what it must mean in the context of sublimation. off to see the dictionary!
Yeah, sublime the verb has a very different meaning than sublime the adjective! I like both meanings, though. I wonder how (if) the meanings are related? All in all, a very cool word.

I hope your ice crystals go away! I hate to worry about the birds. I worry that my coop is too open. No ice crystals, but it's only about a degree warmer inside than it is outside, and that may just be because it's two different thermometers. Maybe I have too much air flow? Since it's an insulated 6' x 6' x 6' box with 9 birds sleeping in it for 14 hours, it seems like it should warm up more than that. Maybe since it's so small I should just have windows on one side open, so there isn't such a breeze through the whole place.

The windows I have open are all up at the tops of the walls, but the roost is about 4' off the floor, so the chickens aren't too far below the windows. Plus, the ADOR1 door has all those holes in it and it's right below the roost, so the wind could easily come up from there and blow out the windows.

It's supposed to get down to 4'F tonight, -5 with windchill. Two of the walls are completely closed now, but the other two (East & West) have windows open. The roost is along the South wall. Maybe I should close up most of the windows on the East side (since the West side has a large overhang, so that window is more protected), and just leave a little opening up by the roof on that side? Waddya think?
 
I do the same....after dark I will throw a cup or two of 3 grain scratch mixed with BOSS and cracked corn into the pine needles and leaves in the back yard. Make 'em scratch for their scratch!
wink.png

Hahaha, they get lazy if they don't scratch. I love to sit on my cousins swing set and watch them all clutter around scratching at the ground and leaves hunting for food!

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I think they're both really cute!! I wish my chickens would let us pick them up.

Hahaha, he is an iffy chicken he lets you pick him up sometimes or sometimes he will run away from you. I love when he runs he lifts his chest up and dashes away! Makes me laugh every time!

They free range. I offer fermented corn for now, working on getting some layer pellets/crumbles. Mostly, they eat what's around the yard. =) I also give them treats; peanut butter tortilla here, cheese sandwich there, oatmeal sometimes, stale bread when we have it, etc.
I know I'm a horrible chicken keeper to feed them fermented corn
hmm.png
; I'm working on the layer feed.
jumpy.gif

With chickens there is not many things you can't feed them, though be wary of certain seeds like apple seeds, they contain cyanide with in the seeds that kills birds. SO nothing wrong with the fermented corn at the moment until you can get some scratch or layer.

Meant to say I like the name; I think it suits him!!!
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Okay, I see he's obviously Frizzled. (very cool IMO)
Is he a Cochin? Is he Bantam?

Hehe, his fluff reminds me of Einsteins hairdo. Most frizzles except for some that are cross bred are, "Cochin Bantams". There are standard breeds with Cochin but I normally hear Cochin when referring to a bantam.
 
I just started keeping chickens at all and ended up with her by accident.
I don't have a roo for her and I don't think she's laying; if she is, they're massive eggs for her pound and a half size. lol


If you get a roo for her do not get another frizzle because it can cause some major issues with any offspring from what I have heard.
 

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